The Gemara [קידושין ב] learns that one marries a woman with money from a גזירה שוה of קיחה-קיחה from the field of Efron. Just as the field was purchased with money, so one acquires a wife. This transaction has a קנין aspect to it and a קידושין aspect [one Mishna calls it kiddushin while another Mishna calls it kinyan]. The קנין is בפועל - concrete and actualized by giving money. קידושין implies בכוח, potential, it means to prepare - זימון, הכנה [see Tosfos Kiddushin 2b].
The same distinction and classification relates to ארץ ישראל. There is a קנין בפועל - concrete acquisition and a קידושין בכח-potential aspect. The Mikdash is one of the five קנינים that Hashem acquired in this world [Avos 6-10]. Adam was created from the place of the Mikdash [בראשית רבה יד-ח]. Here is the source of his existance בפועל, in a real, concrete way. In contrast we find in the Gemara an expression קדושה ראשונה קידשה לשעתה וקידשה לעתיד לבוא" - זבחים ק"ז ב" - The original sanctification of ארץ ישראל was for then and forever. In other words, there is an aspect of קנין בכוח, an acquisition in potentia. Similarly we find regarding areas added or annexed to Yerushalayim through capture or the ceremony that appends these areas to Yerushalayim proper. Two sides appear. Capturing the area בפועל and establishing קדושה בכח. After the concrete capture, there is the potential, prepared future קדושה added by the Navi, Lachmei Todah [שבועות ט"ז]. So we have a deeper understanding of the גזירה שוה of קיחה-קיחה from the field of Efron - both the sanctity of the land [as represented by שדה עפרון] and קידושין have a בכח and בפועל aspect.
Chevron, through the Kivrei Avos, represents a קנין בכח - an acquisition in potentia, pre-capture in the time of Yehoshua. The pasuk compares Chevron to Tzoan in Egypt. וְחֶבְרוֹן שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים נִבְנְתָה לִפְנֵי צֹעַן מִצְרָיִם. Tzoan was a city of kings [יל"ש ח"א סי' תשמ"ג ועי' רש"י סוטה ל"ד "אלמא פרעה בצוען יתיב"] and so in Chevron was the beginning of מלכות בית דוד b/c there is the קנין בכח of all קדושת ארץ ישראל. Tzoan Mitzrayim was the opposite of קדושה בכח of ארץ ישראל.
The concept of קדושה בכח in ארץ ישראל explains the opinion in the Gemara [Bava Basra 117a] that ארץ ישראל was divided among those who left Egypt and never actually entered the Land. Normally the living inherit what the dead actually possessed בפועל. Here, the living inherited what the dead had in potential בכח.
This concept of of קדושה בכח is rooted in Hashem's קנין in ארץ ישראל. It says [Vayikra 25-23] "כי לי כל הארץ"- The entire Land belongs to Me - בכח. Therefore, לא תימכר לצמיתות - the Land may not be sold forever but only until Yovel. The Yovel year, where freedom is called in the Land - דרור לארץ - the original קדושה is restored and all the Land is returned to the ancestral owners. This is all b/c "גרים ותושבים אתם עמדי" [Vayikra 25-23], you are strangers and dwellers with me, which reminds us of the pasuk it says about Avraham "גר ותושב אנכי עמכם". Hashem's hold on א"י was it's קדושה בכח [which we בפועל'd when we captured it]. So, too, was Chevron the קדושה בכח of ארץ ישראל which was later actualized when we entered the Land as a people.
When Avraham was commanded [Breishis 13-17] "קום התהלך בארץ לארכה ולרחבה" - Go walk in the length and breadth of the Land. Immediately "ויאהל אברם וישב באלוני ממרא אשר בחברון" - he went to Chevron which is the locus of the קדושה בכח of ארץ ישראל. That is where מלכות בית דוד started which was acquired by the מתים who later [in מצרים] bequeathed the Land to the living.
Through the first burial in ארץ ישראל of Sarah, the קדושה בכח was established which laid the groundwork for the eternal קדושה of the Land which separates it from the rest of the world. Through the words of Sarah "לא יירש בן האמה" - The son of the maidservant [Yishmael] will not inherit with Yitzchak, came the distinction between the Jews who are all Holy [ועמך כולם צדיקים!!] and the nations of the world.
That is the pasuk with which we began this fascinating tour-de-force. "יודע ה' ימי תמימים" - Hashem knows the days of the complete, the complete קדושה of the Jewish people [as represented by the days of Sarah], ונחלתם לעולם תהיה - Their inheritance of forever. Through the burial of Sarah the קדושה בכח was established forever.
[עפ"י דרשת מרן הרב קוק זצ"ל סעודה שלישית חיי שרה תר"ץ]
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!😊💙💚💛💜
