Chayei sarah

there is a well known "stirah" between Avraham telling the bnei ches "ger v'toshav", which Rashi explains he claimed rights to the land. & yet in lech l'cha - "vayehi riv", rashi says that LOT's shepherds believed they had rights but Avraham argued that for now (till the cna'ani are gone) it was not yet his to have any claim?

Maran answered 'ein kinyan L'akum b'eretz yisrael" (gittin 47a) to absolve mitzvos but "yesh kinyan" to dig up the land... Meaning that the monetary kinyan over the land & the spiritual kinyan is split.

Similarly, the invauable me'oras hamachpelah wasn't a mekach ta'us b/c Efron only had access & ownership to the material monetary value. (Zohar)

Therefore we can say the cna'anim only had monetary rights so long as they were there... In lech l'cha the dispute was just regarding money grazing in others' fields. That Avraham did not allow. But here the malbim (& others) point out thet Avraham specifically made a public spectacle & numerous announcements that he was purchasing the land for kevurah - this was a spiritual endeavor - both on a personal level & as a lesson for mankind about the afterlife & appropriate regard for the body after the neshamah departs. Regarding this an akum does not own eretz yisrael, & Avraham had a claim.

We see that in one item it is possible to have a completely divided ownership, between the material & the spiritual.

In the aftermath of Sandy the mashgiach shlitah asked me with a tone of critique "nu & what was with our na'anu'im?" - of course Sandy was not a punishment for a lack of proper lulav shaking, but whtever sandy was for, we know that the shaking of lulav should protect against destructive winds.... - so what was with them?
Surely we shook the the lulav as described in halacha, but perhaps it was just the material shaking without "RUACH".

Perhaps we can try to instill positive "ruach" into our mitzvos & even more specifically - we can surely add a good dose of ruach to thanking Hashem in modim anachnu, that we've been spared the brunt of the storm.

May the strong infuence of positive Ruach into all of our deeds prevent any more Ruchos Ra'os from coming upon the world.