There is something happening beneath the surface. We often go through life living at face value. We take events and coincidences for granted. We make decisions based on empirical evidence. Sometimes we journey through life as if we are on autopilot. Every once in a while, we need to stop to acknowledge and appreciate that which lies beneath the surface. Let’s see how that plays out in our Torah, so that we can translate it into our lives.

In this week’s parasha, Jacob leaves his father’s house after he received the blessing of the first born, instead of Esav, and he goes off on a journey. Let’s all turn to page 166, and catch a glimpse of the beginning of his journey. Jacob sets out for Charan, and he came upon a certain place. Vayifga Bamakom. He bumps into a place. This word Vayifga signals a chance encounter. This wasn’t an intentional journey, yet. This was a place he just fell into. He lays down, anxious and lonely, and he has a beautiful dream. He dreams of a ladder with its base on the ground and its top in the heavens; angels are going up and coming down. He wakes up and says, “Surely God is in this place and I did not know it! – achen yesh Adonai bamakom hazeh, va’anochi lo yadati.” I was living my life, business as usual, and I didn’t realize that something was actually happening beneath the surface. There’s a bigger picture that I haven’t picked up on yet. I thought I just happened to find myself in Charan, but then, I started to dream, to develop my imagination, and I caught a glimpse.

And when Jacob resumes his journey, he sees the world through fresh eyes. His vision deepens, and he begins to see the connections, the spirituality, the emotional potential of every encounter. Before he was sleep-walking through life, and now he’s on a journey with his eyes wide open.

The very next episode in the Torah describes Jacob, with his newfound spiritual vision and imagination, as he meets Rachel at a well of water – a be’er mayim. Now, Jacob is seeing things beneath the surface.

Mysterious and profound things happen when people meet at the well. Avraham’s servant Eliezer found Rivkah at a well; Moshe met Tzipporah at a well. We learned in last week’s parasha, that Yitzchak traveled through the land of Israel digging up the wells that his father had dug. The well of water is a prominent symbol in the Torah. Why is the well of water so significant for these encounters?

First let’s talk water, then we’ll talk about the well. Jewish wisdom is often compared to water because it nourishes us and it sustains us. The midrash teaches that just as water is a source of life for the world, so too the Torah is a source of life for the world. Just as water is from heaven, so too the Torah is from heaven. The midrash continues. Just as [the downpour of] water is accompanied by loud thunderings, so too the Torah was given with loud thunderings. Just as water restores the soul, so too does the Torah. Just as rain water comes down in drops and forms rivers, so too with the Torah; a man learns two verses today and two tomorrow, until he becomes like a flowing stream. Just as water has no taste unless one is thirsty, so the Torah has no taste unless one labors at it. Just as water leaves a high place and flows to a low one, so too the Torah leaves one whose spirit is proud and cleaves to one whose spirit is lowly. Just as water does not keep well in a vessel of silver or gold but in the commonest of vessels, so too the Torah resides only in one who makes himself like a vessel of earthenware … Just as with water, if one does not know how to swim in it, he will be drowned, so with the words of the Torah, if one does not know how to thread his way in them, he will ultimately come to grief.

This is the significance of the symbol of water. There is a deep and meaningful connection between water and Jewish spirituality. Water symbolizes the spiritual source that provides us with nourishment.

What about the well? Some water pours down from above, some water pours out from the faucet, some water collects in oceans and pools. Not so the water of the well. The water of the well flows beneath the surface. And ever once in a while, we catch a glimpse of the well and its nourishing waters. Sometimes we experience one of these chance meetings, and we don’t realize the significance until much later—and we understand that perhaps it wasn’t by chance. Intimate and powerful relationships start at the well. The water of the well lies beneath the surface. This is the spirituality that Jacob teaches us as he journeys from place to place, from experience to experience, encounter to encounter.

Jacob’s journey teaches us about his unique kind of spirituality, his distinct connection with God. In the Talmud, each of our three daily prayer services are attributed to the three patriarchs—based on verse from the Torah. Abraham “rose early in the morning to the place where he had stood before God” (19:27). Isaac “went out to meditate in the field towards evening” (24:63). Jacob “met, encountered, came across” God. These are different kinds of religious experience.

Abraham initiated the quest for God. He was a creative religious personality—the father of all those who set out on a journey of the spirit, intentionally, to an unknown destination. Abraham sought God before God sought him.

Isaac’s prayer is described as a sichah, literally, a conversation or dialogue. There are two parties to a dialogue—one who speaks and one who listens. Isaac represents the religious experience as conversation between the word of God and the word of humanity.

Jacob’s prayer is very different. He does not initiate it. Vayifga bamakom, he bumps into it. His thoughts are elsewhere—on Esau from whom he is escaping, and on Laban to whom he is travelling. Into this troubled mind comes a vision of God and the angels and a stairway connecting earth and heaven. He has done nothing to prepare for it. It is unexpected. Jacob literally “encounters” God as we can sometimes encounter a familiar face among a crowd of strangers. None of us knows when the presence of God will suddenly intrude into our lives. Jacob encounters God as the water beneath the well.

There is an element of the religious life that is beyond conscious control. Vayfiga bamakom, when you bump into a place, means that, thinking of other things, we find that we have walked into the presence of God.

My favorite Grateful Dead song is called Scarlet Begonias. “Once in while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.”

Ribono shel Olam, help us look at the world right. Help us to recognize those moments when we’re standing by the well—the water rushing beneath the surface. May we see the world with our eyes side open—ready to encounter others with openness and faith, prepared to deepen our relationships with empathy and hope. And together let us say: amen.

© Ranon Teller 2006

Sermon Classification: 150