The wells that Yitzchak dug
Well known commentors discuss the story of the wells Abraham and then Yitzchak dug.
Breishit (26:12-22) ’And Yitzchak sowed in that land, and he found in that year a hundred fold, and Hashem blessed him. And the man became great, and he grew constantly until he had grown very great. And he had possessions of sheep and possessions of cattle and much production, and the Philistines envied him. And all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Avraham, his father, the Philistines stopped them up and filled with earth.
‘And Avimelech said to Yitzchak:’Go away from us, for you have become much stronger than us. And Yitzchak went away from there, and he encamped in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there.
‘And Yitzchak again dug the wells of water which they had dug in the days of his father Avraham, and the Philistines had stopped them after Avraham’s death; and he gave them names like the names his father had given them.
‘And Yitzchak’s servants dug in the valley, and they found there a well of living waters.
‘And the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Yitzchak’s servants, saying:’The water is ours’, so he named the well עשק; Esek, because התעשקו עמו: they contended with him.
‘And they dug another well, and they quarreled about it also, and he named it שטנה: Sitnah.
‘And he moved away from there, and he dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it, so he named it רחובות: Rehoboth, and he said:’For now Hashem has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.’
The Be’er Mayim Chaim comments: The Philistines, when they saw that Yitzchak’s affairs were blessed beyond the usual, and perceived that he received the blessing of the land, envied him on two accounts: One, that he was the one who received it, and that therefore they were deprived of it, as had he not received it, they would have received it.
Second: they envied him, why did he merit such blessings? All the years that they had inhabited the very same land, they were not so blessed.
They therefore said in their hearts, that perhaps Avraham and he - Yitzchak - were so blessed because of the wells that they dug, as the well of water allude to unceasing chesed, and - as is known - the well is the recipient of all kinds of success and blessings, which is why they dug the wells.
They - the Philistines - sought to nullify this, and filled the wells with earth, so that there should be no remnant of those wells, as perhaps thereby Yitzchak would be unable to receive the blessings, and they - instead - would be the recipients.
Avimelech, when he saw that this, too, did not avail, said:’Better I should break the covenant I entered into with his father, and chase him from my land, so that we receive the blessings.’
The Alshich haKadosh adds: Avimelech was ashamed to say to Yitzchak:’Leave my land’, and left it to his people to block the wells that Yitzchak dug
However, when he saw that this did not achieve his desired result, he spoke to Yitzchak, himself.’
Abarbanel expounds: The Torah relates that all the wells that Avraham’s servants had dug, the Philistines blocked, and filled with earth.
As these were only גומות גדולות: wells of still waters - not of flowing waters - which served to give water to sheep, the Philistines - in their wickedness - blocked them, so that Yitzchak’s servants would not benefit from them, and would depart from there, due to the lack of water.
In addition, Avimelech said to Yitzchak: ’Go away from us, for you have become stronger ממנו: from us’ - meaning that, due to your large flocks, there was no room for the flocks of the locals.
So Yitzchak departed from there, but remained close to the city, settling by the Gerar River - not, as Rashi comments, far from the city, as the name of the River: Gerar indicates that it was close to the city, whose name it bore.
He settled there against the wishes of the locals - not only that, but he dug the wells which had been dug by his father, Avraham, which had been blocked, and he called them by the names Avraham had given them, as a sign that they were not new wells.
He found a well of live water - indicating that the others were not of live water - yet, even then, the local shepherds argued with him, saying: ’It is our water’, claiming that the river was the source of the living water, and it was theirs, just as the water of the river was theirs.
Despite this, these waters remained with Yitzchak’s shepherds; his shepherds also dug another well, which - though the locals again argued concerning it - he called שטנה: an allusion to their שנאה: hatred of him.
It was only when he dug a third well, that they did not argue over it, and he therefore called it רחובות, saying: ’Now Hashem הרחיב: has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.'
This is the reason for the Torah relating this story - for which Ramban could find no reason, nor honor to Yitzchak, as to why it was brought here- which, to my mind, reflects great honor to Yitzchak, and is therefore related here.
Rav David Hofstedter asks: ‘Why did the Torah see a need to relate at such length the story of the wells that Avraham and Yitzchak dug? Further, why did the Philistines completely block the first wells that Avraham had dug, whilst - regarding the well that Yitzchak dug - they argued and claimed ownership of the water, but did not block the well?
It would appear, as Ramban wrote, that all that occurred to our Avot, was a signpost to their descendants, and it is for that reason that the Torah related the story of the wells, as a lesson as to the future.
Therefore, the opposition of the Philistines to the wells that Avraham and Yitzchak dug, contains allusions to what is likely to befall their descendants in their exile - when, though they be blameless, the nations will oppress them and seek to destroy them.
With this in mind, it would seem that the two incidents of the wells allude to two separate ways in which the nations proceed, in their hatred of Jews.
Thenlocals acted in two ways, with regard to the wells: the first, by their jealousy of the wealth and greatness of Yitzchak, which the Torah relates.
This jealousy does not appear to be from the common people, as they seemingly sought to draw close to Yitzchak, in the hope that some of his success would rub off on them - rather, it came from the King and his ministers, on seeing Yitzchak’s success, in their concern that he find greater favor than them, in the eyes of the people.
For this reason, the King himself expelled Yitzchak from Gerar -
Ohr Hachaim haKadosh comments: There is no greater humiliation to a King, than someone being seen as greater than he.
The blocking of the wells was also not done by the common people, but by the hand of the ministers, out of their envy of Yitzchak, hoping that - as with his expulsion from the kingdom - he would be forgotten by the people, this by the wells that he dug, being filled up with earth, leaving no relic of Yitzchak.
As against this, on the second occasion that the local inhabitants argued with Yitzchak over wells, it was the common people -‘the shepherds of Gerar’ - and not due to envy of Yitzchak’s greatness, but because they sought for themselves some of the blessings that were Yitzchak’s lot, in the land, without understanding that the water was in his merit - they therefore claimed: ’The water is ours’.
This claim grew into actual hatred, as is reflected in the name given to the well.
We find therefore, that in our parsha the form that the enmity of the nations to Israel os going to take whilst they are in galut.
At times the rulers will feel threatened by the rise to prominence of the Jews, as was the case in Egypt.
At other times, the hatred of the Jews will emanate from their desire for their money - in general this starts with the common people, in their feeling that the Jews hold all the money, but, in the fullness of time, this blossoms into actual hatred, leading to pogroms.
This second way, was what occurred to Yitzchak, when the desire for money of the shepherds of Gerar led to them to argue with the servants of Yitzchak, and culminating in actual hatred.
Our parsha teaches us how to react to both of these approaches - that we should distance ourselves from the nations, as Yitzchak did, in both situations - there is no other way for us, whilst in exile, to contend with their envy and lust for our money.
‘The deeds of our Avot are signposts for us, their sons, as to how we are to act.’
Haktav veHakabalah comments : The names given to the wells, are, in a literal sense, straight-forward and not indicative of any special matter, and we might wonder what importance there was to tell us these names, and what would be lost by their nullification, and why Yitzchak strove so valiantly to return the wells to their original names.
In fact, these names are all reflective of Hashem’s chesed to His people, as were the names given on other occasions by the Avot, to mark Hashem’s chesed.
It was Avraham’s way in all that he did, to bring the errant people - who believed that the stars and other celestial entities determined the fate of man - to understand and believe in the One true G-d.
‘To this end, Avraham gave names to the wells he dug, being aware that, as the wells of water were needed by all, that from the names he gave them, there would be a constant reminder of the true G-d.
The Torah makes known the high regard in which Avraham was held in his lifetime - as is seen clearly in his dealings with the burial plot for Sarah - so that none dared challenge the names he gave the wells, in his lifetime.
After his death, however, the people reverted to their errant beliefs, and so sought to block the wells, which inevitably would lead to the nullification of their names.
The Torah comes to teach that Yitzchak followed the way of his father, and strove to dig the wells that his father had dug, and to return the names his father had given them, so as to return the people to the true belief.’
Rabbeinu Bahya introduces a novel insight:’There are some who see in the wells an allusion to the gerim that converted in the days of Avraham, who readily accepted belief, just as the wells are to receive water and to open hearts which are blocked to receive emunah - this can be described as ‘digging’.
Out of envy, the Philistines blocked them - meaning: blocked their hearts and returned them to their errant beliefs, as if ‘filling them with earth’ - as, whereas Avraham filled them with wisdom and knowledge of Hashem in belief of His oneness, the Philistines filled them with their false beliets, the Torah describing this as ‘filling with earth’.
Later, Yitzchak overpowered them, and returned them to the right path - which the Torah alludes to, in saying;’ Yitzchak dug the wells of water which were dug in the days of Avraham, his father, which the Philistines blocked, and called them by the names that his father called them’, as that is the way of those engaged in conversion, as the prophet says:(Isaiha 65):’And his servants he called by another name’.’
The Netivot Shalom notes the difference in the Torah’s description of the wells dug in Avraham’s time, and those that Yitzchak dug: Whereas, with regard to Avraham, the Torah said:’Hashem blessed Avraham בכל: ‘in everything’, it did not say what he did with this blessing - whereas, with regard to Yitzchak it says:’And he sowed..’, as Rashi comments:’the earth was hard, and Hashem blessed him in this regard’.
What do all these details come to teach us?
Also, in its description of the wells they dug - a full parasha was devoted to this in the case of Yitzchak, whereas in the case of Avraham, the were only mentioned in passing - the Torah not stating that Avraham dug wells, only stating:’the wells that the servants of Avraham dug in the days of Avraham, his father, were blocked by the Philistines’ - whereas the Torah describes at length the matter of the wells that he dug, and the names that he gave them - why is this so important, in the case of Yitzchak?
The answer might be found in the different attributes of the two Patriachs: Avraham’s attribute is love of Hashem, whilst that of Yitzchak, is awe, and in this difference, we can understand our parasha - the Torah relates that ‘And Yitzchak sowed..’, sowing alluding to effort in serving Hasham - and, through this effort, ‘he found in that year one hundred gates’- one hundred ways to come closer to Hashem, as, in this service, awe is greater than love, as the acquisition of awe requires more effort than the acquisition of love.
For this reason, the wells that Avraham dug were blocked by the Philistines and filled with earth, while the well that Yitzchak dug was not blocked up - because Avraham was the attribute of love, and therefore his wells were dug without effort, unlike the well of Yitzchak - whose attribute was awe - required effort, and is therefore everlasting.
Whilst the attribute of love is higher than the attribute of awe, it is also attainable without much toil, and therefore, in times of trial, it was easily blocked by the Philistines - unlike the attribute of awe, which is only attained by toil, and is therefore everlasting.
We now understand why, in the case of Avraham, the Torah does not tell us that he dug wells, as it did with regard to Yitzchak.
A parting gem from Rav Matityahu Salomon:’Only one parsha is dedicated to Yitzchak Avinu: Parashat Toldot.
Yaakov Avinu reveals to us the essence of his father - Yitzchak - when, in his striving with Laban, he states:(31:42) ’Were it not for the G-d of my forefather Avraham ופחד יצחק: and the Awe of Yitzchak..’.
We learn from this, that the attribute of Yitzchak was פחד: awe or fear, and, armed with this, we can approach the Torah to learn the little that is revealed.
Yitzchak was the first of the Avot to have a righteous father, who could guide him ln the right path, so that - whenever confronted with a situation that required a decision, he would ask himself what his father would do.
This was the way of Yitzchak throughout his life: to judge all his deeds by what his father would do.
We therefore read that ‘he dug the wells of water that had bern dug in the days of his father, which the Philistines had blocked and filled with earth, and he called them by the names that his father had called them.,
However - as Sforno points out - this was a defect in Hashem’s eyes, and all the while that he did not, of himself, go out to proclaim Hashem’s Name, the only blessings he received were in the zechut of Avraham.
Once he did go out and proclaim Hashem’s Name, we read that Avimelech went out to him, saying: ’You are now the one blessed by Hashem’ - and he suffered no further strife from the Philistines.
We can conclude that the reason for going in the way of forefathers, is the fear of erring, which is understandable - but only when we are talking of digging wells, or the names by which to call them.’
לרפואת נועם עליזה בת זהבה רבקה ונחום אלימלך רפאל בן זהבה רבקה ולרפואת נריה דוב בן חנה ופצועי צה"K, בתוך שאר חולי עמנו
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