And Isaac's servants dug in the valley,

and they found there a well of living waters.

And the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's shepherds...

so he named the well Esek (Bereishit 26:19-20)

 

So he named the well Esek - He gave it a name so that when the day came when he would overpower them Gerar's shepherds would not be able to say, "The well is ours."

And the shepherds of Gerar quarreled - Since the spring-water originated in the hills, they had a basis to claim, "The water is ours." 1) Because the spring water came out of the hill that was in Gerar, within Abimelech's border. 2) Because it was the law of the kingdom that anything found underground belonged to the kingdom, and if so, the underground water belonged to the king and to the citizens of the state. Isaac's shepherds argued that underground water has no owner, and so they called the well Esek ["an affair"], because there was an affair with arguments and counter-arguments, each side having an argument for their own opinion.

(Malbim ad loc)

 

And they did not quarrel over the third well, for the Third Temple will be built by the king Messiah of whom it is said (Isaiah 9:6): for the increase of the realm and for peace without end, for there will be only peace and truth in his time. Thus was it called Rehovot, for then the Lord will expand (yarhiv) their borders. When there is strife or two Hebrews fighting, even in a city as large as Antioch, there is not enough room for them both even in a very great area; the lack of space oppresses them, as is the case even today, due to our sins. The opposite is the case when there is peace among Israel. Even though we multiply and the Land's inhabitants are numerous, nevertheless it is expansive for them and there is no oppressor... that when peace is found we shall be fruitful in the land for we will not need to leave it.

(Kli Yakar Bereishit 26:19)

 

Isaac, Lord of the Land - and the Philistines

Menachem Klein

Isaac had no reason to doubt that he was the owner of the land of his birth, the land to which his parents had immigrated. He was sure the divine promise would be fulfilled:

...for to you and to your seed will I give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham, your father (26:3).

It is a fact: he did behave like the lord of the land. When visiting the land of the Philistines he took liberties unusual for a guest, and acted as if he were the landowner: Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, looked out of the window, and he saw, and behold, Isaac was jesting with Rebecca his wife (26:8).

How does someone behave if he considers himself to be the lord of the land and how does he treat the native Philistines? Despite his wealth and power he does not wage war against the Philistines who stop up his wells. After leaving the site of the first quarrel and digging a well elsewhere, he did not wage war against the Philistine shepherds who claimed the water is ours (26:20). Even the third time he did not fight the Philistines over the water-sources.

Isaac was certainly not pleased by the repeated altercations with the Philistines. We may assume that he was frustrated and exposed to pressures from his own shepherds to retaliate against the Philistines and answer them in the only language they understood - the language of force. However, Isaac restrained himself. He expressed his frustration in the names he gave to the wells he lost to the Philistines. Those names address the Philistine opposition. And he gave them names like the names that his father had given them (26:19). That is to say: not the names given them by the Philistines. It was clear to him in his own mind that he and his father were the lords of the land and the owners of the wells, but in practice he respected the natives and even honored the gains they made by taking wells away from him by force.

Isaac documents the repeated confrontations with the Philistines with the names he gave to the wells: so he named the well Esek, because they had contended with him...And they dug another well, and they quarreled about it also; so he named it Sitnah (26:20, 21). However, Isaac avoided perpetuating the conflict through struggle. He was sure he was the lord of the land. The Philistines' actions and their take-over of the well did not undermine his certainty of his general ownership of the land. Isaac thought that if he reacted it might be understood as implying that ownership of the land depended upon the possession of one particular well or another. Isaac preferred digging new wells: And he moved away from there, and he dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it (26:22). He gave that well a name bearing a positive connotation: Rehoboth. The explication of that name expresses that same confidence which guided Isaac through the entire struggle: so he named it Rehoboth, and he said, "For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land" (26:22).

The positive meaning of that name also includes a clear message: now God has made room for us and now we will be able to blossom. If we had begun a confrontation regarding the earlier wells we would not have enjoyed the ability to be fruitful in the land.

Isaac's constructive policy proves itself again later. Isaac was neither naïve nor blind to reality. He was aware of the Philistines' hatred and he even took pains to mention it to them: Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and you sent me away from you? (26:27). Even so he preferred not to respond with force and not to impose peace by force. Isaac saw no need to use force to get the Philistines to offer him a pact of peace. We have seen that the Lord was with you; so we said: Let there now be an oath between us, between ourselves and you, and let us form a covenant with you (26:28).

Once again Isaac teaches us how the lord of the land behaves. Isaac harbors harsh memories and feelings from his confrontations with the Philistines. Those memories and feelings, together with his self-recognition as lord of the land, could have brought him to reject the Philistines' peace proposal. They could have led Isaac to force the Philistines to agree to a peace of the vanquished that would have reflected his status as lord of the land, an agreement which would have established in reality what he actually thought in his heart about himself and the Philistines. However, Isaac acted completely otherwise. He accepted the Philistines' proposal of reciprocal peace. It was formulated in language that Isaac could have rejected because it humiliated him; it opened by describing him as the bad guy of the story, the one who schemed at wreaking vengeance upon the Philistines or expanding into their territory: If you do [not] harm us, as we have not touched you, and as we have done with you only good, and we sent you away in peace (26:29).

But Isaac honored the Philistines' gains and did not trample them down in the negotiations. He recognized that they had made gains in the wars of the shepherds and therefore - as far as they were concerned - it was a balanced and bilateral agreement of non-belligerence without further demands or counter-demands. And more than this, Isaac was able to see deeply. He understood that behind the language that depicted him negatively there hid fear of him, and behind that fear recognition not only of his power but also of his being the lord of the land. People are only afraid of the lord of the land. Isaac's ability to see deeply generated brotherhood with the Philistines and brought peace. And they arose early in the morning, and they swore one to the other [literally: each man to his brother]...and they went away from him in peace (26:31).

Dr. Menachem Klein teaches in the Department of Political Science at Bar Ilan University.

 

Rebecca is the Mother of Jacob and Esau

Why did the Torah see fit to remind us once more - after Rebecca sent/smuggled Jacob away from Esau's vicinity, keeping Esau from venting his rage - why did the Torah remind us that she was mother to both Jacob and Esau?

The words of the super commentary Tzeida La-Derekh on Rashi ring true: This comes to tell us that she did not act only as Jacob's mother when she smuggled out Jacob, saving him from death. Rather, she was also acting as Esau's mother, saving him from murdering his brother. Although throughout the chapter she had been viewed as acting solely for the sake of Jacob, her younger son (27:42), at the moment of greatest danger her actions are explained by her role as mother of Jacob and Esau (28:5); she did not want to be bereft of them both in the same day.

(Prof. Nehama Leibowitz, z"l, Iyyunim be-Sefer Bereishit, pg. 202)

 

To ask after the Lord: an effort to know the future, to influence it, or to pray?

And he went to ask after the Lord: Rashi writes: to say what will be in the end, but I have not found the word ask after except in the meaning of, "to pray," as it says in Psalms 34:5: I asked after the Lord, and He answered me; They asked after me and lived (Amos 5:4); and, May I live if I ask after you (Ezekiel 20:3).

(RaMBaN Bereishit 25:22).

 

A Blessing from God Cannot be Inherited. Rather, a Person Must be Worthy of it.

The Lord blessed Abraham that his seed would be chosen to be the nation that He chose as a heritage, so that God would be their Lord and place His presence within them, and they would inherit the land and be holy to their God. Abraham did not pass this blessing on to Isaac, because it is not within human power to bequeath it to one's children, because it depends on the sanctity of the people and the goodness of their actions, Only after the death of Abraham did God give this blessing to Isaac, and Isaac did not intend to bless his sons with the blessing of Abraham, because he knew that his blessing would not be effective, for only someone ready for it can be blessed that way by God.

(Malbim on Bereishit 27,1)

 

The Many Faces of Esau

His name is Esau [Eisav] for he is formed [asuy] and completed. Eisav, whose numerical value is shalom, for if he had not been named "peace," he would have destroyed the world. Another idea: Eisav is [the letter] "ayin [= 70, followed by the word,] shav." This shav [pointless one] completed the number of 70 nations that I created in my world.

(Baal ha-Turim, Bereishit 25:25).

 

Shalom: Its numerical value is [the same as] Eisav, for one should be first to greet every person, even a gentile.

(Baal ha-Turim Bamidbar 6:26)

 

...the Baal ha-Turim's second explanation is much deeper, when he says "Shalom: Its numerical value is [the same as] Eisav"... and as has been stated, this is talking about the priestly blessing, meaning - the blessing of peace to Israel is not complete as long as there is no peace for Esau as well. It may be said that in Toldot, the numerical value of Eisav is shalom in order to restrain Esau, while in the priestly blessing, the numerical value of Eisav is shalom in order to inform the People Israel how strongly they are commanded to make peace, and that there will be no peace for Israel as long as there is no peace between Jacob and Esau.

(Prof. Y. Leibowitz, z"l, Sheva Shanim Shel Sihot al Parashat ha-Shavua, pg. 110).

 

So Jacob drew close to his father Isaac, who felt him and wondered, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau."

(Bereishit 27:22)

 

The voice is the voice of Jacob - No prayer is ever effective without the participation of Jacob's offspring.

 Yet the hands are the hands of Esau - No war is ever won without the participation of Esau's offspring in it.

 

Caution is Required when we try to Understand the Present on the Basis of the Past

These blessings invite several difficult questions. If the blessing was a prophecy, how could he not know who he was blessing?... it seems correct to me that the prophet's blessing is a kind of prayer, and God hears his prayer, since this blessing principally concerns their offspring. There are those who have not awakened from their foolish slumber who think that we are still in the exile of Edom. But this is not so - Edom was under Judah's control, and so it is written, Thus Edom fell away from Judah's control (II Kings 8:22). Yoav also killed off every male in Edom (I Kings 11:16). Since it [Edom] was under Judah's control, they rejoiced on the day of our catastrophe [the destruction of the first Temple], and told the Babylonians, Strip her, strip her, to her very foundations (Psalms 137:7). It was especially humiliating for Israel that Edom would humiliate them in their evil.... in the days of Agripas, when Jerusalem was under siege and the Edomite forces came to Judah's aid. The people which exiled us was derived from the Kittim, and so the translator rendered Ships came from the quarter of Kittim (Bamidbar 24:24) [as referring to Rome], that is the Greek Kingdom, as I explained in my commentary on the Book of Daniel. There were but a few people who believed in the new faith [Christianity]. When many came to believe in it in the days of Constantine, who had renewed the religion entirely, and there had been [until that time] no one in the world who observed the religion [Christianity], besides the Edomites [and so, Roman Christendom is referred to as "Edom"]. [Similarly], today the people of Egypt and Ethiopia and Elam are referred to as Ishmaelites, but there but a few real descendents of the Ishmaelites among them.

(Ibn Ezra on Bereishit 27:40)

 

Jacob 's Moral Conflict

And he went and took it and brought it to his mother [va 'yelekh, va 'yikah, va 'yavi] (Bereishit 27:14) - coerced, subordinate, and crying.

(Bereishit Rabbah 65)

 

This may be a derasha on va 'yelekh, va 'yikah, va 'yavi - "vay" [woe] because of these three.

(RaDaL on Bereishit Rabbah)

 

God Shows No Favoritism

Whoever says that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, is lenient - may his intestines be torn out. Rather, He is forbearing, but eventually he collects his debts. Esau cried one scream because of Jacob, as is written, When Esau heard his father's words he cried out with a very great and bitter cry. And where was he repaid? In Shushan, as is written, And he (Mordecai) cried out with a great and bitter cry (Esther 4).

(Bereishit Rabbah 67)

 

In Midrash Rabbah they (the Sages) said that our father Jacob was punished for causing Esau to cry a very great and bitter cry, resulting in Mordecai's crying a great and bitter cry. There seems to be a difficulty - why was he (Jacob) punished for Esau's scream more severely than was (pained) his righteous father Isaac, who trembled with very great trembling? [Trans. note - the adjective "bitter" appears only with reference to Esau's cry, not to Isaac's trembling]. . It seems to me: Jacob performed his transgression in good faith (lishma). He derived no pleasure from Yitzhak's trembling; he was certainly sorry about that, but he was coerced (by his mother Rebecca) to sin. This was not the case with regards to Esau's cry; he was happy about that, and therefore he was punished, because he had brought it about by the sin of lying, and one may not derive any pleasure from that.

(NeTzIV, Harhev Davar, Bereishit 27: 9, note 1)

 

Midrashei Tzafon

From the pen of our member, Ronen Ahituv

And Isaac loved Esau (25:28)

Three people loved the field: Cain, Esau, and Isaac.

Cain, for it is said: worker of the land. Esau, for it is said: man of the field. Isaac, for it is said: and Isaac planted seeds, and he was told: dwell in the land.

That is why it is written: and Isaac loved Esau.

Another explanation: Why and Isaac loved Esau? Because and Rebecca loved Jacob.

He knew she had been told and your seed shall conquer the gates of its enemies and she had been told, and one nation will be stronger than the other.

He said: "If I choose Jacob, as she has, Esau will be his enemy and I will be bereft of my son Esau."

Therefore it says: and Isaac loved Esau.

 

 

 

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