Dear Friends,
“The water is ours!” So, claimed the two competing groups of shepherds, as they quarreled over a well in this week’s Torah portion from the Book of Genesis (Gen. 26:20).
I am not a geo-political scientist, but I have read and heard stories and reports over recent decades, asserting that the squabbles and wars of the next decades largely will be triggered by resource scarcity, especially in dry, arid areas of the globe. And, I imagine those conflicts only will be exacerbated by the effects of climate change, and limited rains in needy, desiccated areas.
Thus, the argument in this week’s Torah portion, Toldot: Isaac’s shepherds and those of the neighboring Philistines discovered a lost, stopped-up well from years earlier, and each vociferously claimed the sweet, living waters as their own. It appears that although resource scarcity seems to have intensified in today’s world of human population abundance and changing climate patterns, yet this worry predates our present anxiety, and dates to antiquity. Likely, wherever competing human populations clashed, control of natural, life-sustaining and community-aggrandizing resources would become central, whether it would be fresh-water streams, rich forests, mineral deposits, or deep-water wells.
Yet, our portion also demonstrated a response to the conflict. At first, the shepherds quarreled over the initial well. Thereafter, they dug another well, and then quarreled again, prompting Isaac to dig still another well, and the quarreling ceased. Finally, the Torah states, “Now the Eternal has granted us ample room, and will make us fruitful in the land.” (Gen. 26:22)
We learn that sometimes it is important to step away from the problem and try again elsewhere – dig another well – even if it looks like surrender. It allowed Isaac and the Philistines to separate, make peace, and each provide for themselves. To some extent, this is the same strategy of President-Elect Biden – avoid the quarrel by digging in elsewhere. There are limited resources to run a government, just as there are limited resources in the economy of Newburgh, or the wells of Canaan.
Quarreling yields no additional water; only a new well, and God-given rains, can achieve that.
“The water is – all of – ours!”
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
“The water is ours!” So, claimed the two competing groups of shepherds, as they quarreled over a well in this week’s Torah portion from the Book of Genesis (Gen. 26:20).
I am not a geo-political scientist, but I have read and heard stories and reports over recent decades, asserting that the squabbles and wars of the next decades largely will be triggered by resource scarcity, especially in dry, arid areas of the globe. And, I imagine those conflicts only will be exacerbated by the effects of climate change, and limited rains in needy, desiccated areas.
Thus, the argument in this week’s Torah portion, Toldot: Isaac’s shepherds and those of the neighboring Philistines discovered a lost, stopped-up well from years earlier, and each vociferously claimed the sweet, living waters as their own. It appears that although resource scarcity seems to have intensified in today’s world of human population abundance and changing climate patterns, yet this worry predates our present anxiety, and dates to antiquity. Likely, wherever competing human populations clashed, control of natural, life-sustaining and community-aggrandizing resources would become central, whether it would be fresh-water streams, rich forests, mineral deposits, or deep-water wells.
Yet, our portion also demonstrated a response to the conflict. At first, the shepherds quarreled over the initial well. Thereafter, they dug another well, and then quarreled again, prompting Isaac to dig still another well, and the quarreling ceased. Finally, the Torah states, “Now the Eternal has granted us ample room, and will make us fruitful in the land.” (Gen. 26:22)
We learn that sometimes it is important to step away from the problem and try again elsewhere – dig another well – even if it looks like surrender. It allowed Isaac and the Philistines to separate, make peace, and each provide for themselves. To some extent, this is the same strategy of President-Elect Biden – avoid the quarrel by digging in elsewhere. There are limited resources to run a government, just as there are limited resources in the economy of Newburgh, or the wells of Canaan.
Quarreling yields no additional water; only a new well, and God-given rains, can achieve that.
“The water is – all of – ours!”
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
