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Orchard of Delights
truthfully and honestly. In this case Jacob proposed a mechanism by
which he would finally receive just payment for the years of Herculean
efforts he had dedicated to Laban. Laban not only accepted Jacob’s
conditions but was overjoyed because he thought he had again gotten
the better of Jacob.
Parenthetically, we should note that Laban also means “white,”
an allusion teaching us that evil individuals sometimes claim to be
the epitome of purity. Only those who are able to penetrate these
individuals’ façades of righteous indignation can see their rotten cores.
Bob Dylan, the Jewish songwriter and performer, wrote an entire song
about this entitled, “Sometimes Satan Comes as a Man of Peace.”
The Hebrew word for the second tree, “luz,” is pregnant with
meeting. Firstly, Jacob had his ladder dream in a place called Luz.
This strengthens our suspicion that Jacob’s clever breeding program
resulted from his ability to translate that dream into reality.
Secondly, luz is also the name of the bone situated at the top of the
spinal cord, from which, according to tradition, the body will be
resurrected in the Messianic era. This association suggests that the
word represents indestructible energy. Jacob harnessed this energy
in order to continually overcome his enemies. Thirdly, this word also
alludes to God’s promise in the dream that he would accompany
Jacob throughout all his struggles, for Jacob builds an altar in Luz
upon his return to the Land of Israel. He builds this altar only after
extricating himself from Laban’s clutches, defeating the angel in
the wrestling match, and successfully confronting Esau once more.
Jacob takes the luz tree and with it transforms the physical, infusing
it with spiritual import.
The Hebrew name for the last of the trees Jacob used was “armon,”
which shares the same root as the Hebrew words for “naked” or
“cunning.” These latter two words appear in the Garden of Eden
story: “They [Adam and Eve] were both naked, the man and his
wife, and they were not ashamed. And the snake was cunning, more
so than any beast of the field” (Genesis 2:25-3:1). Jacob was at heart
“a sincere man, a dweller in [the] tents [of Torah]”; he was naked of
ulterior motives and unashamed. Yet God purposely places him time
after time in situations where he must face cunning enemies and foes
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Toldot
God commanded Abraham to leave his land, his father’s house,
and his birthplace for this very reason. Only in a new land and
environment would he be free of all those deeply rooted influences
preventing him from culminating the unique spiritual work he had
begun. Accordingly, only after coming to Israel do we see Abraham
busying himself digging wells.
Just as the Philistines stopped up the wells, we too can choose to
ignore the treasures given us. Indeed, in some cases certain wells have
already been tainted by alien influences and are best left stopped up,
so that the influences holding us back from spiritual advancement
remain buried. However, in most cases, just as Abraham was told
to leave his land, his father’s house, and his birthplace and go to a
new land to achieve a new level of consciousness, so too are we all
commanded to dig our wells in a “new land.”
At times in our youth, we do in fact dig new wells, only to abandon
them or relinquish our proprietary rights out of laziness, boredom, or
doubt. Knowing which wells we are better off preserving and which
we are better off abandoning is one of life’s crucial skills, one which
greatly influences our lives.
The Amidah, Judaism’s quintessential prayer, begins with the
words: “Blessed are you God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac
and the God of Jacob.” Many commentators ask why the words “the
God of” are repeated three times, when the phrase could have simply
been rewritten as “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” One
answer given is that it was not enough for Isaac to unquestioningly
accept his father’s concept of God as his own; rather, he had to
contemplate and come to terms with God as “his” God. The same
applies to Jacob and all their descendants
Indeed, as we read in this Torah portion, Isaac not only re-dug
Abraham’s wells, but also excavated new ones. Some wells he gave
the same names his father had, while others he gave new names.
Significantly, the last of the wells he named Beer Sheva, choosing
the same name as Abraham, but for his own reasons. Isaac’s digging
new wells was in a sense the clearest indication that he had chosen to
follow in his father’s footsteps, for Abraham was the classic model of
an innovator and path forger.
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