by Prof. Eugene Narrett - copyright 2006

It is written that the deeds of the fathers are a pattern for the sons (their descendants). And so it is with particular relevance to the nightmare in Gush Katif that we may consider the work, sojourn, and travails of Isaac and Rebecca among the Pilishtim in southwestern Israel.

Note that these pilishtim led by King Avimelech around 1700 BCE are NOT the “sea peoples” (forerunners of those the Romans called “Greeks” and who, around 500 bce began calling themselves “Hellenes”) mentioned by Egyptian records about 1400 BCE and after. Rather, these earlier pilishtim under Avimelech were some kind of Hittite people like those around Hevron from whom Avraham purchased the double (Machpela) cave, and with whom Esau intermarried (26:34-5). Thus, Torah indicates here, with the earliest mention of pilishtim that the word is to be understood in its strict sense as denoting a “trespasser” or “invader” on the land G-d apportioned for the descendants of Avraham and Yitzhak through Jacob. So when the brutal Romans under Hadrian (135 CE) adapted the word into Latin and inflicted the place name “Palestina” on Judah and Israel they were only affirming, despite their intent to erase the past the ancient idea that any inhabitants of the land except the Jewish people are “trespassers” and “invaders,” liars, thieves and aggressors as Isaac and Rebecca’s experiences with Avimelech show.

The action centers on Gerar which was in the area of Gush Katif and the lands to the southwest of it, by Rafah, the northeastern coast of the Sinai Peninsula and its hinterland. To this day local Arabs refer to the area as “Gerara.” Back then, the trespasser king and his people lusted for Rebecca and pursued the holy couple wherever they went, lusting even more for the water and wealth that showed the grace Isaac and Rebecca had from Hashem.

After the concupiscent but fearful Avimelech had driven them away, “Isaac sowed in that land, and in that year he reaped a hundredfold; thus had Hashem blessed him. The man became great and kept becoming greater until he was very great. He had acquired flocks and herds and many enterprises. And the pilishtim envied him” (Genesis 26:12-14).

There is nothing new under the sun. The trespassers and invaders want what the Jewish people create through their grace, love and labor but once they have stolen it, they do not use but rather destroy it, as history shows and as we have seen again and again in our days. They want the land, and when they have it they destroy it. They want the greenhouses, and when they are given them, they destroy them. They want the water, and when they have it, they pollute it.

“All the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Avraham his father, the Pilishtim stopped up and filled with earth. And Avimelech said to Yitzhak, ‘go away from us for you have become much mightier than we!’ So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the valley of Gerar, and dwelled there. And Isaac dug anew the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Avraham his father and the pilishtim had stopped up after Avraham’s death. And he [Isaac] called them by the same names as his father had called them (Genesis 26:15-18).

Note how Esau and Ishmael to this day follow the pattern of the trespassers and invaders: the Jews come to their Promised Land, to complete the covenant the Master and Maker for which the Universe has elected them as His partners. The Jews make the land blossom, make every land blossom, create, build, stimulate, enlighten, become great and then are envied, vilified, robbed and chased away. Conclusion: the nations have a habitual war with G-d. They are on THE OTHER SIDE… Their attacks on Israel reflect directly their lack of holiness.

Isaac, a pattern for the Jewish people creates Rehovot, — breadth, expansiveness, liberty, and those who invade and envy them, who appropriate the covenant create the inverse of this grace: Chorovot: destruction, to the land, the world, the soul.

But still and forever the Jewish people persist because G-d Almighty has blessed and chosen them. Thus, again after these aggressions and expulsions, “Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of fresh water. The [pilishtim] herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen saying, ‘the water is ours!’ [a forerunner of Laban’s tirade and threats against Jacob,- “the children are mine, the flocks are mine, and everything that you have is mine!’].

Isaac was not deterred. He knew the score. So he commemorated the essence of the situation with a name, the essential Jewish testimony, — naming [words are things], witness - teaching, walking in the path of the fathers, and moved on with his mission: “So Isaac called the name of that well Esek because they contended against him. Then he dug another well and they quarreled over that also. So he named it ‘Sitnah‘ [”hostility”]. He relocated from there and dug another well. They did not quarrel over it so he called it ‘Rehovot’ and said, “for God now has granted us an ample space, and we can be fruitful in the land.”

The sages teach that the first two wells and the response of the “trespassers” and “invaders” of the world prefigured the assaults on and destruction of the first two Temples. The rehovot, spaciousness that Yitzhak uncovered prefigures the Third Temple. As its emplacement draws near it too will bring contention and the epitome of hypocritical envy and malice from the nations who seem, until the 2/3 destruction [chorovot] foretold by Ezekiel, Zechariah, Joel and others will not desist in their grabbing at Israel with their many legions and cohorts… They will come with their armed might, calling war, “peace” and calling theft “a covenant,” their “covenant.”

So “Avimelech went after Isaac [by Rehovot] with a group of his friends and with Phicol, General of his legion. Isaac said to him, ‘why have you come against me? You hate me and drove me away from you!?’ And they said, ‘we have indeed seen that Hashem has been with you, so we said, ‘let the oath between ourselves now be between us and you and let us make a covenant with you…………..’” Woe, O woe: forerunner of the peace-by-pieces process.

And yet the Almighty had appeared are reiterated the covenant at Beersheba, where so many of those expelled from the area of Gerar are now situated, waiting for redemption when they should move on and dig new wells, following in the pattern of Isaac. For “Hashem appeared to him that night and said, ‘I am the God of your father Avraham: fear not, for I am with you! I will bless you and increase your offspring because of Avraham My servant.’ Isaac built an altar there and invoked Hashem by Name.” (26:19-33).

The reiterated covenant, following the trials and persecution and shake-downs of Israel, fathers and sons, remind also of the later pledges and encouragement by the Holy One that ring through all ages: “And you, O Israel, My servant, and Jacob whom I have chosen, whom I have grasped from the ends of the earth, I have summoned you… fear not, for I am with you! Behold! All who are angry with you shall be shamed and humiliated, those who contend with you shall be like nothing and shall perish. Fear not, for I help you!”

The battle is coming and the truth will emerge. “I am your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold! I have made you like a new sharp threshing tool with many blades, and you shall thresh and crush the mountains, and make the hills like chaff. A storm wind shall sweep them away. But you will rejoice in Hashem, in the Holy One of Israel shall you glory!” (Isaiah 41:8-16).

Just so, the name of the second patriarch whose labors and grace teach us of the struggle for Gerar and of Israel’s struggle among the nations is laughter. He will bring rejoicing and spaciousness for us, “a desirable, good, and spacious land.” Leikh Lekha, go to yourself, Israel. Start threshing: get ready for the holiday of joy…