GEN1157 Five possessions has the Holy, Blessed One … [The heaven and earth; Abraham; the people Israel; the Sanctuary] … Pirkei Avot VI:10 At first sight there is a difficulty: Surely the whole universe is the possession of the Almighty, not merely these five entities.   The Psalmist declaims, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that fills it—the world and those who dwell in it”; … moreover, we read, “the Lord will rejoice in His works” – all His works, since, as Scripture tells, “God saw all that He had made, and, behold it was very good.” Psalms 24:1, 104:24, 31, Genesis 1:31.  In what sense, then, are the five entities in our text the peculiar possession of the Holy One in His world, which He has singled out to “acquire” and make especially his own? Don Isaac Abarbanel finds the answer in the Hebrew for “possession,” kinyan; in this term he sees three connotations:   (1) In its sense of purchasing, buying, kinyan signifies something an individual acquires through what he himself does. Thus, after Abraham gave its owner the agreed price for a field, tht he might bury Sarah there, Scripture tells that the field was rendered “to Abraham for a possession” (miknah, same root as kinyan); later, it is described as the field “that Abraham bought (kanah).” Genesis 23:18, Genesis 49:30. Similarly, many acts of purchase described in the Talmud take effect when the owner does a symbolic physical act: e.g. he gives money (as Abraham aid), lifts up the object he is buying, or leads away an animal that he is acquiring; or the seller gives him a part of his purchase to hold, etc. See e.g. Mishnah, Kiddushin i 4; Talmud 22b and 26a; Baba Metzi’a 9a; 47 a-b. (2) It donotes an abiding, permanent relationship between the acquisition and the one who makes it his.   It does not become his possession lightly, haphazardly, or temporarily. It becomes his thoroughly and permanently. (3) Finally, kinyan connotes something beloved and cherished by the one who makes it his. Originally this is part of the word’s usual meaning of purchase: for as the Sages insightfully observe, anything bought will have a charm, a grace in the eyes of its news owner. By extension, though, it can denote any possession that is particularly valuable and cherished, that is owner feels grateful for having. With the three facets of meaning in mind, we can see why the text calls five entities alone the kinyanim of the Holy One. SINAI3 391-2