בס”ד
By Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
This painting shows the more distant general landscape of the Land of Israel, such as the Judean hills, surrounding Maarat Hamachpela. Therefore, we have chosen this painting for this parshat Masei which describes the general borders of the Land of Israel. Of course, this idea also depicts how Maarat Hamchpela and Hebron shed their light upon the entirety of the Land of Israel, a matter we discussed at length, especially on our fourth year of writing for the Hebron Fund (now we are in our eleventh year).
We see four grape-vines to the bottom-left which may hint to the four saintly couples buried in Maarat Hamachpela which is itself in Kiryat Arba – the “City of Four.”
We see seven houses with brown caps to the right of the Maarat Hamachpela building and seven houses with brown caps to its left. This may hint to the verse “and Hebron was built seven years before Zoan,” especially since one of the most essential “buildings” man gains benefit from are houses. We also see that the sanctity of the Holy Land/earth is seen in cycles of seven, such as in the Shemita seven-year cycle. Therefore, we may understand some of the meaning in the verse that “Hebron was built seven year before Zoan of Egypt” which may hint to the Exodus from Egypt towards the Holy Land of which Hebron is its exemplary city. The reason that Zoan may hint to the Exodus is that Zoan means to walk/leave (see Isaiah 33, 20) and its numerical value is 210, the number of years Israel were in Egypt. This verse may imply that Hebron, City of the Patriarchs, to whom the Holy Land was promised to, stands at the deeper plan of the Exile of Egypt and its Exodus, just as our Sages interpreted the verse in parshat Vayeshev “and [Yakov] sent [Yosef, ultimately transpiring as the beginning of the exile in Egypt when Yosef was sold shortly after and as a result to Egypt] from the depths of Hebron.” Perhaps the significance of these houses having brown caps is related to the earth being brown, and thus these houses show a deep connection to the earth they are on – Hebron. A house may not only represent the earth they are on, but also they can signify the people that live in them. Indeed, we also see twelve white-capped houses, which may hint at the twelve tribes, i.e., the People of Israel that dwell in the Holy Land. White may be used for this since we have seen in many of Nachshon’s paintings that people are enrobed in white talesim.