Wells play a large role in these early stories about our patriarchs. In the past few weeks, we learned that Avraham dug wells and gave them all names. Then they got filled, and Isaac his son re-dug those same wells. Our ancestors socialized at wells, even met spouses there. These wells serve as a meeting place, a location of creating relationships with others. They are quite literally watering holes. Our tradition likens Torah to water, and I think there’s a message here that is deeper than simply people meeting at a place to draw water. The Talmud teaches that water always represents Torah: they both give us life, they both sustain us, and they both bring us toward community.
And this week, in parashat Vayetzei, Jacob is on a journey towards Haran and he stops at a well. He ends up chatting with local shepherds there and asks if they know his uncle Lavan (perhaps this is the first instance of Jewish Geography!). There is a large rock covering the well, and they tell Jacob that they have to wait for other shepherds to come in order to move the rock, allowing their flock to drink. Yet this rock wasn’t hard for Jacob to move; the Torah depicts him easily removing the rock that would’ve required several other shepherds to remove together.
Midrash teaches, since water represents Torah, Jacob was then bringing people together around Torah and teaching it to others. Just as water was a convener, we allow, and we actively create opportunities for Torah to be a convener of community. We seek out ways for Torah to give our community life. I felt this way on Simchat Torah when we unrolled the entire Torah scroll, it held up with our hands. And I feel this way when our Shabbat Torah reading comes to life through members of our community.
While we don’t find ourselves around wells, we do find ourselves around Torah. May this Shabbat be a reminder of where we find our connection to the life sustaining Torah, where we find our connection to God, ourselves, and each other.
