In the portion of Toldot, we learn about the Wells that Yitzchak dug
The following is an excerpt from What the Capture of Beersheba in 1917 Taught me About Isaac, by Lenny Ben-David timesofisrael
Three of his (Yitzchak’s) wells were given names related to the first and second Temples, according to tradition, and the third name signified the third, future Temple.
[W]hy did the Torah provide a long narrative about Isaac and his interaction with the Philistines over the wells? Commentaries point out that both Abraham and Isaac had testy experiences with the Philistines of Gaza, but the tribe recognized and respected the power and stature of Abraham. But after he left the scene, the Philistine filled in the wells, challenging Isaac to do something about it.
Why? Because wells provided the sustenance to grow crops, water herds, and build communities. They allowed nomadic tribes to set down roots. And after the roots were set, the waters enabled communities to grow in numbers and space. It was what both Abraham and Isaac were promised and what they strove for. It was what the Philistines sought to block.
Opening the Wells 3000 Years Later
After the Turks and Germans failed to dislodge the British forces along the Suez Canal in 1915, the British decided to take the battle to them in the Sinai and Palestine. The major Turkish base for the southern campaign was in Beersheva, with its wells and railhead. The major impediment for the British crossing the Sinai and into the Negev was the lack of water.
A New Zealand officer of the Mounted Rifles described how they overcame the challenge: “The water was brought through two pipe lines which were laid side by side over the desert and eventually took the Nile into Palestine, by a system of pumps and reservoirs in approximately 20 mile stages.”
The process was slow and vulnerable.
Enter Aaron Aaronsohn, the Jewish agronomist famous for establishing the Jewish spy network NILI to help the British. As described by Douglas Feith in Mosaic Magazine last year, Aaronsohn presented to the British a “theory that water flowed in abundance under the deserts of Sinai and southern Palestine. He mocked the assumption of British officers that they needed to build a railroad and pipeline to bring water from Egypt.” Aaronsohn cited ancient writings about gardens in the desert, and insisted that water could be found beneath the ground. “Rock formations supported his theory,” Feith wrote.
A British Intelligence officer related this story, Feith wrote: “Aaronson bullied the officer commanding the Royal Engineers into sending to Egypt for boring machinery, undertaking that water would be found at a depth of 300 feet. When an experimental shaft was sunk, water gushed up from a depth of 295 feet.” [Primary Water]
Wells and sources of water supported the British campaign to capture Beersheva and all of Palestine, and Aaronsohn’s knowledge of the wells was essential. He was following in his forefather Isaac’s footsteps.
With their animals watered and their canteens filled from the Beersheva wells, General Allenby’s troops followed God’s commandment to Jacob: “Thou shalt spread to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south.” Beersheva was the point from which Allenby’s troops went north to Jerusalem and west to Gaza and Jaffa. One year later, they were in Damascus.
The Philistines had filled in the wells, attempting to sabotage the expansion of Abraham’s universal message. The Turks blew up the wells seeking to stop the British Forces’ eventual liberation of Jerusalem and a repressed land. How ironic and tragic that today Hamas rockets from Gaza attempt to destroy the Ashkelon desalinization plant that could also provide sustenance to that parched land. Elsewhere in the Middle East – and the world – the patriarchs’ commitment to watering the world continues today thanks to Israel.
This commentary is dedicated to my grandson, Amichai Rhein, on the occasion of his bar mitzva on Shabbat Toldot. (published in TimesofIsrael Blogs, and the Jerusalem Post paper edition of 11/11/18.
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Primary Water
A recent study documented the presence of vast quantities of water locked far beneath the earth’s surface. That study confirmed "that there is a very, very large amount of water that's trapped in a really distinct layer in the deep Earth… approaching the sort of mass of water that's present in all the world's ocean” (ScientificAmerican): Primary Water Institute
Rare Diamond Confirms That Earth's Mantle Holds an Ocean's Worth of Water ScientificAmerican. Earth's mantle holds an ocean's worth of water. "It's actually the confirmation that there is a very, very large amount of water that's trapped in a really distinct layer in the deep Earth," said Graham Pearson, lead study author and a geochemist at the University of Alberta in Canada. The findings were published (March 12) in the journal Nature.
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Primary Water, from under the earth, could be the answer to California’s drought that is decimating the State. Also, for any farming land in the United States that is experiencing drought; as well as any country’s farming land could very well start digging for this G–d given source of water.
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"During World War I, the Ottomans had joined sides with the Germans, and Aaronsohn feared the Jews would suffer the same fate as the Armenians under the Turks. Together with his assistant, Avshalom Feinberg, his sister and a few others, Aaronsohn organized Nili, a ring of Jewish residents of Palestine who spied for Britain during World War I. He recommended the plan of attack through Beersheva that General Edmund Allenby ultimately used to take Jerusalem in December 1917 as part of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. Owing to information supplied by Nili to the British Army concerning the locations of oases in the desert, General Allenby was able to mount a surprise attack on Beersheba, bypassing strong Ottoman defenses in Gaza.”
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