And Efron answered…, “My master hear me out: A tract of land worth four hundred silver shekels, what is that between you and me?’ ” … And Avraham weighed out the amount to give to Efron.
(Bereishis 23:14–16)
It seems to me that we can explain this verse as follows:
The basic character that a man should strive for is to be as low and humble as dirt compared to everybody else. However, the primary element Earth draws man to the traits of laziness and lowliness.
[Rabbi Chaim Vital links the four elements — Fire, Air, Water, and Earth — to different character traits (Sha’arei Kedushah, part 1, gates 1 and 2). For example, Fire corresponds to pride and anger; Air to idle chatter, lies, and slander; Water to lusts and desires; and Earth to depression and laziness.]
Even if he is a Tzaddik, the evil inclination may persuade him that he no longer needs to exert himself in serving G-d because he is already humble like dirt. Since he has already reached such a level of humility, he has fulfilled his potential. This lack of striving will bring him to be lazy in his service to Hashem Yisbarach. Therefore, one must strengthen oneself exceedingly against his evil inclination’s murmurings that will lead him down the path to idleness and lethargy, preventing him from serving G-d. He must arouse himself anew in his service of G-d as if he has never served Him before.
This is what we pray for at the end of the Shemoneh Esrei, in Elokai Netzor: “And my soul shall be as humble and lowly as dust before all, and my soul shall run after Your commandments.” Here we are praying that the evil inclination should not succeed in making us lazy and lethargic and, Heaven forbid, neglect the mitzvos. Rather, we should run after them with all our soul.
This is alluded to in our verse. Avraham represents the righteous Tzaddik and Efron symbolizes the evil inclination [that persuades him to be as lazy as] lowly dust.
[The word עפר, “dust,” and the name עפרון share the same grammatical root of ayin, peh, reish.]
This then is the meaning of the verse: “Efron answered Avraham, ‘My master, hear me out. A tract of land worth four hundred shekels, what is that between you and me…?’ ” The yetzer hara speaks to the Tzaddik, calling him “master” because he has mastered the service of G-d and rectified everything [thus implying that he does not need to exert any more effort in serving G-d]. The four hundred silver shekels allude to the four hundred worlds of desire that the Tzaddik must rectify, for כסף , “silver,” and כיסופין , “desire,” share the same root. Thus the yetzer hara asks [the Tzaddik]: “You have already finished rectifying everything. What else is there between us?”
The Tzaddik must strengthen himself against [this argument of] the evil inclination. That is the meaning of the words “And Avraham weighed” — the Tzaddik must carefully weigh and measure the path of his divine service anew in order to rectify the four hundred silver shekels, which allude to the four hundred worlds of desire. Thus the money was “passed on to the buyer” (Bereishis 23:6). Socher, “buyer,” here can be rendered like the Aramaic words “sechor sechor l’karma — around and around the vineyard” (Yevamos 46a), implying that the Tzaddik must turn around and repave his path to begin anew. This is easy to comprehend. *