Toldot -- 5776

Goats heading to water in East Africa's Afar Triangle.

Isaac has grown up. Once an abused child, he has married and become a dad.  He’s received the promise God made to his own father, that his heirs will be as numerous as the stars of the heavens and that they will inhabit the land (Genesis 26:4).  What’s more, Isaac has become wealthy, the master of a large household and plentiful flocks.

But Isaac cannot stop moving.  When the Philistines, the local tribe, “stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, filling them with earth” (26:15) he moves to the Wadi [“wash”] of Gerar.  He clears out the wells his father had dug, and restores their names.  “But when Isaac’s servants, digging in the wadi, found a well of spring water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying ‘the water is ours’” (26:18-20).

Isaac moves again, seemingly to avoid conflict, and digs another successful well.  “Now at last YHVH has granted us ample space to increase in the land” (26:22).

Since he’s finally found space with sufficient water and without belligerent local, we expect him to stay put.  But in the verse that follows, we learn that “from there he went up to Beer-sheba” (26:23).  How curious.

Perhaps this is a case of “the grass is [literally] greener” – Isaac finds somewhere even better to settle.  Perhaps he’s an ambitious man, who always yearns for more out of life.  Perhaps he’s an unsettled man, who cannot be content where he is.  Perhaps moving is the only way he knows to live.

I think this is one of life’s great challenges:  knowing when to stay put and knowing when to get going.  Both have their blessings.  Success requires the self-awareness of understanding why we do what we do.  Are we moving towards something or running away from something?  Can we name that thing, or is it a general sense that resides in our bellies?  Are we moving just to move, or staying out of inertia?  Have we imagined – and planned for – the alternatives?

What would you do if you knew you would not fail?