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Approximately one year ago, I had a zoom interview with a congregation during which I had been asked to open with a D’var Torah.  It was my good fortune that the upcoming Torah portion was Toldot, meaning generations.  I was amazed at the depth and openness of the conversation we had afterwards.  It felt as though we had known each other far longer than we actually had.

That congregation was this congregation.  Now as Toldot comes around again, we find ourselves two weeks past my installation – a beautiful communal celebration.  Once again I want to thank everyone who attended, and everyone who worked so hard to make it the remarkable weekend that it was.

And now, the story within the story!

As we progress through Bereishit, narratives that focus on Isaac, our second patriarch, become more prominent.

We read of Isaac as a son, as a young man waiting for his betrothed, and as a father.

The stereotypes that beset Isaac are hardly appealing.  We’re quick to think of him as passive, easily duped, vulnerable, a man whose life is a recapitulation of his father’s instead of its own original act. 

Isaac is in some ways a bridge between the more active Abraham & Jacob, who seem so much more engaged with God... engaged in the world.  But Isaac did put something extraordinary into motion, and that narrative is folded into Toldot.

Years before, Abraham had dug a series of wells, and the Philistines stopped them up.  So Isaac re-dug them, and gave them the same names Abraham had.  This was like putting a stamp on an all-important resource; in essence saying: “property of  my family.”

Meanwhile Isaac’s servants who had continued digging, found a new well.  And a similar quarrel began, as the opposing herdsmen stopped it up.  Isaac and his servants moved from there and dug again, only to have the same thing happen  Isaac gave them names that expressed his struggle: the Hebrew words Esek and Sitnah, connoting strife and contention.

And finally he moved to yet another place and dug another well, and this time, we’re told, they didn’t quarrel over it.  And he named it Rechovot  -- meaning space, or room.

We’re not told what finally broke the pattern.  All we’re told is that he moved from the places he had been digging.  This character whose story in some ways is harder for us to look at because it reminds us of our own moments of fragility and inaction… even he had the ability to move from where he was, to break out of his own story and reshape the substance of his life.  To find, the Torah text tells us, mayim chayyim: living waters.

It’s a lot of digging, and a lot of endurance, a lot of hope against hope that one day we’ll look around waiting for the next quarrel and it won’t come.  This is a story of the possibility of new moments I think, of new directions.  May these be our stories too.

With appreciation and hope,

Rabbi Gutterman

Please make sure to join us for services tonight at 7:00pm when we’ll welcome Gayle Slossberg, the new CEO of Jewish Federation of Jewish New Haven.  This is an important time to hear from her and learn more about the communal resources that can help and strengthen us.