SERMON Parashat Tol’dot - November 13, 2026 | 4 Kislev 5787
Rabbi David Edleson | Temple Sinai | S. Burlington, Vt
DIGGING WELLS OF SPIRIT
Isaac sowed in that land and reaped a hundredfold the same year. GOD blessed him, and the man grew richer and richer until he was very wealthy: he acquired flocks and herds, and a large household, so that the Philistines envied him. And the Philistines stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, filling them with earth.
And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you have become far too big for us.”
So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the wadi of Gerar, where he settled. Isaac dug anew the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and that the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham’s death; and he gave them the same names that his father had given them. (Gen 26:12-18)
This week’s Torah portion has the first installment of what is the longest narratives in the Torah: The story of Jacob and Esau, including Jacob marrying Leah, then Rachel, arguing with his father-in-law Laban, and then fighting with an angel who changes his name to Yisrael – one who wrestles with God and people.
But there is a less well-known story nestled in there about Isaac redigging the wells Abraham had dug, which the Philistines in their jealousy of Isaac had filled with dirt.
In a land where water is more precious than oil, and where wells were the only way to survive, and villages clustered around them, the idea of filling in a well is among the most despicable acts of hate imaginable. It is an act of war.
But Isaac faces these acts of hate not with war, but by doggedly digging them back out so that water was again available.
It is not the heroics of Abraham; Isaac is more low key but not less clear in his messaging: “You will not get rid of us so easily. I am here to stay.” He may be quiet, but he will not be bullied.
That message is enough, but I think there is another spiritual level to this narrative. Wells are sources and symbols of spiritual life and power. This is true in many cultures, and we see it throughout the Torah, nowhere more than here. Abraham had dug many wells here and they flowed with his spiritual force, but the Philistines and their resentment and hate had dried up these wells. Isaac didn’t have access to the spiritual reservoirs his father had left for him. His spiritual wells had gone dry and so it was up to him to excavate them, to dig deeply, and to find in these ancient wells, a new flow of water that could nourish his spirit.
In all our lives, we must from time-to-time redig our inner wells to gain access to the spiritual and the holy. Our day-to-day lives, the stuff of living, the Philistine needs of survival fill our spiritual wells with earth and we have to give them attention, work on them in order to renew them and let water again fill them so that we may drink. That is the human spiritual condition.
As Jews, we have to renew ancient wells to find our way to water. This is a blessing and a challenge. Our wells were first dug and named in the ancient mythic past, but now we, like Isaac, must excavate them for new insights and meanings if we want waters to flow again, if we want to access the spiritual flow that sustained generations of our people. That is the work of living a Jewish spiritual life; like Isaac, we all must dig anew the wells that our ancestors dug for us.
There is one more powerful lesson in this small story from our portion. When Isaac, leaving the Philistine territory makes it back to Beer Sheva, where Abraham had lived, Isaac tells his people to start digging a brand new well.
As they are digging, the Philistine king, seeing how much Isaac is prospering, comes to him and asks to make a peace agreement. Skeptical at first, Isaac agrees and just as they finished feasting to celebrate the new peace, Isaac’s people run up shouting,
“ . מָצָ֥אנוּ מָֽיִם׃ We have found water!”
The story seems to tell us that peace, one that is not romantic but practical and based on an understanding of mutual needs, is what allows for new water to flow, new springs to appear, and a new spirit to flow in us and among us.
Shabbat Shalom.
