‘The Tortoise and the Hare’: Toledot 5786
“The Tortoise and the Hare” is one of the most well-known of Aesop’s fables. It is a timeless tale of arrogance versus endurance: the cocky Hare, all speed and swagger, mocks the plodding Tortoise and bolts ahead, only to nap mid-race in overconfidence, while the humble Tortoise keeps marching – slow, steady, relentless – crossing the finish line first. It is a lesson in human nature: talent gets you far, but ego buries you; flash fails when resilience prevails. Be the Tortoise and remember that the race belongs not to the swift, but to those who never stop.
I am not a fan of this particular fable, never have been. Perhaps it is because I am more Hare than Tortoise, other than the stopping-in-the-middle part. That said, one episode in the Portion of Toledot makes a compelling case for the Tortoise.
A famine forces Isaac and Rebecca to move to Gerar, a Philistine town identified as Tel Haror, near modern-day Netivot. Isaac introduces Rebecca to the locals as his sister and she is kidnapped by King Abimelech. Abimelech discovers that she is Isaac’s wife and he returns her with great contrition and consternation. He commands his citizens [Bereishit 26:9]: “Anyone who touches this man or his wife shall be put to death.” Isaac prospers in Gerar and becomes extremely wealthy. In response, the Philistines stop up wells that were dug by Abraham and then summarily evict Isaac from Gerar, telling him [Bereishit 26:13]: “Go away from us, for you have become far too big for us!”
They do what to the wells? Fresh water is a rare commodity in the Middle East. Over the years, countless wars have been fought over local water rights. Rabbi Nir Weinberg, the Rabbi of Moshav Hazorim, proposes that Amalek attacked the Jewish People immediately after the crossing of the Reed Sea because they claimed the water that came from the rock that Moshe struck. In 1964, Syria attempted to divert the headwaters of the Jordan River (the Hasbani and Banias rivers) into the Yarmouk River, impacting Israel’s water supply. Israel viewed this as a major strategic threat, leading to escalating tensions and skirmishes along the border, and serving as a key precursor to the Six-Day War. Iran’s current drought is emboldening thirsty Iranians to vocally come out against the rule of the Mullahs, threatening the regime. Why in the world would the Philistines stop up the wells instead of appropriating them for their own flocks[1]?
The Radak[2] suggests that the Philistines were afraid that Isaac would someday become as powerful a figure as his father, Abraham, and he would eventually take back the wells. They reasoned that the only way to deny him these wells was by also denying them to themselves. Therefore, they closed them up so that no one would be able to locate them. I would like to propose an alternate solution, one which, while no less nefarious than that of the Radak, is more cerebral than visceral. The Torah describes Isaac’s financial success with the following words [Bereishit 26:13]: “The man became great, and he grew constantly greater (haloch v’gadel) until he had grown very great.” With all due respect, this sounds like something a toddler might say: “Mommy, I saw a big dog!”. “Well how big was it?” “It was really, really, really big!”. Was it a metre tall? Two metres? Ten metres? Who knows? Who cares? It was just really big. Why does the Torah use such fuzzy descriptors?
I suggest that more important than how great Isaac had become was the way – the vector – in which he had grown “constantly greater”. Rabbi Baruch Halevi Epstein[3], writing in “Tosefet Bracha”, quotes a verse in Parables [20:21] that states “An estate acquired in haste will not be blessed in the end”, meaning that windfalls are usually squandered. Rabbi Epstein suggests that Isaac implemented this strategy and grew his wealth gradually. Rabbi Epstein offers a number of prooftexts, the most compelling of which is the description of Mordechai in the book of Esther [9:2]: “The man, Mordechai, became progressively great (holech v’gadol)”. King Achashverosh handed Mordechai his ring. With this ring, Mordechai could have had anything his heart desired. Rabbi Epstein asserts that Mordechai resisted this urge and planned his political rise to proceed gradually, so that it would last[4].
People like to believe that life comes with a shortcut key. Just press “Win Lottery,” and everything instantly reorganizes itself into a beautifully optimized configuration. No more mortgage, no more bills, no more budgeting. Just bliss, a Tesla Cyerbertruck, and maybe a villa on a sun-kissed Greek Island. But real life, as every engineer knows, rarely behaves according to the glossy brochure. Systems exposed to sudden loads – mechanical, electrical, or emotional – tend to fail in non-linear, often catastrophic, ways. Pull too hard on a cable all at once and it snaps. Hit a circuit with a voltage spike and it smokes. Wealth works on the same principles. Slow, steady accumulation integrates naturally into a person’s life. A sudden windfall often detonates.
The empirical data make this painfully clear. In a detailed study, researchers linked lottery payouts to public bankruptcy filings. The finding was astonishing in its simplicity: about 5.5% of winners filed for bankruptcy within five years. Even more striking, that number was virtually identical to the bankruptcy rate of people who didn’t win at all. The windfall didn’t eliminate financial instability; it merely postponed it. In the first two years after winning, bankruptcy risk drops – winners pay off debts, breathe easier. But by years three to five, the rate climbs significantly, often overshooting the baseline. The underlying structural issues simply find their way back once the temporary pressure release fades. Gradual wealth builders operate under completely different laws of physics. They learn financial discipline long before the dollars become large enough to cause real damage: budgeting, investing, risk management, and, perhaps the most difficult human skill, saying “no.” These behaviours keep the system stable as more income flows through it. They build not just wealth, but the capacity to retain wealth. Sudden winners, by contrast, often face psychological overload. There is even a term for this: “Sudden Wealth Syndrome”, which describes the stress, impulsivity, and decision fatigue that accompany an abrupt financial spike. People imagine that more money reduces complexity while in practice it increases the number of available (and risky) choices. Without the habits to navigate them, the system destabilizes.
The Philistines recognize exactly what Isaac was doing: He is slowly building himself up in a way that would make him resilient to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. The Philistines panic and they steal his water sources. Isaac is unfazed. He has a diversified portfolio [Bereishit 26:11]: “He acquired flocks and herds, and a large household”. More importantly, his assets are mobile. When the Philistines take his water, he relocates and digs new wells. King Abimelech, impressed by Isaac’s staying power, travels to Isaac and signs a treaty of non-belligerence, vindicating Isaac’s strategy.
Greatness is not a lottery ticket; it is a path. The Torah’s language is not childish repetition but engineering precision: growth is a continuous function, not a step input. Systems that ramp slowly remain stable; those hit with a spike collapse. In a world obsessed with shortcuts, Isaac reminds us that resilience is built incrementally: one well, one flock, one decision at a time. The Philistines saw a threat; Abimelech saw a truth: enduring strength comes from process, not event. Be the tortoise. Build slowly. And when the famine comes, you will endure.
Ari Sacher, Moreshet, 5786
Please daven for a Refu’a Shelema for Rachel bat Malka, Iris bat Chana, Shlomo ben Esther, Sheindel Devora bat Rina, Esther Sharon bat Chana Raizel, Meir ben Drora, and Hodayah Emunah bat Shoshana Rachel.
[1] Perhaps we have become so inured to antisemitism that cutting off one’s antisemitic nose to spite one’s antisemitic face no longer seems odd to us. How sad.
[2] Rabbi David Kimchi, known by his acronym “Radak”, lived in Provence at the turn of the 13th century.
[3] Rabbi Epstein, often called after his main commentary on the Torah, “Torah Temima”, lived in Belarus about 150 years ago. “Tosefet Bracha” was the go-to commentary of my Rebbe, Rabbi Silberrman.
[4] Ho many “Flash in the Pan” politicians have we seen come from nowhere, streak to the front, and then disappear? Jimmy Carter and Kamala Harris come to mind.
