In our parsha, we read about the Philistines response to Yitzchak’s success. Yitzchak has been blessed by God and is growing greater and greater. When the Philistines see this, we read, וַיְקַנְא֥וּ אֹת֖וֹ פְּלִשְׁתִּֽים, “And the Philistines envied him” (Genesis 26:14). The words that immediately follow reveal how the Philistines respond: וְכָל־הַבְּאֵרֹ֗ת אֲשֶׁ֤ר חָֽפְרוּ֙ עַבְדֵ֣י אָבִ֔יו בִּימֵ֖י אַבְרָהָ֣ם אָבִ֑יו סִתְּמ֣וּם פְּלִשְׁתִּ֔ים וַיְמַלְא֖וּם עָפָֽר, “And all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father the Philistines stopped them up and filled them with earth” (Ibid 15).
Why is stopping up the wells from the time of Avraham the Philistines chosen way of attacking and trying to make Yitzchak small?
Rashi tells us that the Philistines saw Yitzchak and his family as a threat and a danger, תקלה הם לנו (Rashi on Genesis 26:15). When the Philistines saw Yitzchak’s greatness and success, they felt that their own success was in danger, and so they retaliated. By stopping up the wells, the Philistines first limited the physical water that Yitzchak’s people could access-- if they couldn’t use the water from the wells they relied on, they could not grow and conquer the land. They depended on the wells and without them, they would suffer physically.
But stopping up the wells also has an additional impact. The verse specifically mentions that these were Avraham’s wells. The Philistines stopped up what Avraham left behind for his descendents-- they tried to block the water (which is often understood to refer to Torah) that Avraham brought into this world and to cut off the purpose, direction, and legacy that Yitzchak was supposed to carry on. And so, stopping up the wells was a devastating attack because it not only limited the physical access to water, but it was an effort end the spiritual endeavor and legacy that Yitzchak was destined to fulfill.
It is striking then that in the verses that follow, Yitzchak spends a great deal of effort undoing the Philistines’ damage. Yitzchak not only redigs his father’s wells, but he also digs new ones that are his own. From this text, we learn that one of the most painful attacks can come from erasing another’s story, another’s legacy. And so too, one of the greatest ways to honor another is to do what Yitzchak did-- to keep the wells of life, of memory, of history alive, never forgetting from where we come, but instead being informed by it as we continue to dig new wells and forge our path forward.
Today, when we face enemies who try to erase our stories, who try to stop up our wells, it is essential that we do the opposite-- that we tell the story of our ancestors-- of our relationship to the land of Israel and with God-- and that we use our collective memory to mark the path ahead.
-- Rabbanit Alissa
