This is another amazing, complex and challenging portion, so typical of Genesis. We meet Rebecca and another instance of infertility, but this time her prayer is answered. She becomes pregnant and has a difficult pregnancy eliciting her cry in 25:23 “why do I exist?” Esau and Jacob are born, and the prophecy is that the elder shall serve the younger and with that we begin the hectic story of these two brothers and the role their father and mother played in their development. That family of origin stuff really does count for something. This is the portion if the “stolen” birthright and the blessing.
There is, however, a little story that rarely gets a lot of play as it is usually overshadowed by the Isaac-Rebecca, Esau-Jacob drama. Isaac and Rebecca are forced to leave their land due to another famine. Chapter 26 details this segment of the Isaac story as he, in some ways, seeks to replicate his father’s story. He seeks to re-dig his fathers’ wells (Genesis 26:17-23). He encounters issues with the local population. Eventually Isaac is successful in digging HIS own well.(26:22), names the place Rehoboth and soon after is blessed by God. These few verses can teach us what I think may be a valuable lesson for us.
Remember, in the chronology of Torah, Isaac is still trying to handle the trauma of the Akedah. Yet, he seeks to replicate his father’s work with the wells. It does not work until he digs a new one, his own! Maybe Torah is trying to tell us that living a life trying to replicate others, or living a life that is defined by others, especially a parent, may not be true to who we are. We know people whose life choices have been determined not by what they wish but by what other people desire for them. How many of those people repress their true self and live a life of quiet frustration? Maybe Torah is telling us that as parents we need to remember to “let go” of our desires and dreams of what our children can or should be and embrace who they are as independent people. How many, to channel Gensis 22, have sacrificed our children on the alters of our own dreams and fantasies?
So, this little story in this week’s portion can carry a lot of meaning as we let the text “speak” to us. This text also reminds us that we are never too old to grow into that life we wish to lead. Be strong and do not fear to “dig” your own well, to live your own life.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Richard F Address
Rabbi Richard F. Address, D.Min, is the Founder and Director of www.jewishsacredaging.com. Rabbi Address served for over three decades on staff of the Union for Reform Judaism; first as a Regional Director and then, beginning in 1997, as Founder and Director of the URJ’s Department of Jewish Family Concerns and served as a specialist and consultant for the North American Reform Movement in the areas of family related programming. Rabbi Address was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1972 and began his rabbinic career in Los Angeles congregations. He also served as a part time rabbi for Beth Hillel in Carmel, NJ while regional director and, after his URJ tenure, served as senior rabbi of Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, NJ from 2011-2014.
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