Abraham got the dramatic call to leave home. Jacob wrestled angels. Isaac got plumbing problems. In Parshat Toldot, his signature achievement is digging wells. Yet those wells may say more about Jewish life in America today than anything else in Genesis.
The Torah reports: “Isaac dug anew the wells which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham’s death; and he gave them the same names that his father had given them.” (Genesis 26:))
Why Fill A Well?
Stopping up water in the desert hurts everyone, including the people holding the shovels, and especially after a famine! But these wells were more than water. They proved Abraham had been there, had prospered, and belonged. Fill the wells, and you erase the evidence. Jews were here, and now they are not.
The Torah supplies the motive a few verses earlier: “the Philistines envied him.” (Genesis 26:14) Isaac’s wells are not stopped up because he failed. They are stopped up because he succeeded.
After a famine, Isaac moves to reopen his father’s wells and restore their original names. Our history, he insists, will not be buried.
It isn’t enough. His servants dig a new well, and the local herdsmen claim it. Isaac names it Esek, contention. His servants dig another, and another fight breaks out. Issac calls it Sitnah, hostility. He moves further on to find a well no one contests. Isaac names it Rehovot, spaciousness: “For now the Eternal has granted us ample space.” (Genesis 26:22)
Contention. Hostility. And then room to breathe.
Sound familiar? For generations, we overcame contention and hostility. Jews scrambled to earn a living, open businesses, break through the quotas at universities, buy homes without restrictive covenants, and build Jewish institutions. But American Jews didn’t stop there. We helped dig the wells of a pluralistic society so that justice might flow. We marched for civil rights, welcomed immigrants, and defended religious freedom for everyone. We thought we had shelter among allies in liberal America.
Here We Go Again
And here we are, once again, defending wells and not allowing Jews to be erased.
White nationalists on the right have been throwing stones for a long time. What unsettles us lately is finding stone throwers in progressive spaces where we expected solidarity. Now, Jewish belonging is conditional. You’re not sure you are welcome, even if you disavow Israel, renounce Zionism, or practice a Judaism others find politically acceptable. Just ask newly elected Congressman and anti-Zionist, Brad Lander, whose liberal bona fides didn’t save him from a jeering crowd.
Or just ask Philly Bike on Your Left, the organizers of a mobile bike rally scheduled for Philadelphia on November 8 targeting and calling for the boycott and removal of Jewish and Israeli-owned businesses under the slogan “No business for Zionists”. They call us “disgusting humans.” On the eve of Kristallnacht, some progressive groups are trying to stop up the wells.
As Jewish institutions become targets of intimidation, and Jewish peoplehood alone is treated as illegitimate, we have left policy debate and wandered into unsafe territory.
The debate over Israel has become badly tangled with plain old Jew-hatred. Not so sure? Read Dara Horn’s book if you haven’t already – “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Story for the Living.”
This also poses a challenge for Jews when certain politicians who represent us abide antisemitism among supporters, whether Hasan Piker on the left or Candace Owens on the right. A leader’s job is not only to condemn violence after it happens. It is to denounce when his own supporters’ language makes hostility toward Jews sound reasonable.
Be Like Isaac – Keep Digging Wells
Isaac does not rename Abraham’s wells to make them more palatable. Nor does he turn every provocation into a forever war. He holds onto his inheritance, keeps his dignity, and keeps digging.
That is our task, too. Keep our commitment to justice, our friendships across every line, and our freedom to express our Jewish peoplehood however we choose. But stop pretending that every movement speaking the language of justice is just toward Jews.
Reopen the wells of Jewish history, peoplehood, and dignity. Then let our neighbors, left and right, decide whether they will help keep the water flowing or show up with stones.
The question for America is whether we can reach the third well of spaciousness, not by asking Jews to be less Jewish, but by making room for Jews to be fully themselves.
Rabbi Evan J. Krame
If this reflection resonates with you, consider sharing it on social media—or simply take a moment to reflect on how you can create a better community.
