November 17, 2023 /4 Kislev 5784
Parashat Toldot, as its name suggests, conveys the ‘history’ of Isaac’s life. Truth be told, most of the parasha – the parts we remember and retell – focuses on Rebekah, Esau and Jacob. Only the parasha’s midsection – Genesis 26 – homes in on Isaac himself. And on first (and even second and third) reading, it’s not all that interesting. He moves with his household around the land, mainly in the western Negev, digs wells here and there, interacts with the locals, and then moves on. The last stop for Isaac is Be’er- Sheva, the largest of the oasis towns in the area. There, something beautiful happens. Isaac re-encounters a local monarch, Avimelekh – also a resident of the western Negev – and they find a way to make peace.
Now Avimelekh went to him from Gerar, along with Ahuzzat his aide and Pikhol the commander of his armed-forces. Yitzhak said to them: For-what-reason have you come to me? For you hate me and have sent me away from you! They said: We have seen, yes, seen that YHWH has been with you, so we say: Pray let there be an oath-curse between us, between us and you; we want to cut a covenant with you…Early in the morning they swore [an oath] to one another; then Yitzhak sent them off, and they went from him in peace. Now it was on that same day that Yitzhak’s servants came and told him about the well that they had been digging; they said to him: We have found water! So he called it: Shiv’a/Swearing-Seven; therefore the name of the city is Be’er-Sheva until this day.
In one fell swoop, hate is transformed into peace; and the ‘dividends’ are immediate – on that same day Isaac’s servants find water. It must not be too much for us to imagine that peace will again come to that same patch of real estate where Isaac and Avimelekh lived side by side millenia ago! I hope and pray that the day when the waters of Be’er Sheva and Gerar and Gaza flow freely and bountifully arrives soon.
Shabbat Shalom!
More Isaac and Avimelekha art – 15th Century Illustrated Italian Bible
