On a recent visit with our grandchildren I experienced one of the wonders of nature.
Our grandchild was sitting in a high chair attempting to eat on their own. When this tiresome and messy activity became boring we moved on to the laws of gravity.
The little one dropped the spoon over the side of the tray and I picked it up. This continued for a few minutes as our grandchild became more and more animated by the exercise. As soon as I retrieved and returned the spoon it would once again get thrown over the side.
My grandchild cackled gleefully and I, the willing accomplice, continued in the process. The faster the spoon fell, the more quickly I retrieved it. I’m not sure who enjoyed it more.
After all, this is how to teach the laws of gravity is it not?
Gravity pulls everything down.
Except a flame.
If you hold a candle in any direction the flame will always go up.
That is an analogy for the Jewish people. Our essence, our very nature is in an upward attitude.
In Egypt it never rained. So the people never looked up. They worshipped the Nile at their feet and did not have an attitude of uplift.
In this week’s Torah portion called Toldot, there is a strange interaction between our Patriarch Issac and the local Philistine population.
Abraham, Isaac’s father, had dug wells throughout the land in an effort to improve the lot of the people. The indigenous Philistine people were jealous of Abraham and in a petty show of anger, stopped up the wells. Now Isaac comes along and reopens or redigs the stopped up wells.
The Torah is measured in each word, and the stories that are written have to be of an eternal nature.
What lessons can we learn from the effort Isaac expends to unstop the wells of his father?
Rabbi Moshe Tarragin teaches us that Isaac is the patriarch who is entrenched in the Land of Israel. By digging wells he is anchoring us into the Land. The well is also a metaphor of Isaac deeply rooting the teachings of Abraham within the national psyche. He does not need to bring in new values, rather he will deepen those inherited from his father, Abraham.
Rabbi Tarragin also shares Nachmanides teachings about the nature of a well. The water of a well can reach far beyond its confines and have a distant impact. The waters of a well spread outward. That is why each of the three well mentioned in our Torah portion allude to three edifices whose impact will extend far beyond their walls. Each well that Isaac dug up is an allegory to one of the Holy Temples in Jerusalem.
The first well was an allusion to the first Temple which was built during a time of strife.
The second well had a name which alluded to a time of confrontation which occurred in the second Temple period with the Chanukah story. Finally the third well was named Rechovot which means expansion. That will be the third Temple, which, like a well, will expand beyond its borders and will nourish the entire world. It will flourish and so will all humanity.

Isaac wanted to lift the world with his efforts
He wanted to bring blessing and expansion. But the local populace was mired in jealousy. They could only look down. The gravity of a self centered attitude and jealousy brought them to stop up the wells. This small minded attitude persisted throughout history. The Temples of old could have brought uplift and stability to the whole world. If our enemies would have looked up and seen that light and its possibility to repair the world they would have protected the Temples and not have sought destroy them.
Rabbi Tarragin teaches that this pattern begins with the Philistines who could “not move beyond their hostility to Isaac to benefit from the water he offered”.
Rabbi Tarragin refers to an event that occurred only eight years ago which mirrors this ancient reality.
Eight years ago South Africa was suffering from a devastating water shortage. Israel reached out to offer assistance and solutions to this severe problem, they offered water, they offered light.
But their offers of assistance were rebuffed.
The South African government could not allow itself to take the hand of Israel. It was too mired in its prejudice.
Our mission is to defy gravity.
In the most impossible of situations when someone who is a professed enemy is in trouble-we offer light.
A way up.
It defies gravity.
These situations should pull us down to our lowest place. If an enemy is in trouble would we rejoice.
That is not the lessons learned from Abraham.
Isaac literally goes back to that well, digging deep to find the way to overflow our borders and bring blessing.
Even in a world that is constrained and conflicted.
We don’t let that stop us.
Our light is beyond that gravity.
We continue to be inspired by our heroes in real time.
Returned hostage Avinatan Or is such an inspiration.
Or means light.
Avinatan also employed the art of digging.
When he was held in captivity he tried to escape by digging his way out. He spent weeks digging until he was able to breach the wall of the tunnel. He was able to see the stars in the sky and then he was caught and brutally punished.
Recently Avinatan spoke and shared such powerful words
“I’m alive, and because I’m alive, I have a responsibility - a responsibility to speak about patience, humanity, and complexity. A responsibility to distinguish between good and evil, between right and wrong, and to maintain moral clarity. A responsibility to remind ourselves that division destroys us, and that we must look for what unites us, not what tears us apart.”
Avinatan Or is a source of light.
The gravity of his experience could have dragged him down. Instead he uses that same experience as a source of light with which he will help us understand and see the way to a better future.
How humbling it is to see the progeny of Isaac who continues to “dig” towards an uplifted attitude to bring light to our fractured world.
Tonight we celebrate the new month of Kislev.
It is the month of miracles.
It is the month of Chanukah.
This is the time of year which is the most dark and therefore it provides the stark contrast to the light of the miracles we have experienced and those that are yet to come.
The miracles shine ever more brightly and the flames of our the Chanukah light, always point upward, defying all odds.
There is so much wonder a child can experience when they begin to interact with the world around them.
How marvelous it is to learn that you can drop something and it looks like it’s gone for ever only for it to reappear in the most magical way.
No wonder they laugh with such glee.
They are experiencing their first miracle.
Happy Rosh Chodesh.
Shabbat Shalom and so much love!!