In this week’s Torah portion, Toldot, a famine strikes the land. This precipitating event often happens to the Torah’s heroes causing them to make tough choices.
In this case, God appears to Isaac and tells him not to go to Egypt, as his father had done. God instead encourages Isaac to remain in the no promised land, in this part is the land of Gerar.
When local leaders began to ask about his wife, he repeats his father’s mistake and tells them that his wife, Rebecca, was his sister. This leads to an uncomfortable and risqué encounter and the local leadership finds his lie to be dangerous to them. (They were concerned that one of them might try and have sex with her and find themselves committing adultery. There are many issues with this story.)
This mirrors their last experience with this family since Abraham had done the same thing, and the locals were fed up with them.
As Isaac begins to do well financially, the locals became jealous. They filled the wells Abraham had dug and “encouraged” Isaac to find a new home.
He moves a bit away and begins to restore his father’s wells, one of which is attached to a spring. The locals in Gerar claim the well for themselves. Isaac moved further away and digs a new well and sure enough, conflict arises again.
Isaac moves a third time, digs a well, and the locals in Gerar do not claim it. Isaac names it Rechovot, meaning “wide places,” and claims that there is plenty of space to grow.
Wells and water represent peace.
In Masechet Berachot, we learn this:
Rabbi Ḥanina said: One who sees a well in a dream sees peace, as it is said: “And Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of living water” (Genesis 26:19), and ultimately there was peace.
Rabbi Natan says: One who sees a well in their dream it is a symbol that they have found Torah, as the well symbolizes Torah.
As it is stated with regard to the Torah: “For whoever finds me finds life” (Proverbs 8:35), and it is written here: “A well of living water,” and we see that a well is linked to Torah as both are associated with life.
Rava said: The well in the dream symbolizes actual life.
There are three interpretations of seeing a well in one’s dreams:
First, Rabbi Hanina claims that if you see a well in your dreams, you are seeing a manifestation of peace because in our story: as Isaac and his servants dug wells they encountered conflict but ended up resolving them peacefully.
Second, Rabbi Natan goes further to say that seeing a well means that someone has found Torah. In Proverbs, one who finds “me,” referring to God, finds life. And to the Rabbis, the way of finding God is certainly through studying Torah.
Third, Rava claims that seeing a well in a dream is life itself.
Fundamentally, these are not separate interpretations.
The phrase “actual life” חַיִּים מַמָּשׁ is generally used in the context of capital cases when someone might have to be put to death. Here, that doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Instead, Rava is pushing us to ask ourselves, what is the nature of life itself?
Rabbi Natan’s proof text and premise suggest this is the engagement with Torah. We see the layering of Torah and water constantly in rabbinic texts, with a few notable ones in Pirkei Avot.
In Pirkei Avot 2:8, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and Rabbi Elazar ben Arach are both compared to water sources and were considered some of the greatest Torah scholars to have ever lived.
In the final chapter of Pirkei Avot, as they extoll the importance of studying Torah and its benefits, they say this:
To [the person who occupies themselves with Torah] are revealed the secrets of the Torah, and are made as an ever-flowing spring, and like a stream that never ceases. And they become modest, long-suffering, and forgiving of insult. And it magnifies them and exalts them over everything.
This is to say, to Rabbi Natan’s point, that the outcome of a life studying Torah is one of self-improvement, growth, and patience.
This brings us back to Rabbi Hanina that the well represented peace. A person who is modest, patient, and forgiving would certainly be one who strives for peace.
Elsewhere in the Talmud, dreams are compared to experiencing a fraction of prophecy, but that is not the language here. If we can be more particular with both Rabbi Hanina and Rabbi Natan’s language: a person who dreams of a well actually sees peace and finds Torah.
Have you ever dreamt something and woke up with a sense of realization about how the universe works? That’s what I think Rabbi Natan is describing here. Not just a general statement of Torah, but the experience of Torah infusing with our being. It is a sense of encounter, awareness, and depth.
The text in Berachot doesn’t end there. It goes on to say:
Rabbi Ḥanan said: There are three items seen in dreams that are indications of peace: A river, a bird and a pot.
The Gemara elaborates: A river, as it is written: “I will extend peace to her like a river” (Isaiah 66:12); a bird, as it is written: “As birds hovering, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem” (Isaiah 31:5); and a pot, as it is written: “Lord, You will establish [tishpot] peace for us” (Isaiah 26:12).
Peace is likened to a pot which is placed [shafat] on the fire. And Rabbi Ḥanina said: We learned that a pot in a dream is a sign of peace with regard to a pot that does not have meat in it, as a pot that has meat in it symbolizes calamity, as it is stated: “Yea, they chop them in pieces, as that which is in the pot, and as flesh within the cauldron” (Micah 3:3).
Not just a well but a river, birds, and a pot each representing peace. For both the river and the birds, the subtext is that these are ever-present. Just as a river always flows, not unlike our Pirkei Avot rabbis, so too peace always flows. Just as the birds are always flying over Jerusalem, so too God, and peace, will always be flying over us.
A pot of food is not ever-flowing. So that one doesn’t quite fit. Don’t get me wrong, I have never made “not enough” cholent in my life, but still, it feels like an outlier here.
This is because it points us to something else.
First, it points us to Micah, describing a violent and terrible repudiation of the Jewish people for their behavior. It uses the metaphor of people’s flesh being cut into a pot. Not very peaceful at all.
Where else have we seen a pot without meat in it?
Yup, that’s right. This week’s Torah portion again (Genesis 25:27-34):
When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the outdoors; but Jacob became a mild man, raising livestock. Isaac favored Esau because he had a taste for game; but Rebekah favored Jacob.
Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the open, famished. And Esau said to Jacob, “Give me some of that red stuff to gulp down, for I am famished”—which is why he was named Edom.
Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” And Esau said, “I am at the point of death, so of what use is my birthright to me?” But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.
Jacob then gave Esau bread and lentil stew; he ate and drank, and he rose and went away. Thus did Esau spurn the birthright.
In this story, we learn of Jacob’s maneuvering to get Esau’s birthright by trading him some lentil stew. Yes, pot without meat in it!
This conflict-filled moment is also a hint toward a better future. While Jacob and Esau do have tremendous difficulty with one another as a result of this story, we know that it ends peacefully.
Dream of peace, overflow with Torah, and feed one another.
Altogether, these texts point us in the direction of what life is ultimately about: growing as human beings and bringing peace to one another.
As we look at our lives and our daily interactions, we might look at one another and see each other as wells flowing with water.
We can draw wisdom from one another by digging deeper. We can overflow with kindness, helping replenish each other when the wells seem dry. We can give each other life and peace by feeding one another, not just with literal food but with the generosity of spirit like an ever-flowing stream.
May we dream of peaceful times.