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.

Parshat Toldot: Why Me? The Approaches of Different Commentators to Rivkah's Pain During Pregnancy

In the beginning of this week's parsha we learn of Yitzchak and Rivkah's struggles with infertility. This comes on the heels of last week's parsha when we learned the matchmaking of Eliezer when he found Rivkah in Avraham's hometown - it seemed like a perfect match. Suddenly, when it seemed like their would be a smooth transition from Avraham to Yitzchak and that the blessing Hashem bestowed on Avraham to have descendants that were as many as the stars in the sky and the dust of the earth would be carried out by Yitzchak and Rivkah, they ran into the same roadblock that had plagued Avraham and Sara.
Yitzchak and Rivkah's suffering lasted twenty years until finally she was able to conceive - only the trouble did not end there. The Torah tells us (Breishit 25:22),

ויתרצצו הבנים בקרבה ותאמר אם כן למה זה אנכי ותלך לדרוש את ה
And the children struggled within her, and she said, 'If [it be] so, why am I [like] this?' And she went to inquire of the Lord.

Rashi explains,

ויתרוצצו: על כרחך המקרא הזה אומר דורשני, שסתם מה היא רציצה זו וכתב אם כן למה זה אנכי. רבותינו דרשוהו לשון ריצה, כשהיתה עוברת על פתחי תורה של שם ועבר יעקב רץ ומפרכס לצאת, עוברת על פתחי עבודה זרה עשו מפרכס לצאת. דבר אחר מתרוצצים זה עם זה ומריבים בנחלת שני עולמות
Perforce, this verse calls for a Midrashic interpretation, for it does not explain what this struggling was all about, and [Scripture] wrote,'If it be so, why am I [like] this?' Our Rabbis (Gen. Rabbah 63:6) interpreted it [the word ויתרצצו] as an expression of running (רצה) . When she passed by the entrances of [the] Torah [academies] of Shem and Eber, Jacob would run and struggle to come out; when she passed the entrance of [a temple of] idolatry, Esau would run and struggle to come out. Another explanation: They were struggling with each other and quarreling about the inheritance of the two worlds

According to Rashi the struggling that went on inside Rivkah's womb was Yaakov and Esav trying to escape; Yaakov tried to escape when she passed by places of Torah and Esav tried to escape when she passed by places of idolatry.
Rashi explains further that when Rivkah asked, "why am I like this?" she meant,

ותאמר אם כן: גדול צער העבור
למה זה אנכי: מתאוה ומתפללת על הריון
ותלך לדרוש: לבית מדרשו של שם
לדרוש את ה': שיגיד לה מה תהא בסופה
If [it be] so: that the pain of pregnancy is so great
why am I [like] this?: [Why did I] desire and pray to conceive?
And she went to inquire: to the academy of Shem
to inquire of the Lord: that He should tell her what would happen to her in the end.

Accordingly the struggling that went on inside Rivkah's womb caused her great physical pain. The pain was so excruciating that she began to regret praying for a child in the first place. Confused and wondering what would be, she went to inquire of Hashem.
The Ibn Ezra takes a different approach than Rashi. He writes,

והיא שאלה לנשים שילדו אם ארע להם ככה, ותאמרנה לא. וטעם ותאמר אם כן הדבר והמנהג למה זה אנכי בהריון משונה
And she asked women who had given birth if they had experienced this (the excruciating pain), and they told her 'no.' When she said 'if so' she said 'if this is [not] the normal way, why do I deserve such a difficult pregnancy?'

Unlike Rashi, Ibn Ezra writes that when Rivkah proclaimed, 'why me?' she did not wonder this aloud to herself, but rather she asked friends of hers who had children if they had experienced the pain she was experiencing. When they responded that they had not, she went to ask Hashem why she deserved to have such a painful pregnancy.
Ramban, after dismissing the opinions of Rashi and Ibn Ezra offers a shocking approach. He writes,

והנכון בעיני כי אמרה אם כן - יהיה לי למה זה אנכי - בעולם, הלואי אינני, שאמות או שלא הייתי...
And what is correct in my opinion - when she said 'if so' - she meant, 'if this is what will happen to me, why am I in this world? It would better if I was not - better I should die or have never been born at all.

According to Ramban, the pain was so terrible that Rivkah said that she would have been better off dead or never born at all.
While the Ramban writes that Rivkah's struggles were emotional and psychological, the Kli Yakar, Rabbi Shlomo Efraim Luntschitz, writes that they were theological.

ויתרוצצו הבנים בקרבה וגו'. רציצה זו היה שבעוברה על פתח בית המדרש של שם ועבר יעקב מפרכס לצאת ועשו מעכב על ידו, ובעוברה על פתח עבודה זרה עשו מפרכס לצאת ויעקב מעכב על ידו, והיא סברה שאין הדבר כן אלא ולד אחד בבטנה ורוצה לצאת בין לפתחי בתי מדרשות בין לפתח עבודה זרה ואם כן חס ושלום שמא שתי רשויות יש, לפיכך אמרה למה זה אנכי כי כמוני כשאר נשים עובדי עבודה זרה ומה יתרון יש לי עליהם אם חס ושלום שתי רשויות יש, לפיכך ותלך לדרוש את ה' רצה לומר לדרוש אחר מציאות ה' ממש מהו:
And the boys struggled within her - this struggling took place because when she passed by the entrance to the Beit Midrash of Shem and Eber, Yaakov began to squirm in order to get out and Esav prevented him from doing so. When they passed by the entrances of idolatry Esav squirmed in order to get out and Yaakov prevented him from doing so. And she did not know what was really going on. She thought that there was only one child inside of her stomach and it wanted to get out when she passed by the entrances of both the Beit Midrash and the idolatrous temples and if so, God forbid, maybe there were two deites. Therefore she said, 'why am I like this?' - meaning I am like all of the other idol worshiping women, how am I any better than them if God forbid there are multiple deities? Therefore she went to inquire of Hashem - it means to say she went to inquire about the existence of God.

According to Rabbi Luntschitz, when Rivkah felt the intense kicking inside of her stomach she was unaware that there were two babies inside of her. Rivkah began to wonder if there was any significance to this strange behavior and she came to the conclusion that indeed there may be shtei reshuyot, more than one God, - there was the God of Abraham, but there were also other gods who possessed divine powers. Lamah Zeh Anochi, says the Kli Yakar, does not mean 'why me?', but rather 'how am I any different than anyone else?' Until now she had seen herself as the mother of God’s chosen people, but now she feared that there was more than one god and she was just like everyone else - she was not the wife of Yitzchak the father of a blessed people, but rather the wife of Yitzchak, a regular, run of the mill priest, who were at that time, a dime a dozen.
When Rivkah inquired of Hashem she was told that she had it all wrong; there was one God, but two babies inside of her stomach - one who would worship Hashem and the other who would be an idolater.
Given the Kli Yakar’s explanation, the most striking thing about Rivkah’s ordeal is what does not happen. God does not criticize her for having a crisis of faith, for asking questions. We therefore come to the conclusion that she did the right thing by asking such questions.
Rivkah’s pregnancy brought her to a religious crossroads, but because she was not afraid to question and God was not put off by her questioning, she was able to gain a greater appreciation of God, allowing her to be one of the mother’s of our people.

Parshat Toldot: A Striking Resemblance

Our parsha is filled with drama; Yitzchak and Rivkah struggle with infertility, Yaakov and Esav are born, Yitzchak and Rivkah play favorites with their children, Yaakov convinces Esav to sell him his birthright, famine forces Yitzchak to move his family to Gerar and Yaakov takes Esav's blessing forcing him to flee to Lavan to avoid his brother's wrath.
With the all of the excitement contained within the parsha, one could easily gloss over the first pasuk of the sedra and not notice an apparent redundancy. The pasuk states (Breishit 25:19),

ואלה תולדות יצחק בן אברהם אברהם הוליד את יצחק
And these are the offspring of Yitzchack son of Avraham, Avraham begot Yitzchak.

If Yitzchak is the son of Avraham, of course Avraham begot him; seemingly, the Torah could have done without the final clause of the pasuk!
The Ibn Ezra writes, in an explanation that is most likely the closest to peshat, the simplest understanding, of the pasuk,

ויש אומרים כי טעם הוליד גדל ורבה, כמו יולדו על ברכי יוסף (נ,כג), והעד שאמר וישלחם מעל יצחק בנו
And there are those who say that the meaning of 'begot' is 'raised', like 'they were raised on Yosef's knees'(Breishit 50:23), and the proof is that it says 'he sent them away from Yitzchak his son' (Breishit 25:6)

According to the Ibn Ezra, the first part of the pasuk informs us that Yitzchak was Avraham's son, while the second part tells us that not only was he his son, but he was also raised by him. This second clause is not redundant because Yitzchak is the only one of Avraham's children who was raised by Avraham. All of the others (Yishmael, Zimran, Yakshan, Medan, Midian, Yishbak and Shuach - see Breishit 25:2) were sent away; Yishamel was kicked out of the house with his mother at the urging of Sara and we are told explicitly (25:6) that the other children were sent away to lands in the east.
The following Midrash, quoted by Rashi, paints a completely different picture. Rashi writes,

אברהם הוליד את יצחק - על ידי שכתב הכתוב יצחק בן אברהם הוזקק לומר אברהם הוליד את יצחק, לפי שהיו ליצני הדור אומרים מאבימלך נתעברה שרה, שהרי כמה שנים שהתה עם אברהם ולא נתעברה הימנו, מה עשה הקב"ה, צר קלסתר פניו של יצחק דומה לאברהם, והעידו הכל אברהם הוליד את יצחק, וזהו שכתב כאן יצחק בן אברהם היה, שהרי עדות יש שאברהם הוליד את יצחק:
Since Scripture wrote: 'Yitzchak the son of Avraham,' it had to say: 'Avraham begot Yitzchak,' because the scorners of the generation were saying that Sara had conceived from Avimelech, for she had lived with Avraham for many years and had not conceived from him. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He shaped the features of Yitzchak’s face to resemble Avraham’s, and everyone attested that Avraham had begotten Yitzchak. This is the meaning of what is written here: 'Yitzchak, the son of Avraham,' because here is proof that 'Avraham begot Yitzchak.'

According to Rashi, Sara conceived not long after the incident with Avimelech (Breishit 20). People began to scoff and started rumors that Avimelech was the father of Yitzchak. They began to reason that Avraham and Sara had been married for years and had not been able to have children and after being abducted by Avimelech she suddenly had a child? It must not be Avraham's! In order to dispel this notion, Hashem caused Yitzchak's appearance to starkly resemble Avraham's so that no one could claim that Avimelech was his father.
Rabbi Shlomo Efraim Luntschitz (1550-1619) in his commentary the Kli Yakar has a different take on the Midrash. He writes,

וכדי שלא ימצא המערער מקום לחלוק, ולומר אם יצחק נולד כל כך בקדושה וטהרה א”כ למה יצא ממנו עשו שהיה צד נשים תחת בעליהן, ודאי מאבימלך נתעברה שרה ע”כ נמשך בן אחד אחר טבעה של שרה, והשני אחר טבע אבימלך, כי מטעם זה אמרו רז”ל (ב”מ פז.) שהיה צר קלסתר פניו דומה לאברהם.
In order that the scorner would not find room to argue and say that if Yitzchak was really born with holiness and purity, then how could Esav who hunted women from their husbands have come from him? It must be that Avimelech impregnated Sara. As a result one child (of Yitzchak's) had the nature of Sara and the second one had the nature of Avimelech. It is for this reason that our Rabbis of blessed memory said that Hashem shaped the features of his face to look like Avraham's.

The explanation of Rashi seems to be more rational than that of the Kli Yakar. Rashi intimates that people began to question who Yitzchak's father was around the time he was born and so Hashem quashed those rumors by making Yitzchak look like his father; presumably these changes took place as he matured - it is often hard to tell if babies look like their parents at a young age, but once they get older the resemblances become clearer. According to Rashi, Yitzchak began to resemble his father in a more natural way. However, according to the Kli Yakar people only began to question Yitzchak's lineage once they saw the behavior of his rebellious, amoral, son Esav. The Kli Yakar explains that it was at this point, when Esav attained his less than savory reputation, that God altered Yitzchak's appearance to look like Avraham in order to put to rest all of the rumormongers who claimed Yitzchak could have only been the father of Esav if his father was actually Avimelech; according to the Kli Yakar Yitzchak had a sudden change in physical appearance when he was over 60 years old (Esav was born when Yitzchak was 60 and could have only been recognized as a rebel once he grew up).
Perhaps another lesson can be gleaned from this Kli Yakar. The Kli Yakar wrote that the people began to question the identity of Yitzchak's father once they saw Esav's behavior because they could not believe the grandson of Avraham would behave in such a way. However their hypothesis was disproved when Hashem changed Yitzchak's appearance to make him look like a clone of Avraham. While Hashem dispelled the rumors, the question was never answered - how can it be that Avraham could have a grandson and Yitzchak a son, as evil as Esav? The Kli Yakar never answers the question, but an answer can be found in the following Gemara (Nedarim 81a),

מפני מה אין מצויין ת"ח לצאת ת"ח מבניהן? אמר רב יוסף: שלא יאמרו תורה ירושה היא להם.
Why is it uncommon for Torah scholars to have children whom are also Torah scholars? Rabbi Yosef said: So that they (people) will not say that the Torah is their inheritance

The Gemara observes that Torah scholarship and observance are not dynastic. After all, we hear about many heroes of the Tanach who had children that did not follow in their footsteps (Yishmael, Esav, Moshe's sons, Aharon's sons, the sons of Eli the Kohen Gadol, the sons of Shmuel, many of the sons of David Hamelech, etc.). Rav Yosef answers that the reason why this is such a common occurrence is because Hashem does not want people to think that the Torah is private property, an inheritance passed down from father to son; people should not think that because their parents were not great Torah scholars they do not have a share in Hashem's Torah. Hashem made examples out of certain talmidei chachamim to illustrate this rule. An example of this rule is Esav. How could it be that Avraham had a grandson and Yitzchak a son as wicked as Esav? To teach us that Torah knowledge and leadership are not hereditary. It is within everyone’s grasp - man, woman and child.