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££Digging Wells and as a result he is forced to pick up the gauntlet and adopt cunning
£Digging WellsDigging Wells
strategies in return.
The idea that the righteous must sometimes adopt their opponents’
strategies in order to defeat them is alluded to by the numerical
After Abraham passes away, the Torah recounts that the Philistines
filled all the wells he had dug with earth (Genesis 26:15). The Talmud value of two archetypal rivals’ names: Nachash (the Hebrew name
teaches that whenever water is mentioned in the Torah it is a remez, for the primordial snake of the Garden of Eden) and Mashiach, both
an allusion, to Torah itself (Bava Kamma 17a). Just as organic life equaling 358. The Mashiach, we are told, must descend to the very
cannot grow or even continue to exist without water, so too we lowest realms of reality in order to uplift all the sparks that have
cannot develop or truly live without Torah. Abraham’s wells were fallen so low. The snake, Esau, and Laban all drew their energy and
not merely full of actual water, they represented the new teachings power from the lowest levels of slyness and deceit and could only
about God and the nature of reality he had discovered and shared be defeated by someone who could nullify their source of power by
with the world. matching their cunning.
In the act of digging wells, Abraham symbolically delved below Although ideally darkness can and should be overcome indirectly
the surface, seeking more than a superficial view of reality. Such by the righteous creating and emanating light, unfortunately this is
digging enabled him to reveal new sources of understanding and not always possible. Sometimes the righteous must lower themselves
inspiration. Just as excavating a well is hard physical labor, so too to their adversaries’ degenerate levels. Sometimes evil can only be
spiritual advancement requires assertive action and hard work. The defeated by confronting it forcefully and utterly defeating it. History
revolutionary teachings promulgated by Abraham are consequently is regrettably full of examples of evil forces that had to be met head-on
symbolized by his digging wells and discovering water. and defeated, usually at great cost. Considering what happens when
evil goes unchecked, this price was, and still is, well worth paying.
After Abraham’s death, Isaac began to re-dig these wells. This
symbolizes his determination to continue in his father’s footsteps, As mentioned above, the sheep’s description as ringed, speckled,
ensuring that Abraham’s teachings took firm root in this world. and checkered – akudim, nekudim, berudim – also allude to the
Indeed, without Isaac’s labor, Judaism would have ended before it deeper spiritual levels underlying Jacob’s actions. The Kabbalah
had really begun. The Philistines filling in the wells thus represents later adopted the descriptive names of this breeding process to
the inevitable opposition to holiness. explain the process through which the world was transformed from a
chaotic one to the present stage of reality, referred to as the World of
This story contains an important message for every individual. Rectification. According to sod, the mystical interpretive tradition,
Everybody has certain “wells” inside of them. These wells are the transformation Laban’s flocks undergo – becoming to a large
influenced both negatively and positively by nurture and nature extent Jacob’s flocks – represents the spiritual maturation and
– the way their parents raised them, the way society influenced evolution of creation itself.
or indoctrinated them, and their genetic code. However, these
behavioral influences and inherited factors can be overcome. Every This narrative provides one more example of “the actions of the
individual has the ability to dig his or her own wells, to discover new fathers are a sign to the children” (Sotah 34a): Jacob paves the way to
and uncharted sources of water, like Abraham did and, as we will see the world’s rectification and teaches his descendants how to perform
below, Isaac did after him. this task. The narrative also further illustrates the patriarchs’
role as the chariot on which Divine reality “rides,” through which
spirituality is drawn into the material world.
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