Two eras and one thing in common

He owned flocks and herds and many enterprises, and the Philistines envied him. [Genesis 26:11]

Often, sons want to be like their fathers and sometimes they are. Issac was not.

Abraham’s life was marked by love and courage. He was a leader. Issac’s life was plagued by fear — foremost fear of G-d but at times fear of man. Some who dealt with Abraham sensed the fear in his son and saw an opportunity.

So, as we are told in the weekly Torah portion Toldot, when Issac settled in Gerar, Avimelech, the king of the Philistines, made a beeline for his wife Rebecca. As with Abraham, G-d intervened and Avimelech soon sent Rebecca packing with all the riches imaginable. Avimelech even offered Issac to stay in Gerar and make a life for his family.

But Issac’s success proved to be the bane of Avimelech and especially his subjects. The patriarch was far richer than everybody else, possibly even the king himself. Friendship turned to enmity and Issac was asked to leave. Worse, the Philistines took that as a signal that the son of Abraham was fair game.

The shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s shepherds, saying, “Since we use this land to pasture our flocks, the water is ours.” And he named the well Esek [“contention”], because they had contended with him. [Genesis 26:20]

The war over water would set a template for the rest of Jewish history. Sixty years ago, Syria fired on Israeli water facilities along the Sea of Galilee. This was a resumption of hostilities that began as early as 1953 when Israel began using the waters of the sea. When the Syrians and their Arab allies realized that Israel was not going to back down, they decided to divert the waters of the Yarmouk that fed the sea.

By 1965, the Arabs, particularly the Syrians, brought their army as well as massive earth-moving equipment to divert at least 35 percent of the waters flowing to the Sea of Galilee. Despite international, including American, pressure, Israel systematically destroyed all threats to its water resources. In July 1966, the Israel Air Force was called in and wiped out the Arab assets needed for their project. Less than a year came the Six Day War.

Issac also refused to back down. He kept digging wells until the Philistines gave up and ended their campaign. Soon after, Avimelech and his war minister, Pichol, visited the patriarch in Beersheba. Issac was stunned:

“Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and therefore sent me away from you?”  [Genesis 26:27]

Avimelech did not deny this. The Philistine monarch made it clear why he had left his palace to meet with a Jewish deportee.

“We have seen that G-d has been with you, so we said: Let the solemn oath made between us [and your father now continue to be in force] between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you.” [Genesis 26:28]

In other words, Avimelech feared Issac knowing that he had violated his friendship pact with Abraham. The Philistines demanded that Issac, blessed by G-d, not take revenge — or in Avimelech and Pichol’s words “you will do us no evil.”

The world is always watching the Jew and asking, “Is he blessed?” If the answer is yes, then the nations conceal their enmity and seek to soak some of that blessing. If the world believes that the Jew is not blessed, the attacks begin.

All the while, the gentile rulers seek to demoralize the Jews with promises of freedom and even sovereignty. The Midrash in our weekly Torah portion tells of a decree by Rome to rebuild the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The Jews were ecstatic and the rich donated huge amounts of gold and silver while those in the Diaspora returned to the Land of Israel. This was anathema to the Roman-backed Christians and others who saw such a project as the revival of the Jewish nation. They sent a delegation to Rome warning that the temple would lead to a revolt.

Like Avimelech, Rome could not withdraw its offer. Instead, the rulers demanded major changes in the temple that would not confirm with Jewish law. The Roman demands left the Jews in tears and anger, and in the Galilee, there was a danger of revolt. The sages called on Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Hananiah, an elder in the Sanhedrin and a frequent visitor to Rome.

Rabbi Yehoshua did not mince words. He asserted that the temple could be built with major changes. The practice of bringing sacrifices could be renewed; the priests could be returned. But he warned against confronting Rome just years after the destruction of the Second Temple and Jerusalem. His parable was of a lion who had a bone stuck in his throat and promised that anybody who removed it would be rewarded. A stork came along and removed the bone and then asked for her reward. The lion looked at the stork with amusement and said, “Your reward is that you can tell that you entered the lion’s jaws and left safely.”

“This is how we are,” Rabbi Yehoshua continued. “It suffices that we entered this nation and left in peace. This is our reward.”

The Jews went home, many of them fuming. A few years later, the Romans renewed their oppression and outlawed Jewish observance Eventually, a revolt erupted in Betar south of Jerusalem. Perhaps thanks to Rabbi Yehoshua, the Galilee did not participate. Had they joined, the history of Israel might have been different.

The governments of Israel during the 1950s and 1960s had little in common with Issac. They waved the flag of secularism and fought Torah and rabbis. Yet, the State of Israel shared the same blessing as Issac, culminating in the miracle of the Six Day War.

What the mild-mannered Issac and the contentious Israeli leadership had in common was a determination that they would not surrender to the enemy. They would fight for water as a means of survival and national development. They would defy world opinion and threats of embargo to ensure that there was water for every house in Israel.

That took courage — and most of all G-d wants His people to be courageous.