Jacob’s Wells, And The “Philistines” Who Try To Plug Them

One of Isaac’s primary occupations, we learn in parshas Toldos, was excavation. He dug wells. The parsha tells us of several of the wells – Esek, Sitnah, Rechovos – that Isaac and his servants dug and then redug. On the simple level, Isaac was prospecting for water, an extremely valuable commodity at the time. But on a deeper level, the Sages teach that Isaac was mining a more mystic resource. Well-digging represents the lifelong project of clearing away the thick and heavy strata of earthly concealment in order to uncover the spiritual depths that are hidden beneath and within.

In this sense, we are all here to dig wells, and as it was with Isaac, the antagonistic forces around us are perpetually trying to plug and cover the reservoirs that we have already exposed. “Isaac redug the water wells that had been dug in the lifetime of Abraham his father which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died” Genesis 26:18). Why are these “Philistines,” both then and now, so committed to covering the springs that we have worked so hard to unearth? Why are there those who are hell bent on denying and belying the fact that there are deep stores of Godly light within each of us?

The sad but obvious fact is that there are many who desire to hoard power and resources for themselves and to deny them to others. If it became known that there is an infinite and endless store of energy and abundance within each and every one of us, then their ability to control and exploit the populace would be severely compromised. They therefore do everything in their power to delude the masses into believing that they are limited and only skin-deep. The more they can distract and seduce people and thereby focus them on their superficial material passions and interests, the greater is their capacity to manipulate and control.

Furthermore, the wells that flow within us reveal a powerful secret – that though we appear different and divergent on the surface, the essence underneath our crust is identical. This singular Godly energy unifies us, and this unity obliterate the lie that we are natural enemies and that some of us are inferior to others. Isaac, and we his descendants, were sent into this world in order to clear away the layers that delimit and divide us. We are excavators, and to be a “light unto the nations,” we must uncover the unitive light that is buried within all of peoples of the earth.

— Pnei Hashem is an introduction to the deepest depths of the human experience based on the esoteric teachings of Torah.  www.pneihashem.com