stillsmallvoice
November 27th 2003, 10:55 AM
Hi all!
This (coming) Saturday's Torah reading is Genesis 25:29-28:9. 26:12-16 says:
And Isaac sowed in that land, and found in the same year a hundred-fold; and the Lord blessed him. And the man waxed great, and grew more and more until he became very great. And he had possessions of flocks, and possessions of herds, and a great household; and the Philistines envied him. Now all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth. And Abimelech said unto Isaac: 'Go from us; for you are much mightier than we.
Through a combination of his own industry and Divine blessing, Isaac becomes very wealthy. We can assume that his Philistine neighbors also benefited from Isaac's success (from trading with him). Yet the text tells us that, "and the Philistines envied him." There was no rational basis for their envy which eventually prompted their king, Abimelech, to tell Isaac:
'Go from us; for you are much mightier than we.
The Hebrew for the above phrase is lech meh-imanu ki atzamta mimennu maod. The last three Hebrew words are ambiguous and the phrase could be read as:
'Go from us; for you have grown strong from us
It is a principle of Judaism and of Jewish Biblical exegesis that (to quote our Sages): "The actions of the fathers are a sign to the children," i.e. that the actions of our Patriarchs and ancestors in the scriptures are a paradigm and a model for subsequent Jewish history. Here, in these verses from Genesis, we see one of the models of anti-Semitism throughout Jewish history: The Jew as leech, as an economic bloodsucker. The Philistines envied Isaac's material success and, if we accept the variant reading, accused him, leech-like, of taking from them and getting wealthy from them, even though the text testifies that Isaac did no such thing & that Isaac owed his wealth to God and to his own industry. Their irrational hatred of him (see Genesis 26:27) was such that even though Isaac's presence in their midst was to their material benefit (via the wells of his father & through trading with him), they still expelled him, the first of many such expulsions that would follow in later eras.
In Genesis 26:18-22, we read about the episode of the wells (of "living water") that Isaac dug. Isaac dug two wells which the Philistines fought over and which Isaac subsequently abandoned. He dug a third well which was not fought over. Our Sages say that the three wells are the three Temples: the First, built by King Solomon and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar; the Second, built by the returnees from Babylon and destroyed by the Romans, and the Third, which will be built (please God, soon, in our days) and which will never be destroyed.
Comments?
Be well!
ssv :wave:
This (coming) Saturday's Torah reading is Genesis 25:29-28:9. 26:12-16 says:
And Isaac sowed in that land, and found in the same year a hundred-fold; and the Lord blessed him. And the man waxed great, and grew more and more until he became very great. And he had possessions of flocks, and possessions of herds, and a great household; and the Philistines envied him. Now all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth. And Abimelech said unto Isaac: 'Go from us; for you are much mightier than we.
Through a combination of his own industry and Divine blessing, Isaac becomes very wealthy. We can assume that his Philistine neighbors also benefited from Isaac's success (from trading with him). Yet the text tells us that, "and the Philistines envied him." There was no rational basis for their envy which eventually prompted their king, Abimelech, to tell Isaac:
'Go from us; for you are much mightier than we.
The Hebrew for the above phrase is lech meh-imanu ki atzamta mimennu maod. The last three Hebrew words are ambiguous and the phrase could be read as:
'Go from us; for you have grown strong from us
It is a principle of Judaism and of Jewish Biblical exegesis that (to quote our Sages): "The actions of the fathers are a sign to the children," i.e. that the actions of our Patriarchs and ancestors in the scriptures are a paradigm and a model for subsequent Jewish history. Here, in these verses from Genesis, we see one of the models of anti-Semitism throughout Jewish history: The Jew as leech, as an economic bloodsucker. The Philistines envied Isaac's material success and, if we accept the variant reading, accused him, leech-like, of taking from them and getting wealthy from them, even though the text testifies that Isaac did no such thing & that Isaac owed his wealth to God and to his own industry. Their irrational hatred of him (see Genesis 26:27) was such that even though Isaac's presence in their midst was to their material benefit (via the wells of his father & through trading with him), they still expelled him, the first of many such expulsions that would follow in later eras.
In Genesis 26:18-22, we read about the episode of the wells (of "living water") that Isaac dug. Isaac dug two wells which the Philistines fought over and which Isaac subsequently abandoned. He dug a third well which was not fought over. Our Sages say that the three wells are the three Temples: the First, built by King Solomon and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar; the Second, built by the returnees from Babylon and destroyed by the Romans, and the Third, which will be built (please God, soon, in our days) and which will never be destroyed.
Comments?
Be well!
ssv :wave: