”ויחפרו עבדי יצחק בנחל……“ – “And Yitzchok’s servants dug wells” (26,19)
I want to share with you a personal story, which imparts a powerful lesson.
I knew, in my yeshivah days, a bochur (a student in the yeshivah) who went through some very challenging times. Aged 17, and half a year into his yeshivah career, his father suddenly passed away in his sleep, tragically, in the prime of his life – aged 55. Learning Gemorah (the Talmud) was the bochur’s “bread and butter,” studying it from morning until late at night – yet he struggled with it. Though blessed with a good head, he couldn’t grasp the material, and so the whole “yeshiva business” became one big demoralizing process.
He was advised at one time to leave the yeshivah system.
Against many odds, he stuck it out, and today he is a successful kollel student. He is the writer of this article. The ingredient that enabled him to “make it” was: the persistence to reach a goal that meant everything to him. Determination to prevail gave him the ability to overcome virtually every challenge – eventually.
Now let me end off with a few lines on the parshah, on this theme:
In the inspiring book, “Mesilah, A Weekly Dose of Inspiration” (Mosaica Press), Rabbi Aryeh Berzansky writes:
“Yitzchok Avinu ran into many hurdles when attempting to re-dig the wells that his father had dug. This could have brought his project to an immediate standstill. Either the Philistines fought with him over the wells he dug or he found them to be dried out. Whatever it was, he persisted until he found wells with water that he was able to use peacefully”.
This theme is reflected in the actual names that Yitzchok gave to the wells that he dug. The first he called “esek”, the second he called “sitnah” and the third he called “rechovos”. “Esek” means contention, “sitnah”, hindrance, is a stronger term, the increased enmity. But “rechovos” means, (literally) wide open spaces. Perhaps we can suggest that one layer of meaning is that by Yitzchok’s persistence, through contention and increased hindrance, he eventually prevailed and achieved the expansiveness of the blessing of G-d.
Rabbi Berzansky ends off:
“There is something more powerful than any hurdle, and that is the desire to reach the goal. A famed American executive was in line with what Rav Dessler wrote when he said, “Obstacles are what we see when we take our eyes off the goal …
Life has its difficulties and hurdles, but instead of giving up from discouragement and despair when they come our way, we must try and try again to overcome them until we finally succeed. Don’t allow the obstacle to obstruct your vision of what you can accomplish. Desire a goal and pursue it intently! This secret can give a person the determination to climb over any hurdle that comes his way.”
Good Shabbos
Yosef