November 29, 2024 / 28 Cheshvan 5785
Our ancestor Isaac digs wells. The Midrash makes a fuss over how many: maybe four, maybe five, maybe seven. But the Torah describes only three. Here they are:
Yitzhak again dug up the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Avraham his father, the Philistines having stopped them up after Avraham’s death, and he called them by the names, the same names, by which his father had called them. Yitzhak’s servants also dug in the wadi, and found there a well of living water. Now the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with the shepherds of Yitzhak, saying: The water is ours! So he called the name of the well: Esek/Bickering, because they had bickered with him. They dug another well, and quarreled also over it, so he called its name: Sitna/Animosity. He moved on from there and dug another well, but they did not quarrel over it, so he called its name: Rehovot/Space, and said: Indeed, now YHWH has made space for us, so that we may bear fruit in the land! [Genesis 26:18-23]
What great names! With good reason, the early Hasidic masters already read this narrative symbolically – each well represents a different level of consciousness, a new awareness. And the sequence is more than notable. Isaac (and we with him) moves from bickering and animosity ultimated to spaciousness and capaciousness. That, suggests the Torah, is what can happen when one digs deep.
It’s no secret that we are living through a time of great contention – bickering and animosity abound in our world and perhaps in each of our lives. Yitzhak/Isaac’s model is to keep digging deep so that we can find our way (again?) to capaciousness and spaciousness, to the ability to actually talk with one another across the many divides in our lives.
Immediately after the discovery of Rehovot/Space, Isaac and his erstwhile enemy Avimelech conclude a treaty; they make peace and chart out a way to live together. So may it be for us, all of us that is. Keep on digging.
Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi David
