In this week’s reading, we learn that Yitzchak dug wells. Not just any wells: the Torah tells us that after the Philistines filled in the wells that had been dug in the days of Avraham, Yitzchak dug them again, and even called them by the same names [26:15, 18].
If the Philistines were continuing to harass his servants, such that they had to dig additional wells and eventually leave [26:19-22], why was it important for Yitzchak to dig the wells of his father?

In reality, the fact that Yitzchak dug the same wells, and called them by the same names, was symbolic.

Avraham had made a radical change from the beliefs and lifestyle of his family. Yitzchak might have thought, “I, too, should make a radical change of my own, I should create something different, because that is what my father did.”
But, of course, that was the very opposite of what was needed. His father Avraham had adopted belief in Hashem and in following His ways. The mission of Yitzchak, then, was to provide continuity—to do precisely as his father had done, which, at least metaphorically, extended even to the wells that his father had dug. He was teaching future generations that for all of the ways each person can create and innovate, the key task is to remain following the path laid out by our forebears.

We also saw this in last week’s parsha, regarding his wife Rivka.

The Torah tells us that when Yitzchak brought Rivka into the tent of his mother, Sarah, it was at that point that he was consoled for the loss of his mother: “And Yitzchak brought her into the tent, Sarah his mother, and he took Rivka to be his wife and he loved her, and Yitzchak was consoled after his mother” [25:67].

Rashi notes (from Breishis Rabbah) that the language of the verse is ambiguous: it does not actually say the tent of Sarah his mother. The Sifsei Chachamim explains that instead of saying “to the tent of Sarah,” the Torah used language that implies that “the tent” was an item by itself, and “Sarah his mother” was a separate item.

So, Rashi continues, this means it was as if Sarah herself came into the tent, that Rivka was modeled after her. When Sarah was alive, the lights in the tent remained lit from the eve of one Sabbath until the next, the dough was blessed, and there was a Cloud of Glory hovering over the tent. All of these things departed when Sarah passed away, and returned when Rivka came into the tent, because she brought back the same holiness of her departed mother-in-law. And this is what consoled Yitzchak, that his wife, too, was duplicating what his mother had done.

Our first obligation, as Jews, is to seek the path of previous generations, building our lives and homes in that way, while also using our unique talents and interests.

Good Shabbos,

Rabbi Yaakov Menken