BS"D

WELL'S WELTANSCHAUUNG: PARSHAT TOLDOS

Shira Smiles shiur 2022/5783

Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein

Just as Avraham Avinu faced the challenge of famine in the Land Hashem had promised him, so too did Yitzchak his son face the same challenge. However, while Avraham Avinu went down to Mitzrayim to flee the famine, Hashem instructed Yitzchak not to leave the Land. Instead, Yitzchak went to the land of the Plishtim/Philistines. He was successful there, growing rich with agricultural produce and with flocks and herds. Seeking water, Yitzchak Avinu digs wells. But he started not by digging new wells, but by redigging the wells his father Avraham had dug, naming them the names Avraham himself had given them, and which the Plishtim had stopped up after Avraham died. In what is probably the first act of recorded antisemitism, King Avimelech orders Yitzchak to leave, resorting to a meme that is standard whenever Jews become successful in a new land, "Go away, for you have become much mightier ממנו, than/from us."

Yitzchak moves off. He continues to dig wells. The first two, Aisek and Sitna, become flash points for further quarrels with the Plishtim. Finally, with the third well, Yitzchak is left alone, and he calls this well Rechovot/spacious expanses. Yitzchak and Avimelech now reinstitute the treaty first written between Avimelech and Avraham. Avimelech and Yitzchak swear to maintain peace between them, and Yitzchak serves Avimelech a meal. In commemoration of this treaty, Yitachak calls the place Be'er Sheva, the Well of the Oath.

This episode is described in such detail that we must find the deeper meaning and significant lessons hidden in the verses. As the medrash explained, the Plishtim rationalized that the wells presented a danger to them. After all, with water so scarce, thieves might be attracted here, or an invading army might use these wells to sustain their army as they attack the native Philistine city. It was a practical necessity to stop them up. But, as the Seforno points out, this was just a tactic to harm Yitzchak without attacking him physically.

But who was Yitzchak, and what legacy do we inherit from him? From Avraham Avinu we inherit chessed; from Yaakov Avinu we inherit Torah study and fortitude in the face of adversity. All we hear about Yitzchak Avinu is that he digs wells. Ben Melech quoting the Abarbanel explains that this was precisely the role of Yitzchak Avinu, to begin the process of taking ownership of the land, of fulfilling the promise to Avraham Avinu, for he who controls the water, controls the land.

In Ma'aseh Rokem, Rav Ber develops this idea more fully in the context of history. As the Vilna Gaon points out, the Plishtim always wanted to usurp the land of Bnei Yisroel. Ownership is established not only by occupying the land, but also by establishing a government and monarchy in the land. That is why each time a Jewish king is anointed, the Plishtim rise up, whether it is with Saul's coronation or with David's coronation.

But there is a deeper basis for the enmity of the Plishtim against Bnei Yisroel. [Isn't there always?] Rav Ber continues and explains that the Plishtim are a nation formed by the intermarriage of two nations whose men intermarried with multiple wives. They represent the powers of depravity in contrast with the Jewish values of sanctity. [Is it any wonder that among the synonyms for "philistine" we find: vulgar, uneducated, crass, and materialistic. CKS] [According to a medrash, when Orpah turned her back on Naomi,, she turned her back on all of Naomi's teaching, sleeping with many men that very night, and conceiving Goliath. CKS] The battles between Bnei Yisroel and Plishtim was at its core the battle of good against evil. Therefore, as soon as Avraham Avinu died, the Plishtim stopped up the wells he had dug, desiring to erase any influence Avraham and his morality may have had on them. Even if stopping up the wells would hurt them, they still wanted nothing to do with the waters of Avraham.

However, the Plishtim noticed that while Avraham resided with them, their fields brought forth much produce and their flocks produced more sheep. As soon as Avraham died and they stopped up the wells, these blessings also stopped. That's when they came to Yitzchak asking to make peace with him, saying that Hashem was with him, and that their blessings were a result of Avraham and Yitzchak's presence. This admission was, in essence, a confession that the land actually belonged to Avraham and to Yitzchak, and therefore Yitzchak reinstituted the covenant between them. And, as Rabbi Soloveitchick reminds us, we see throughout history, the Land remains desolate in foreign hands, but becomes the Land of Milk and Honey when Bnei Yisroel occupy it, live in the land and work it.

Recognizing the sanctity of Eretz Yisroel and spreading that belief was part of the mission of Avraham Avinu. When he dug the wells, he named each one, incorporating the name of Hashem in each name, writes Rabbi Mecklenburg in Haktav Vehakabalah. As Rabbi Nevenzahl adds, when Reuven, Gad and half the Tribe of Menashe inherited the land on the other side of the Jordan, they immediately changed the names of the cities from pagan names to Jewish names.

Why was Avraham Avinu so focused on these names? As Rabbi Kram explains in Talmido Beyodo, in ancient times, the area around a well often served as the town square and a general meeting place. Including God in its name would invariably bring people to an awareness of God when they would plan to meet at this designated spot, and perhaps by extension, begin the belief in one God. Further, Avraham Avinu probably also continued his acts of chesed here, supplying people with water and food. These ad hoc kiruv centers closed with Avraham's death, and the Plishtim didn't want them to remain a source of socialization and further kiruv.

But Yitzchak wanted to continue his father's legacy. He starts by reopening his father's original wells and maintaining the names Avraham had given them. Even though that doesn't succeed, Yitzchak started digging wells of his own. The Plishtim did not easily give in. They created laws obstructing Yitzchak's endeavors. They say things like, "Yes, you dug the hole. The hole is yours, but the water is ours." We can see the influence these watering wells would have on the people. Metaphorically, and here in reality, water represents Torah, and the Plishtim would not let Torah flow smoothly, unimpeded.

Rabbi Kram suggests that each of us has opportunities to quietly spread Torah principles to the public. For example, we can leave Jewish themed books or magazines in a doctor's waiting room [pre pandemic]. We too can find ways to call "in the Name of Hashem."

In Shiurei Harav, Rabbi Laibel provides additional insights into the character and actions of both Avraham Avinu and Yitzchak Avinu. While Avraham's overriding quality was chesed/loving kindness and Yitzchak's was gevurah/inner strength, each quality needed to be tempered by the other or they would be self defeating. Therefore, Avraham's tests and challenges involved overcoming his natural feelings of chesed to tap into an inner fortitude, most notably with the binding of his beloved son. On the other hand, Yitzchak's inner strength was tested with social interaction. Would he continue the chesed of offering food and drink to people around his well? Would he also draw souls to Hakodosh Boruch Hu through chesed?

Avraham and Yitzchak embodied complementary characteristics in knowing and serving Hashem. As Yanki Tauber writes in Inside Story, Avraham's journey took him outward, to others, while Yitzchak's journey was inward, digging ever more deeply to the selfless core of himself. When Avraham Avinu dug the wells, his pure and sacred love flowed from them and influenced the Philistines. After his death, the Plishtim stopped up those wells, letting love run rampant without restraint, devolving into a lust where anything goes. When Yitzchak redug those wells, he redeemed Avraham's legacy of love, a love that now was disciplined, flowing from the fear of Heaven. While Avraham's legacy to the Jews is to embrace the world, to help and provide chesed, material or personal, wherever it is needed, Yitzchak's legacy is to provide discipline, reverence and humility before God. Love must be disciplined and restrained, or it will crush the receiver and debase the giver. Love without discipline leads to disgrace.

Yitzchak's legacy can be perceived through yet a different lens. In Golden Apples, Rabbi Lopiansky explains why Yitzchak's trait of gevurah/awe and inner strength were so important in perpetuating Avraham's "discovery" of the one God and disseminating the message. While the Plishtim did not repudiate Avraham's message during his lifetime, they stopped it up immediately after his death. How? Their weapon was leitzanut/mockery and cynicism. A mocking comment can undermine a previously accepted concept so as totally to invalidate it. The antidote for mockery is the internalization of truth, of a dose of absolute reality. As Rabbi Lopiansky writes, no one would consider jumping off a cliff without a hang glider, no matter how much someone mocked him for insisting on it. He knew without a doubt that it couldn't be done. Yitzchak's mission was to dig out the mockery that the Plishtim used to stop up Avraham's messages and replace it with the absolute awe and knowledge of the Ribbono shel olam. Yitzchak's very name defies the mockery the Plishtim would assign to his conception, and defies the continued existence of Jews.

Rabbi Frand warns us to  be careful not to fill our children's ears with cynicism and mockery, or they will lose their natural enthusiasm and for life. In Apples from the Tree, Rabbi Young presents us with the practicality of raising our children. We must be careful to speak respectfully about our Rabbis and teachers, and refrain from mocking those who may be more stringent than we are. We teach respect by modeling respect.

When Yitzchak digs his own wells, according to the Ramban as cited by Rabbi Belsky, he gives them names that represent each of the three Batei Mikdosh in our history. The first he calls Aisek, referring to the internal divisions in our nation, that for most of its existence, divided the nation into two kingdoms. The second well he called Sitna/accusation or oppression, for during the period of the second Beit Hamikdosh, we were beset by multiple empires who ruled over us and oppressed us. But in the era of the third Beit Hamikdosh, Hashem's presence and His blessings will flow down abundantly.

But there is a more profound understanding to the purpose of these wells, continues Rabbi Belsky. Before Hashem created the world itself, His presence hovered over the primordial waters. These wells are meant to connect us again to Hashem's presence, to dig down to the wellsprings below that conceal His presence. The water libations in the Beit Hamikdosh connected us to these waters, and, when Moshiach comes (May it be soon), we will again be connected.  Yitzchak himself was a walking Beit Hamikdosh. [For a wonderful and moving explanation of how a mikvah also connects us to the primordial water and to God's presence, read Aryeh Kaplan's z"l Waters of Eden. CKS]

A seed planted in the earth needs water to grow. Man/Adam can be compared to a seed in the adamah/earth. Man also needs spiritual water to grow into a healthy and ripe "fruit" that is filled with the spiritual awareness of God, writes Rabbi Feldman in the Juggler and the King. But this watering is a struggle which must not discourage us. Just as Yitzchak Avinu did not succeed but continued after two failures, writes the Mesameach Zion, so must each of us also dig for our our connection to Hashem. To enter the Rechovot/wider ShAaR/gates of holiness requires passing the challenges of Aisek and Sitna, adds Rabbi Schorr in Halekach Vehalebuv.

The struggle is not meant to depress us, but rather to bring us joy in the growth process, for Yitzchak itself means joyous laughter, writes Rabbi Kluger in My Sole Desire. Each of us, like our ancestor Yitzchak is a field and a mini Beit Hamikdosh. We are tasked with working on connecting the waters from above to the waters below, to bring others to serve Hashem, and hasten the building of the third Beit Hamikdosh, speedily, in our day.