Toledot
Gen. 25:19 - 28:9
In this weeks portion, we find Isaac in the land of Gerar. Despite a famine in the land, Isaac has ventured into the world of agriculture, and quite successfully. The Torah tells us that he sowed in that land and reaped a hundredfold the same year. As a result, Isaac becomes quite wealthy, and the Philistines become very envious of him. In their bitterness they stop up all of the wells which his father, Abraham’s servants had dug. So Isaac, showing some pluck, proceeds to dig the wells again. The Torah says, “Isaac dug anew the wells which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham’s death; and he gave them the same names that his father had given them.”
Now, Abraham’s stay in Gerar could not have been accomplished without the digging and maintenance of several wells. In order to establish clear proprietary rights, each well was given an identifying name. Isaac redigs the same old wells and gives them the same names. Not very inspiring perhaps. As the thirteenth-century Spanish commentator Ramban remarked, “There would seem to be no benefit nor any great honor to Isaac, given that he and his father did the identical thing!” So we must ask ourselves, why does the Torah take the time to tell us this story if it is simply a repetition of Abraham’s story?
If we look at the midrash, Bereishit Rabbah asks, “How many wells did our Father Isaac dig in Beersheva? The Rabbis said, ‘Five,’ which corresponds to the five books of Torah.” Rabbi Bradley Artson offers that the midrash implies that the act of redigging those same old wells was a way of expressing loyalty to the spiritual values and practices that Isaac had inherited. It was not simply an act of repetition. Rather, by holding on to his parents’ tradition, Isaac was assuring that Judaism would thrive beyond his own lifetime. Thirteenth-century French rabbi Hizkuni remarked that giving the wells the same names that Abraham had given them was an act of merit, “for these names show that the wells were in his possession because of his father’s legacy.”
We live in a society today that places great value on innovation, creativity, and originality. I am a huge proponent of celebrating that just as God creates, we were created in God’s image so that we too could be clever, innovative creators. Openness and a willingness to change are often the approach most likely to produce new discoveries and insights. The flip side of this is that with constant newness and innovation can come a certain feeling of restlessness. It can be challenging to feel settled in the world when everything is “up for grabs” and every custom is subject to question and analysis.
Isaac’s well-digging calls to mind the need to balance creativity and innovation with loyalty and tradition. Artson insightfully quips, “Change is good, but change is not God.” When change is rampant, our lives can seem disordered. Without consistency or truth, relating to one another can seem impossible.
May we each learn from Isaac’s example and cling to that which is inspiring and vital to our tradition. May we tread new paths while still honoring the path others have taken before us and respect the traditions that have served as spiritual illumination for countless generations and which continue to wend their ways into our lives.
Shabbat Shalom,
Cantor Korn
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