This week’s Parsha, VaYetze, “And he went out,” beautifully describes Jacob’s lone journey...
This week’s Parsha, VaYetze, “And he went out,” beautifully describes Jacob’s lone journey to Haran, located in modern day Turkey, where he has family. You may recall there was some family strife and his mother Rebecca thought it best for Jacob to live with her brother, Laban. Haran was where Avraham and Sarah were from as well. It’s interesting that he needed this diaspora where he matured, found love, and raised a family.
In the Parsha we, once again, see the significance of wells. Every ancestor has a life transforming experience at a well. A well is also a metaphor for life, learning, and deep wisdom. It is a place of meeting, a place to share in a life transforming experience with another, or others. How one interacts with the “well” and how the “water” is shared with others is so instructive to us.
We see Rebecca’s deep attributes of Chesed at the well covered by a stone and providing water for Eliezer and his camels. We see, in this Parsha, how her son, Jacob, while conversing with other shepherds tasked with removing the large stone at a certain time, sees a shepherdess (Rachel) herding sheep and, also in an act of Chesed, “rolled” the large stone himself in order to provide her with water.
The word for “rolling” in Hebrew shares the same root with the word “revealed” and also “joy”. We are called upon in life to remove the stone, to roll away the stone that covers life and wisdom.
While I was in Israel recently, I drove my rented car into the shtachim, the Palestinian Territories near Gush Etzion, a bloc of “settlements” populated by more than 70,000 Jews. Near the roundabout I was met by Ali Abu Awwad and a Palestinian woman, Emili. They lead me to an almost hidden enclave with several buildings. Ali, the founder of the Palestinian Nonviolent Movement, had come there on his donkey many years earlier and built a home. The Israeli authorities consider it an “illegal” dwelling and do not provide it with water and electricity. An Israeli solar company, provided his Center and other building with solar panels to generate electricity at no cost.
His home and the additional larger building he built over the years has become an oasis and center for teaching non-violence and educating the public, residents and visitors, about the needs of the Palestinian people.
All you need to do is roll back the heavy stone and it’s amazing what this well can provide. His organization, Taghyeer, is worth checking out. Another Well-Center is under construction in Hebron. Ali is also writing a curriculum on non-violence for Palestinian schools. May his efforts lead to the well-ness of all in the region.
B’Shalom uV’rachah,
Reb David