Parshat Toladot talks extensively about the murky relationship between Yaakov and Eisav, but one of the interesting stories we have in Yitzchak’s family is about the wells of water. Our fathers had a lot of sheep and cattle, and since they would live in dry lands with not much water, Avraham needed to dig in the earth to search for water in different places in order to keep his livestock from going thirsty and to survive in this type of land.
The Torah describes to us what happened later on. The Plishtim were jealous, and all they sealed all the wells that were dug by Avraham’s servants and filled them with dirt. Yitzchak, his son, returned to those wells and started dig them again. The Pasuk point out that he names the wells with the same names that his father had named them out of respect for his father. But then, a fight breaks out between the shepherds of Yitzchak and the shepherds of the Plishtim over the water, so he gives the wells new names: Esek and Sitna. Esek means fight, and Sitna means damage.
When you reads this episode, ask yourself a very simple question: Why were they fighting Yitzchak? Wasn’t it also in their interest to have wells to give water to the cattle in the desert climate?
The commentators over the years also were trying to understand the Plishtim’s behavior and offered their explanations. Some say that the Plishtim were concerned that by digging those wells, it would be easy for the enemies to conquer the land. Some say that they looked at Yitzchak as one who was damaging the quality of the land. Others say that the Plishtim didn’t want others to claim ownership over the land, and wanted to push them out by blocking the wells. But to me it seems that the Pasuk is very clear about the reason, and that is jealousy.
When you see somebody else who is not lazy, putting all of their effort to succeed, it brings upon them jealousy. This jealousy can lead him to two places. One, a positive jealous that will cause someone to learn from that person and emulate them. The other is to say, that if I can’t do it, nobody can, and I will do everything to destroy their success. It seems that nothing changed since, and as we mentioned so many times, “מעשה אבות סימן לבנים.”
The Zionist movement, and the fact that so many Jews moved to Eretz Yisrael, brought with it a big blessing to the land and the people who live on it, Jews and non-Jews. Beforehand, the land was desolate and full of swamps, plagued by diseases, but we turned it into a blossoming country. What was the reaction of the Arabs in those days? Did they welcome us? Did they thank us? Or, did they fill themselves with jealousy that led to destruction and hatred?
Going back to Yitzchak, we learned that he did not give up or despair. Although he called the second well Sitna because of the fight, he dug a third well and they didn’t fight over it. He called it Rechovot, thanking HaShem that He extended his borders so that he may fulfill and multiply in the land.
Without a doubt and without a question, at the end of the day, the land will stay in the hands of those that love it and invest it in with all their might, and those that were seeking to take it away from us with pure hatred, and those who still are, by simply sealing the wells in those days, and shooting rockets, bombing, killing, and kidnapping innocent people in our days will find themselves drowning in the endless well of hatred they have dug for themselves.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Tal