Toldos: Combating Antisemitism by Digging Wells of Our Past

By Mordy Blau

We look around the world today and we see antisemitism everywhere we turn. It's scary. It's daunting. It’s terrifying. How are we meant to respond? What should our mindset be? As always, the best way to answer this question is by turning our attention to this week’s Parsha, where we see one of the first moments of antisemitism and how our avot responded. 

In Parshat Toldot, we hear about Yitzchak’s rise to material success. The Torah tells us that, “the man [Yitzchak] grew richer and richer until he was very wealthy” (Bereshit 26:13). Rashi quotes Bereshit Rabbah which states that Yitzchak got so wealthy that the Plishtim used to say that they would “rather the dung of Yitzchak’s mules than all of the Avimelech’s [King of the Plishtim] gold and silver”. What is the meaning of this Midrash? Granted, he was rich, but why did the Plishtim treat the “dung of Yitzchak’s mules'' in such high regard?

Rabbi Yehoshua Getzel Scheinfeld in his sefer Yalkut Yehoshua, says that there is an alternate explanation to this midrash. Many mefarshim explain the midrash to mean that the Plishtim were jealous of the dung that Yitzchak had and thought it was worth more than the material wealth of Avimelech. The Yalkut Yehoshua says no. Why would the Plishtim value the dung of the mule? The mule is such a lowly animal that they can’t reproduce and are useless. Even if they saw Yitzchak in a positive light, dung is dung! Rather, he explains that the meaning behind the midrash’s words is that the people used to focus on Yitzchak so much so, to the point that they didn’t see him as worthy to own the dung of his mules. They didn’t care that Avimelech had such great wealth. Whatever wealth Yitzchak had, they could not live with.

The Chofetz Chaim says that this is the origin of antisemitism. We see only two verses later that Avimelech tells Yitzchak “Go away from us, for you have become far too big for us” (Bereshit 26:15). Was he a threat? No. Was he dangerous? No. He was a successful Jew so he had to leave.

We see this pattern of anti semitism repeat itself throughout history. Do people look towards how much money the terrorist organizations have? Of course not. They focus on what the small Jewish nation has. The nations of the world don’t think we are worthy of anything. So how do we respond? What are we meant to do? We should follow in Yitzchak’s footsteps. The Torah tells us that after Avimelech told him to leave he “departed from there and encamped in the valley of Gerar, where he settled… [and then] dug anew the wells which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and which the Plishtim had stopped up after Abraham’s death; and he gave them the same names that his father had given them” (Bereshit 26:16-17). Yitzchak got up and continued in the ways of his father. He responded by showing the Plishtim that they couldn’t stop him from keeping the Jewish people alive. 

This is what our response needs to be. We can not let the world hold us back from continuing our tradition and becoming the nation we are meant to be. This is what we showed the world this week in Washington, D.C. Almost 300,000 people came together in solidarity to support the Jewish state and its survival. To win the war on antisemitism, we need to continue in the ways of our forefathers. We need to keep fighting, keep our heads high, and continue digging the wells of our Jewish people.