In this week’s parasha , Toldot, Yitzchak is faced with a challenge that his father, Avraham, had faced in the previous generation – famine in the land. Whereas Avraham left Israel and sojourned to Egypt in search of food, Yitzchak is commanded by Hashem to stay in the land. Hashem reassured Yitzchak that He will be with him and that he will be blessed. As Yitzchak grows in stature and in wealth, the local Philistines become jealous of his success. The pasuk says, “and he (Yitzchak) had flocks of sheep and cattle and a great deal of crops and the Philistines were jealous. And the Philistines closed up all of the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Avraham and filled them with dirt.” Avimelech, the king of the Philistines, told Yitzchak to move. Complying with his wishes, Yitzchak moved on to Nachal Gerar. In this new location, Yitzchak uncovered wells that Avraham had dug but that had subsequently been covered by the Philistines and renamed them. Yitzchak...
Rabbi Benjy Owen, Dean, Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South, Memphis, TN