Everyone loves a person of action, a go-getter, a creative self-starter. Avraham and Sarah certainly qualified, traveling the world to spread the word of One G-d. Yakov was also quite an activist, making bold and decisive moves when the situation called for it. Yitzchak, however, seems to be passive in the extreme. He's dragged to the akeida, dragged to the chuppa, manipulated by his wife Rivka and his twin sons. He even lives in a place called "Gerar," which means "dragged".
One of the few instances where Yitzchak does take direct action is when he re-digs the wells his father Avraham had dug, after the Plishtim decided to seal them up and cover them with sand. Yet, when it comes time to name the wells, Yitzchak chooses the exact same names his father had used. Is this yet another sign of his reluctance to take independent action?
I suggest something else is going on here. Consider: A well, or oasis, in the middle of the desert is an absolute G-d-send. The weary traveler, thirsting for water, is overjoyed to find a place to quench his thirst. He doesn't care who owns the well, or what the cost of a drink is; he knows that he cannot drink sand. Without water he will die.
The insane decision of the Plishtim (read: Palestinians) to seal the wells is clearly an expression of extreme, suicidal anti-Semitism. But it is more than that. It is also a desire to hide the evidence, to try and obliterate the Jewish connection to that spot. How similar our enemies of today to our enemies then! Not only do they wage war against us, they desperately try to deny our connection to our land. They destroy antiquities, burn down synagogues, change the names of Biblical sites. The arch-terrorist Arafat had the audacity to declare, "In all their digging since 1967, the Jews haven't uncovered a single artifact connecting them to Jerusalem." The infamous Wakf declares that there never was a Bet
HaMikdash - Temple - in Jerusalem.
So now we understand why Yitzchak re-names the wells with the same names Avraham used. He wants to reverse the insidious plans of the Plishtim and re-establish the historical connection of Am Yisrael to Eretz Yisrael. Despite their persistent efforts to rewrite history, our enemies cannot obscure the fact that this is our Land, and nobody else's.
We can be passive about many things; but Eretz Yisrael is not one of them.
(With thanks to Rabbi H. Wolk)
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Rabbi Weiss is the director of the Jewish Outreach Center in Ra?anana.
One of the few instances where Yitzchak does take direct action is when he re-digs the wells his father Avraham had dug, after the Plishtim decided to seal them up and cover them with sand. Yet, when it comes time to name the wells, Yitzchak chooses the exact same names his father had used. Is this yet another sign of his reluctance to take independent action?
I suggest something else is going on here. Consider: A well, or oasis, in the middle of the desert is an absolute G-d-send. The weary traveler, thirsting for water, is overjoyed to find a place to quench his thirst. He doesn't care who owns the well, or what the cost of a drink is; he knows that he cannot drink sand. Without water he will die.
The insane decision of the Plishtim (read: Palestinians) to seal the wells is clearly an expression of extreme, suicidal anti-Semitism. But it is more than that. It is also a desire to hide the evidence, to try and obliterate the Jewish connection to that spot. How similar our enemies of today to our enemies then! Not only do they wage war against us, they desperately try to deny our connection to our land. They destroy antiquities, burn down synagogues, change the names of Biblical sites. The arch-terrorist Arafat had the audacity to declare, "In all their digging since 1967, the Jews haven't uncovered a single artifact connecting them to Jerusalem." The infamous Wakf declares that there never was a Bet
HaMikdash - Temple - in Jerusalem.
So now we understand why Yitzchak re-names the wells with the same names Avraham used. He wants to reverse the insidious plans of the Plishtim and re-establish the historical connection of Am Yisrael to Eretz Yisrael. Despite their persistent efforts to rewrite history, our enemies cannot obscure the fact that this is our Land, and nobody else's.
We can be passive about many things; but Eretz Yisrael is not one of them.
(With thanks to Rabbi H. Wolk)
--------------------------------------------------------
Rabbi Weiss is the director of the Jewish Outreach Center in Ra?anana.