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Actions: Is Newer Better?

By: Leah Sadesky

In life there are many opportunities for us to choose to be passive or active. In this week's parsha, Parshat Toldot, Almost all we see of Yitzchak are the actions that are being done to him. For example, in last week's parsha Rivkah is the wife chosen for him and in this week's parsha, Rivkah schemes behind his back to ensure that Yaakov will receive the brachot. There is one action written explicitly in the text that talks about how Yitzchak dug up the wells that his father dug which were then closed up by the Plishtim.
״וישב יצחק ויפטר את בררת המים אשר חפרו בימי אברהם ויקרא להן שמות אשר קרא להן אביו״ -בראשית כו:י
“Issac dug anew the wells which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham’s death; and he gave them the same name that his father had given them” - Bereisheet 26:18
 
Why is the one action, that Yitzchak does a repetition of his father's exact actions instead of doing something new? In order for us to understand that, we have to understand why Avraham named the wells in the first place. In the Haktav V 'hakabala, they explain that Avraham named each well with a name of God hidden in it. The reason he did this is so that even for people who did not recognize Gods presence  in their lives would mention Gods name when they talked about the well and would therefore  be inserting God into their life. Yitzchak saw the importance in what his father did and kept the legacy his father instilled in him by creating opportunities for other to recognize God as well. Watching Yitzchak do an action that doesn’t seem so important at first, makes us realize that even a repetitive action had significant importance to it. Often in  in the world we are most impressed with  people who make  extreme life changes,  but  in reality the ones who keep the traditions of his father work incredibly hard to make a  difference in the world.
Shabbat Shalom!