Dvar Torah -Rabbi Michael Freund
In this week's Parshat Toldot, the Torah recounts how the Philistines filled with earth the wells that Avraham's servants had dug (Genesis 26:15). In a region where water was essential to life, the decision seems almost incomprehensible. The wells could have served the Philistines themselves. Instead, they made them useless.
The Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, 1160-1235) explains that after Avraham's death, the Philistines feared that his son might one day become powerful enough to reclaim the wells. They therefore chose to block them, even at the cost of depriving themselves of the water.
Their attitude, according to the Radak, amounted to: Better that neither of us have it.
The Torah offers its own explanation for this behavior: "And the Philistines envied him" (Genesis 26:14). They could not bear the thought of Yitzchak enjoying the fruits of his father's efforts, even when the alternative harmed them too.
But there is another side to the account: "And Yitzchak dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Avraham his father," the Torah tells us. "And he called them by the names which his father had called them" (Genesis 26:18).
Rashi explains that these were the same wells the Philistines had stopped up. The Rashbam (Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir, 1085-1158) adds that preserving their names helped prevent others from disputing Yitzchak's ownership.
In other words, Yitzchak did not regard the destruction as the end of the story. He returned to the wells, reopened them and restored their original names.
The difference between the two sides could hardly be clearer. The Philistines saw something built by Avraham and wanted it buried. Yitzchak saw the same wells and set about making them useful again.
Something remarkably similar happened in Gaza in 2005, after Israel withdrew from the territory and expelled its Jewish communities.
Before the withdrawal, American Jewish donors raised $14 million to purchase more than 3,000 thriving greenhouses which exported produce and flowers to Europe - from departing Israeli farmers and leave them for Palestinian Arab use. It was a substantial economic opportunity: the greenhouses could provide work and a continuing harvest to families in Gaza.
Yet within days, Palestinian Arab looters had stripped dozens of greenhouses of irrigation pipes, pumps and plastic sheeting. Some Palestinian Arab policemen even joined in. Many of the structures, along with valuable agricultural equipment, were lost in the very first days after Israel left.
Nor were the greenhouses the only targets. Crowds also set fire to synagogues in Gaza's former Jewish communities, destroying buildings that bore witness to the Jewish presence there.
Just as the Philistines buried wells that could have supplied them with water, Palestinian Arab looters damaged agricultural infrastructure that could have helped sustain Gaza's economy.
The Philistines' destruction of Avraham's wells, however, was not the end of the story. Yitzchak refused to be deterred.
His servants dug new wells, only to encounter further opposition. At one well, neighboring shepherds challenged their claim to the water. At another, the quarrel began again. Finally, they dug a well over which no one disputed, and Yitzchak named it Rehovot, saying that G-d had made room for them to prosper (Genesis 26:20-22).
Yitzchak's greatness lay in his refusal to let other people's hostility determine whether he would continue to build. He did not need to win every quarrel to remain faithful to his purpose. He simply kept digging.
Israel's enemies may seek to uproot Jewish communities, destroy what Jews have built and erase their presence from Eretz Yisrael. But the lesson of Yitzchak's wells is that destruction need not be the final word.
The Jewish people's answer must be to return, rebuild and strengthen our hold on the land of our forefathers. The Philistines thought they could erase Avraham's legacy by burying his wells. Yitzchak proved them wrong by digging again.
And that is what we must continue to do today.