פרשת תולדות תש"ג - הבארות

HE CALLED THE NAME OF THST WELL ESEK. The Torah relates and goes to great lengths about the matter of the wells even though the story simply understood serves no purpose and doesnt give great honor to Isaac and [furthermore] he and his father made these wells. In truth there is a hidden matter contained in this incident, for it comes to inform a future [us about] event. For a "well of water" is a hint to the temple of G-d which the offspring's of Isaac would build. This is why it mentions "a well of flowing water" as it says (Jeremiah 17:13) "a source of flowing water Hashem" And he called the first well Esek (contention) which alludes to the first temple, over which our enemies contended with us, engaging us in many conflicts and wars until they destroyed it. HE called the second Sitnah (hatred) a harsher name than the first one it allude to second temple which is called by that very name, for its written "during the reign of Achashveirosh at the beginning of his reign they wrote a hateful accusation (sitnah) against the dwellers of Judah and Jerusalem" and all its days the enemies were hateful to us until the destroyed it and we went into a terrible exile from it. he called the third well Rechovot an allusion to the future temple may it be built speedily in our days. it'll be built without conflict or dispute and G-D will ex[and our borders s it says "When Hashem will ex[and your boundary's he swore" which speaks of a future time. And concerning the third temple its written "it broadened and expanded upward". our pasuk concludes "And we can be fruitful in the land" [alluding to the fact] that [in the future] "all the nations will serve Him with a single resolve"

And Avram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem: I will tell you a general principle - understand it in all of the coming sections about Avraham, Yitschak and Yaacov, and it is a great matter. Our rabbis mentioned it in a brief way, and said (Midrash Tanchuma 9), "Everything that occurred to our forefathers is a sign for the children." And therefore the verses will write at length in recounting the journeys and the digging of the wells and the other events. And one who thinks about them can think as if they were superfluous things with no purpose. But all of the events come to teach about the future, for when an event occurs to a prophet, [meaning] of the three forefathers, he will contemplate from it the matter that is decreed to come to his seed. And know [about] every 'decree of the wakeful ones,' that when it goes from a potential decree to a symbolic action, the decree will be realized no matter what. And therefore the prophets will do actions in prophecies, like the statement of Yirmiyahu that he commanded to Baruch (Jeremiah 51:63-64), "And it shall be that when you finish to read the words of this book, you shall throw it into the Euphrates. And you shall say, 'So will Babylonia sink, etc.'"; and so [too with] the matter of Elisha in the placing of his forearm on the bow (II Kings 13:17), "And Elisha said, 'Shoot,' and he shot, and he said, 'It is the arrow of salvation of the Lord and the arrow of salvation from Aram,'" and it is stated there (II Kings 13:19), "And the man of God got angry with him and said, 'To strike five or six times, then you would have struck Aram to its end, and now three times will you strike Aram.'" And therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, kept Avraham in the land (of Israel) and did to him simulations of all of the future that would be done to his seed. And understand this. And I am [now] beginning to explain the matters in detail in the verses, with the help of God: And Avram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem: It is the city of Schechem, that is the name of that place. And Schechem, the son of Chamor, was named after the name of the town. And Rashi wrote, "He entered into it unto the place of Schechem to pray for the sons of Yaakov, when they would come from the field anguished. And this is correct. And I [would] add that Avraham held this place first, and before He gave him the land - it was [thus] hinted to him from this that his children would conquer this place first before they would merit [the land], and before the iniquity of the dweller of the land was complete to exile him from there. And therefore, it stated, "and the Canaanite was then in the land." And when the Holy One, blessed be He, gave him the land in a statement, then he traveled from there and planted his tent between Beit El and the Ei, since it is the place that Yehoshua conquered first....

There was a large stone. It was so large that the shepherds of all the flocks were required to move it. Nevertheless, with heaven’s aid Yaakov was able to move it alone, even though he had just completed a long and arduous journey.

Rashi says, these are the angels who minister in the Land of Israel came to meet him. מחנים, the two camps that were outside the land came with him until then, and from Eretz Yisroel they came to meet him. I am astounded at this. Indeed, Yaakov had not even gotten to the land, he was from from it, and he sent angels to Esau from far away, as it says in (Gen. 32:23) it says that he crossed the ford of Yabbuk, which was the stream of Yabbuk , which is on the border of the sons of Ammon. (Deut. 3:16), which is south east of Eretz Yisroel. And he hadn't crossed the border of the sons of Ammon or Moab, and after that is the land of Edom. The first instance of his entrance into Shechem was when it says in (Gen. 33:18), that Jacob came whole (or safely) to Shechem that is in Eretz Canaan. But this was shown to Yaakov when he came to the border of his enemy to announce to them that he had many with him, so they would be content. They called the place Machanayim because this was the path in Shemos or Machanayim their camps or the supreme camp, we learn because the camps in the land are like the camps of the angels. they are all Gds camps. We should bless them and give praise to them an bless his name forever, even if this Parsha was eliminated.

...This parsha was written to show how Hashem saved his servant from a stronger foe, and sent his angels to rescue him. In addition it teaches us that he [Jacob] didnt rely on his righteousness, and made every effort to save himself. Another concept alluded to, is that all that occurred to our forefather with Esau, will repeat itself with us and Esau's descendants. It is therefore appropriate for us to emulate the efforts of Yakov who initiated 3 strategies for his encounter with Esau; Prayer, presents, and war. Our sages see this hinted to in this parsha as I will mention later.

אשר קרא להן אביו, in order to prevent anyone in the future to challenge the ownership of the wells.

And Abimelech said unto Isaac: ‘Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.’

And Abimelech said unto Isaac: ‘Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.’

that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace; thou art now the blessed of the LORD.’

that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace; thou art now the blessed of the LORD.’

He hath digged a pit, and hollowed it, And is fallen into the ditch which he made.