A.
Our parasha relates that, just as had happened when Avraham arrived in the Holy Land, a famine broke out and Yitzhaq considered seeking relief in Egypt, as his father had done. Instructed by G-d not to leave, Yitzhaq obeyed and settled in the nahal (dry river bed) near the Pëlishti city of Gërar. There, as we discussed last week, Yitzhaq undertook to redig the wells which his late father had dug, and which the Pëlishtim had subsequently filled in with earth and blocked up.
ויחפרו עבדי יצחק בנחל וימצאו שם באר מים חיים: ויריבו רעי גרר עם רעי יצחק לאמר לנו המים ויקרא שם הבאר עשק כי התעשקו עמו: ויחפרו באר אחרת ויריבו גם עלי' ויקרא שמה שטנה: ויעתק משם ויחפר באר אחרת ולא רבו עלי' ויקרא שמה רחבת ויאמר כי עתה הרחיב ד' לנו ופרינו בארץ: (“And Yitzhaq’s servants dug in the nahal and found there a well of living water. And the shepherds of Gërar quarreled with Yitzhaq’s shepherds over it, to say, 'The water is ours'; and he called the well’s name ‘Ésheq [Strife], for they had striven with him. And they dug another well, and they also quarreled over it, and he called its name Sitna [Opposition]. And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; and he called its name Rëhovoth, and said, 'For now Ha-Shem has made room [hirhiv] for us, and we have been fruitful in the land'”; XXVI, 19-22).
Ramban comments on our passage, noting that it could be excised in its entirely without adversely affecting the flow of the narrative; hence, he discerns ענין נסתר בתוכו כי בא להודיע דבר עתיד כי באר מים חיים ירמוז לבית אלקים אשר יעשו בניו של יצחק וגו' (“a matter hidden within it, for it comes to inform of the future, for the well of living water alludes to the house of G-d which Yitzhaq’s descendants would build...”); each of the three wells represents, in turn, the First Temple of Shëlomo, the Second Temple after the Return to Tziyyon, and the Third Temple which yet remains to be built.
For this reason, says Ramban, הזכיר באר מים חיים שאמר מקור מים חיים את ד' (“[Our passage] mentions a ‘well of living water’, for a ‘source of living water’ is said of Ha-Shem” [cf. e.g. Jeremiah II, 13; XVII, 13; Zechariah XIV, 8).
There are many ramifications to this metaphor worthy of exploration.
B.
The Talmud: tells us א"ר נחמן בר יצחק לא כעולם הזה העולם הבא העולם הזה כתוב ביו"ד ה"י ונקרא באל"ף דל"ת אבל לעולם הבא כולו אחד נקרא ביו"ד ה"י ונכתב ביו"ד ה"י (“Said Rabbi Nahman bar Yitzhaq, 'This world is not like the world which is coming; in this world, what is written with a yud and a hé is read with an alef and dalet; in the world which is coming, it is all one, read with a yud and a hé and written with a yud and a hé'”; פסחים נ.).
As every synagogue-goer knows, when we read the Torah or pray, we pronounce the Tetragrammaton (which begins with the letters yud and hé) as though it were written Ad-nai. The Tetragrammaton, the ineffable four-letter name of G-d, generates the root which signifies “be, exist, become” in the Holy Language, and is the factitive expression underlying all existence, constituting the complete mastery of physical reality and the greater, metaphysical reality which surrounds, encompasses, contains, and generates the physical realm. It is thus quite literally supernatural, above and beyond nature.
Ad-nai is more limited in scope, expressive of our attempted perception of that ultimate reality, which perception is through the lens of physical reality. The word adon is formed from the primal root dalet-vav-nun, connoting “judgment,” with the addition of the radical prefix alef which indicates the ideal exemplar of that primal root. As the Birkath Tov puts it, Ad-nai is expressive of הנהגה הטבעית כדרך אדון שמנהיג עבדיו, “the conduct [hanhaga] of nature in the manner of a lord [adon] who directs his servants.”
This dilution or diminution of our perception of ultimate reality is what G-d is referring to when He tells Moshe, on the eve of the mighty and wholly miraculous, supernatural events which preceded and accompanied the Exodus from Egypt: וארא לאברהם ליצחק וליעקב בא-ל שד-י ושמי ד' לא נודעתי להם (“And I appeared to Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Ya‘aqov by means of [the name] É-l Shad-dai, and [by] My name Ha-Shem I was not known [lo’ noda‘ti] to them”; Exodus VI, 3. As Rashi explains, לא הודעתי אין כתיב כאן אלא לא נודעתי לא נכרתי להם במדה אמיתית שלי שעלי' נקרא שמי ד' וגו' (“‘I did not make known’ [lo’ hoda‘ti] is not written here, but lo’ noda‘ti; I was not recognizable to them in My true measure because of which My name is called Ha-Shem [i.e., the Tetragrammaton]”). The Divine name É-l Shad-dai is also indicative of G-d’s ownership and control of nature, signifying that it was He who “said to His world, 'Enough! [Dai!]' and brought its expansion to an end" (חגיגה י"ב.).
This state of diminution was about to change for the benei Yisra’él, who witnessed unadulterated, unfiltered, ultimate reality throughout the events of the Exodus. It was to perpetuate and make permanent the presence of the ultimate reality exemplified by the shém Ha-Shem that first the Mishkan, later the Béyth ha-Miqdash, were built, to precise specifications intended to constitute a model of the cosmos (עיי' העמק דבר המפרט את הפרטים ריש פרשת תצוה). As G-d instructed Moshe: ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם (“And [the bënei Yisra’él] will make for Me a Sanctuary [miqdash] and I will dwell [vë-shachanti] in their midst”; Exodus XXV, 8), in the Mishkan until it would transplanted permanently to המקום אשר יבחר ד' לשכן שמו שם, “the place where Ha-Shem would chose to establish [lë-shakkén] His name”; Deuteronomy XVI, 2). As the root whose qal and pi‘él (simple and factitive forms) are used in the above verses indicates, this ultimate Divine Presence is the Shëchina. The Béyth ha-Miqdash provides a venue for the Shëchina, and the precise nature of what that means can be gleaned from the fact that it was only in the Béyth ha-Miqdash on the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, that the kohén gadol could read out the Tetragrammaton exactly as it was written (כדמצלינן בתפלת מוסף ליוה"כ).
C.
Bearing all of the above in mind, we turn back to Ramban. He explains the names Yitzhaq calls the wells in the course of a capsule history of the Battei Miqdash: עשק ירמוז לבית הראשון אשר התעשקו עמנו ועשו אותנו כמה מחלוקות וכמה מלחמות עד שהחריבוהו (“‘Ésheq alludes to the First Temple, since they strove with us and caused us numerous disputes and numerous wars until the destroyed it”). The surrounding nations had allowed Shëlomo to build the Béyth ha-Miqdash in peace, but as its fame spread, the resistance to its influence mounted, until they finally succeeded in corrupting Israel, bringing it down, and sending the survivors into exile.
The Jews returned from the Babylonian Exile with full and even enthusiastic support of the Medio-Persian King Koresh, and began to rebuild; however, ולשני קרא שמה שטנה שם קשה מן הראשון והוא הבית השני כו' ובמלכות אחשורוש בתחלת מלכותו כתבו שטנה על יושבי יהודה וירושלם וכל ימיו הי' לנו לשטן עד שהחריבוהו וגלו ממנו גלות רעה (“And he called the name of the second one Sitna, a harsher name than the first; this is the Second Temple... And during the reign of Ahashvérosh, at the beginning of his reign, [the nations] wrote in opposition about those settling Yëhuda and Jerusalem; and all its days they were opposed to us until they destroyed it, and [the Jews] went into a bitter exile from it....”).
The specific opponents to whom Ramban alludes were the Kuthim or “Samaritans,” who had been resettled on the territory of the Northern Kingdom by the Assyrians some two centuries before the Jews’ return, and who had adopted some of the practices of Judaism (though they never abandoned completely their ‘avoda zara; עיי' חולין ה.), and decided that they were now the owners of the place, much like the Pëlishti invaders of Avraham and Yitzhaq’s day.
And the Shëchina went into exile, too, just as the Holy Nation had done (עיי' למשל תענית ג.). The ready access to the transcendent, supernal light which the Béyth ha-Miqdash had afforded was now suspended.
But even now it is not completely so: כעת אשר לא נתגלה האור של המלך המשיח לא יוכל להיות ההנהגה תמיד באופן זה למעלה מהטבע ורק לעתים לצורך טובת ישראל הוכרח להיות ההנהגה שהוא למעלה מהטבע הנהגה נסית וכו' אך באמת הצדיקים לצורך הזמן ממשיכין מאותו ההנהגה שתהי' לעתיד להמתיק הדינים והגבורות הרוצים לשלוט ח"ו להתגבר ממשיכין מאור הגנוז לעתיד לבא כדי שיוכל להמתיק כל ההנהגות (“At present, when the light of the Anointed King is not [yet] revealed, the hanhaga cannot always be in this fashion, supernatural; and only at intervals, for the necessary benefit of Israel, is the hanhaga required to be supernatural, miraculous hanhaga... For in truth the tzaddiqim, for the need of the hour, draw down from that hanhaga which is destined for the future to ameliorate the dinim and gëvuroth which seek to rule and overwhelm. G-d forbid, drawing from the light stored away for the future, so that all the hanhagoth may be ameliorated”; ברכת טוב פרשתנו סי' י"ד).
Indeed, King David warned that the path of the Torah-nation in he world would not be an easy or smooth one: כי פי רשע ופי מרמה עלי פתחו דברו אתי לשון שקר: ודברי שנאה סבבוני וילחמוני חנם: תחת אהבתי ישטנוני ואני תפלה: (“For the mouth of the rasha‘ and the mouth of fraud have opened against me; they have spoken with me a language of lies. And words of hatred have surrounded me, and they have fought me for nothing. In exchange for my love they oppose me; and I am [yet at] prayer....”; Psalms CIX, 2-4).
This has been our constant condition since we entered this Exile, a condition into which the nations of the world have pushed us, because they know who and what we are, and they do not wish to come to terms with it. As the Talmud reminds us: סיני הר שירדה בו שנאה לעכו"ם (“Sinai is the mountain through which hatred [sin’a] came down to the non-Jews”; שבת פ"ט.).
D.
But, notes the Rebbe, the transcendent, supernal light is in storage for the future; the Anointed King will proclaim himself, and ultimate reality will again be apparent when the Shëchina returns with Israel from exile. So, says Ramban, והשלישי קרא רחובות הוא הבית העתיד שיבנה במהרה בימינו והוא יעשה בלא ריב והא-ל ירחיב את גבולנו כמו שנאמר "ואם ירחיב ד' אלקיך את גבולך כאשר דבר" וגו' שהוא לעתיד וכתב בבית השלישי "ןרחבה ונסבה למעלה למעלה" ופרינו בארץ שכל העמים יעבדוהו שכם אחד (‘And the third he called Rëhovoth; this is the Third Temple of the future, which should be built speedily in our days and it will be made with-out quarrel; and G-d will widen our border as it is said, ‘And if Ha-Shem your G-d should [yarhiv] widen your border as He has sworn....’ [Deuteronomy XIX, 8]. And this is for the future, and He has written concerning the Third Temple, ‘And it broadened [vë-rahava] and wound ever higher’ [Ezekiel XLI, 7]. ‘And we have been fruitful in the land’, for all of the nations will serve Him together”).
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