Parshat Toldot: The Symbolic Destruction of Avraham's Wells

In this week's parsha we learn that Yitzchak amassed a great amount of wealth. The Torah tells us (Breishit 26:12-14) that Yitzchak settled in Gerar, the Philistine capital, sowed in the land and reaped one hundred times what he had sown, for God had blessed him. Not only was he a prolific farmer, but he also acquired flocks, herds and real estate as well. His wealth, however, came at a price; the Plishtim grew jealous of him and stopped up the wells that his father's servants had dug. The Torah says that they went even further than simply stopping up his wells (26:15),

וכל הבארות אשר חפרו עבדי אביו בימי אברהם אביו סתמום פלשתים וימלאום עפר
All the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Avraham his father, the Philistines stopped up, and filled them with earth.

One could understand that the jealous Plishtim would cover up the wells that belonged to Yitzchak's family, but to fill them with dirt was an even more demonstrative act. But why did they do this? As Nechama Leibowitz writes,

מה הדבר הזה? הרי מונעים הם טוב מעצמם, הרי כורתים הם אוכל מפיהם ומפי בהמתם. ולא רק “סתמום” אלא גם “וימלאום עפר” - שלא ימצאום שוב, שלא תהא באר במקום הזה, שלא יפכו כאן מים חיים. למה
What was this? They withheld good from themselves, they are removing food from their mouths and from the mouths of their animals. They did not only stop them up, but they also filled them with earth so that they could never be found again, so that there would never be a well in that place, so there would not be water in that spot. Why?

It would be one thing to prevent Yitzchak from using the wells or to block them off, but why did they destroy them? Surely they also drank from those wells!
In answering this question,Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg (1785-1865) in his work Ha'ketav V'Hakabbalah, writes,

ויקרא להן שמות כשמות אשר קרא להן אביו: ויתכן דקריאת שמות לבארות היה דומה לשאר קריאת שמות שהיו לזכרון חסדי ה' ופעולותיו, כעניין ויקרא אברהם שם המקום ההוא "ה' יראה", "ה' נסי", על כן קרא לבאר "באר לחי ראי", כן עשה אברהם בבארות אשר חפר שקרא את שמם בשם ה'... לפי שהייתה מידתו של אברהם ללמד לרבים דעת את ה' ולהורות להם שאין ממשות באלילים, המציא תחבולה נפלאה להכניס על ידה את המוטעים אל תחת כנפי השכינה... קרא שם הבאר בשם אשר יורה על אמיתת מציאות ה', בזה הרגיל בפי הבריות הבאים לשאוב מים מבארו, באמרם נלכה נא לשאוב מים מבאר ה' אל עולם, שנתעוררו על דעתם המשובשת ויתנו לבם אל השגה אמתית; לפי שהבארות הם צרכי רבים וכל המון עם הורגלו בזה לדעת ידיעות אמתיות ולהכיר את ה' יתברך... ודבר גדול עשה אברהם אהוב ה', שהיה כעבד הנאמן למלך המשתדל להביא אנשים שברחו להם ממדינתו מפני מרדם בו, והוא ידבר אל לבם מטוב הנהגת המלך עד שיתנו שכמם תחת עולו. ככה עשה אברהם להטות לבב מכחישי אל אל ה'. ובעודנו חי והיה נשיא אלוקים בתוכם, היה מוראו עליהם והניחו הבארות ושמותן עליהם. אמנם אחרי מותו חזרו לגילוליהם וכדי לבטל מפי הבריות שמות הבארות האלה, לפי שהיו כולם מורים הפך דעתם המשובשת, לכן סתמו הבארות ובהתבטל הבאר, נתבטל שמה. ובא הכתוב להודיע, כי יצחק אחז במעשי אברהם והתאמץ לחפור אותן הבארות ולהחזיר שמותן, כדי להחזיר עטרת אמונה אמתית למקומה
'And he called their names after the names by which his father had called them' - it is conceivable that Isaac's naming of the wells bore affinity to other expressions of calling names - to mark the kindnesses of the Lord such as where it is stated that Abraham called the name of that place: 'the Lord will see,' 'the Lord is my sign,' 'the well of him that lives and sees me.' Abraham did the same thing with regard to the wells which he dug, calling them by the name of the Lord. Since it was his preoccupation to spread abroad the knowledge of the Lord and show the people that idols were valueless, Abraham thought out a wonderful device to help to bring those who were misled under the wings of the Divine Presence. He called the well by a name that would drive home the lesson of the true existence of the one God. By this he would arouse in them an awareness of the truth by saying, Let us go and draw water from the well of theeternal God! The ells were a public necessity, and in this manner, the people were initiated into a knowledge of the true God. Like the faithful servant of a king who tries to persuade rebellious subjects who had fled, to return to their country, so Abraham strove to turn the hearts of those who denied God. While he was alive - as the prince of God among them, his fear was upon them, and they left the wells intact with their names, but after his death, they reverted to idolatry and in order toerase from their memory the names of these wells, which recalled the very opposite of their false opinions, they stopped up the wells. With the disappearance of the well, the name also disappeared. The Torah then comes to inform us that Isaac followed in his father's footsteps and endeavored to dig out these same wells and resurrect their names in order to restore the crown of the true faith to its former glory.

According to Rabbi Mecklenburg, the Plishtim realized full well (no pun intended) that stopping up the wells would eliminate a valuable source of water, but the ends justified the means. They were not just destroying the wells, they were destroying what they stood for - monotheism and the religion of Avraham and Yitzchak.