“All the wells that his father’s servants had dug in his father Abraham’s lifetime, the Philistines had blocked and filled them with earth.”
Digging Wells
The zenith of Isaac’s Divine service (Avodat HaShem) was digging wells, which are viewed as a symbol for all “elevation of feminine waters” (הַעֲלָאַת מַיִם נוּקְבִין), the excitement and awakening from below that accompanies all Divine service. Neither Abraham nor Jacob reached this level of devotion in their Divine service.
The sages link five central idioms in the Bible with five redemptions. Each of the idioms stresses one of the five final letters in Hebrew, mem-nun-tzaddik-pei-chaf (מנצפך). One of these redemptions is Isaac’s and the idiom expressing it is, “we have found water” (מָצָאנוּ מַיִם), serving as another illustration of the centrality of digging wells in Isaac’s life.
Redigging Abraham’s Wells
Isaac’s first task is to re-open the wells dug by his father Abraham, but which the Philistines had blocked up. Abraham had indeed dug wells, but these did not last, because apparently it was not his essential Divine service in life. But for Isaac, digging wells is an essential component of his being and so he re-digs his father’s wells and rededicates them with the names Abraham had given them originally. Later he continues to dig his own new wells.
Every Patriarch Initiates a New Direction
Rebbe Simchah Bunim of Peshischa explains that the reason we call Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob “patriarchs” (and no one else may be given this title). A “patriarch” or father is someone who initiates a new path, a new way in serving God, a path that was unknown and was not yet traveled.
It goes without saying that Abraham initiated a new path. He was on one side and the entire world on the other. He believed in one God, he serves Him, and publicizes His Name. He was the first to circumcise.
But Isaac is also a patriarch and he initiated a new path too.
When does a new path truly work and change reality? When does God profess to love a new path that one has paved through one’s actions in life? This happens when the new path has “inner life” (חַיּוּת פְּנִימִי).
What is “life” in this context? About the Torah and its commandments, the verse says, “And he shall live in them.” The way of Torah should not cause one to “die” as it were. When a person performs God’s commandments he should merit life, both in this world and in the next. But the interpretation given to this description in Chasidut is that when performing a mitzvah, a commandment, one should feel alive. One should perform it with life.
Because “inner” (פְּנִימִי) in Hebrew is cognate with “face” (פָּנִים), to have inner life means to feel that I am standing face to face with God. Feeling that fills me with inner life. If I cannot imagine myself standing face to face with God while performing a mitzvah, I will not feel alive and my mitzvah might be, in a sense, lifeless. Lifeless mitzvot do not rise.
When a mitzvah is alive, it is performed with feelings of love and fear of God. Incredibly, the value of “inner life” (חַיּוּת פְּנִימִי) is the same as “wisdom-understanding-knowledge” (חָכְמָה בִּינָה דַּעַת), whose initials are the well-known acronym of Chabad. The path of Chabad is to bring inner life down from the mind to the heart. This is not commonly known.
Unfortunately, since we are still in exile, we continue to perform mitzvot outwardly, without inner life. We will return to perform the mitzvot with life when the Third Temple is constructed. If only we could perform the mitzvot with real inner life, then we would be on Isaac’s path and already experiencing the Redemption.
Imitation
There is a beautiful explanation given to what it means that the Philistines blocked up the wells that Abraham had dug. The Philistines realized that Abraham was very successful, physically, and even to their coarse sensitivity, spiritually. They decided that following his passing, they would follow the path of Divine service he had paved so that they too would be successful. But all they were able to do was to emptily imitate his actions.
This reminds us of the very important teaching from the Ba’al Shem Tov on “Many attempted to emulate Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai but fell short.” Why? Because they imitated him. You cannot imitate a tzaddik. You must learn from him, but do not imitate him thinking that you can act as he does. People say, “I saw the Rebbe do this, I can do the same.” The imitation has nothing of the inner life that the Rebbe had. The Rebbe did it with life, you do it lifelessly and the act has nothing of the same effects.
This is described as blocking the wells, because a well is a symbol of feminine waters, an awakening from below that causes an awakening from Above. But lifeless service is like a blocked well—it achieves nothing.
Renewing Abraham’s Path
Before leaving the Philistines land, Isaac honors his father by unblocking his wells, i.e., renewing his path of Divine service. Isaac introduces life back into his father’s path. He shows that the old path is not irrelevant. It does not belong to the old generation. The path of the previous Rebbe is still very relevant and can be renewed.
Before he moves on to pave his own, new path as a patriarch, he re-digs his father’s wells.
Three Wells and Three Stages in Paving a New Path
When someone initiates a new path in life, he cannot be certain that he will succeed. How can I possibly start something new that is not the same as what my father did, what my rebbe did—the rebbe of the previous generation?
If one is not debating this internally, not asking these questions inside, then for sure he is not on the right path. This is the meaning of the name Isaac gave the first well he dug, Essek, which literally means “struggle.” It indicates an internal struggle about whether the new direction he is taking is right.
Then he moves on and digs another well. Now he is already certain that God finds his path favorable. Every person should seek to find favor in God’s eyes and give him nachas. To do so, I must seek to serve God in the way that belongs to my soul-root, even if it is not the same as my father’s.
Once a person is determined and unequivocal in his choice, that is when he begins to experience opposition from the outside. That is when those truly opposed begin to attack him. For this reason, Isaac named the second well Sitnah, which literally means hatred.
The solution is to move away, “He moved on from there and dug another well.” The word for “moved on” (וַיַּעְתֵּק) is cognate with the highest level of the crown, Atik, which is the experience of pleasure. When you reach the highest level of your superconscious faculty of crown, all becomes pleasure. It is then that you can dig a new well and you feel that “now God has granted us ample space and we shall flourish.” Which is why Isaac named the third well Rechovot, which means “ample space.”
To end with a gematria, the value of “new path” (דֶּרֶךְ חֲדָשָׁה) is the same as “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל). The sages state that each of the patriarchs is referred to as “Israel,” and each of the patriarchs paved a new path.
(Excerpted from a class given on the 27th of Cheshvan 5783)
