“Ho, all who are thirsty, Come for water, Even if you have no money; Come, buy food and eat: Buy food without money, wine and milk without cost.”
Isaiah 55:1
הוֹי כׇּל־צָמֵא לְכוּ לַמַּיִם וַאֲשֶׁר אֵֽין־לוֹ כָּסֶף לְכוּ שִׁבְרוּ וֶאֱכֹלוּ וּלְכוּ שִׁבְרוּ בְּלוֹא־כֶסֶף וּבְלוֹא מְחִיר יַיִן וְחָלָב
וַיַּחְפְּרוּ עַבְדֵי־יִצְחָק בַּנָּחַל וַיִּמְצְאוּ־שָׁם בְּאֵר מַיִם חַיִּים׃
“But when Isaac’s servants, digging in the wadi, found there a well of spring water,”
Genesis 26:19, Sefaria.org
“Woe to the sinners who consider the Torah as mere worldly tales, who only see its outer garment; happy are the righteous who fix their gaze on the Torah proper. Wine cannot be kept save in a jar; so the Torah needs an outer garment. These are the stories and narratives, but it behooves us to penetrate beneath them.”�Zohar III:152a, Soncino Press Edition
“When God created the world, He intended that the Torah would illumine the path of each person so that he would recognize his Creator. But when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, they blemished man’s ability to receive from the Torah directly. Since then, the Torah’s message is hidden and must come to us through many “cloaks” and concealments. This is especially true of the stories and parables found in the Torah, Talmud and Midrash, which conceal deep mysteries. These stories deliver the hidden message of the Torah in a manner that can be received by all, for when Torah is revealed, great wealth and blessings abound.”
REBBE NACHMAN'S TORAH: GENESIS - Breslov Insights into the Weekly Torah Reading (pp. 221-222). Breslov Research Institute. Kindle Edition.
“And Cush begat Nimrod, and he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before HaShem: wherefore it is said, “Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before HaShem.”
Genesis 10:8-9
On that day, Esau murdered Nimrod (the king of Babylonia).
Midrash cited at Chabad.org
Rebecca took the coveted clothes of Esau . . . and put them on Jacob (27:15)
“These are the clothes which Esau coveted from Nimrod, �killing him in order to take them from him.”
Midrash Rabbah cited at Chabad.org
“Jacob will never let Esau be victorious and trap forever the souls waiting for rectification. He will grab hold of Esau and eventually remove those souls from his grip.”� �Rebbe Nachman’s Torah, Parashat Toldot, �Breslov Research Institute, pg. 207
“Messiah ben Joseph comes forth, his hand grasping Esau’s heel; the Sitra Achra has a hold on the heels of holiness at the lower levels, and accordingly the Messiah ben Joseph must go into all parts of the husk, even the heels, to extract every good part of it, for which reason ‘his hand grasps the heel of Esau’, and that is the underlying meaning of the ‘on the heels of the Messiah’, that is necessary to subdue these heels.”�R’ Moshe Hayyim Luzzato, Megilat Setarim 7, cited in Messianic Mysticism, Isaiah Tishby, Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, pg. 243
He dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it (26:22)
“The first two wells allude to the first two Temples, which the enemies of Israel destroyed. The third well represents the Third Temple which shall speedily be built, which will be established without animosity and strife; G‑d will then broaden our boundaries, and all nations will serve Him in unison.”
Nachmanides cited at Chabad.org
He called the name of it Sitnah (“animosity”) (26:21)
“This comes to teach us that there is not a righteous man who does not have detractors.”
Midrash HaBiur cited at Chabad.org
“Isaac had been an unblemished total offering on the site of the future altar in the Holy Temple. . . The Torah reveals here some historic events of the future. The words in 26,19 refer to the Holy Temple which Isaac’s descendants will erect. We know from Jeremiah 17,13 that G’d is described as “the Fount of living waters.” Isaac called the first well Essek, an allusion to the first Temple over which the Gentile nations engaged us in many disputes. They attacked Jerusalem and the Temple repeatedly until eventually it was destroyed…The second well, called Sitnah a name reflecting even greater harassment than the first, refers to the second Temple…The third well, Rechovot is an allusion to the Third Temple which will be built in the future, and which will not be subject to strife and hostility from our neighbors. At that time G’d will expand the borders of our country as He has promised in Deut. 19,8.”
R’ Isaiah Horowitz, Shney Luchot HaBrit, Vol. 1, Lambda Publishers, pg. 164
“So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Yeshua therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Yeshua said to her, “Give Me a drink.”8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10 Yeshua answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” (John 4:5-12)
“Rabbi Yehuda said: “I have given to you [one] shekhem” – this is the birthright and the garment of Adam the first man.”
Bereshit Rabbah 97:6
“ONE PORTION. Some say that shekhem (portion) alludes to the city of Shechem which was in the portion of the land allotted to Joseph.”
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 48:22, Sefaria.org
וַאֲנִ֞י נָתַ֧תִּֽי לְךָ֛ שְׁכֶ֥ם אַחַ֖ד עַל־אַחֶ֑יךָ �אֲשֶׁ֤ר לָקַ֙חְתִּי֙ מִיַּ֣ד הָֽאֱמֹרִ֔י בְּחַרְבִּ֖י וּבְקַשְׁתִּֽי׃
“And now, I assign to you one portion more than to your brothers, �which I wrested from the Amorites with my sword and bow.”
Genesis 48:22
“You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” 26 Yeshua said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” 27 And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?” 28 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him…” (John 4:22-29)
“In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” 33 Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! 36 And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.37 For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.” 39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.”�(John 4:31-39)
“So when it is said in John 4:35 that there are four months left until the harvest, this must have been spoken four months before the middle of Nisan, that is, around the middle of Kislev.”
Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, ed. Jacob N. Cerone, trans. Jacob N. Cerone, A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud & Midrash (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2022), 509.
“So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of His own word. 42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Messiah, the Savior of the world. And after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee… ”
John 4:5-43
New King James Version (Modified)
אֵין ״מַיִם״ אֶלָּא תּוֹרָה
“There is no water �but the Torah.”�Bava Kamma 17a
“The words of the Torah are compared with water: as water is life for the world, so are the words of the Torah life for the world (see Prov 4:22). Just as water leads the unclean from his impurity, so also the words of the Torah lead man from the evil way to the good way (see Ps 19:8). Just as water is free for the world, so also the words of the Torah are free for the world (see Ps 19:8; Isa 55:1)."
Sifre Deuteronomy 11:22 § 48 (84A), cited in Strack & Billerbeck
“R. Hanina b. Idi (ca. 300) said, “Why are the words of the Torah compared with water, as it is said in Isa 55:1, ‘All you who are thirsty, come to the water’? This is meant to say to you that just as the water leaves a high place and runs down to a low place, so the words of the Torah only have a meaning when the mind is humble.”
Ta‘anit 7A, cited in Strack & Billerbeck
“R. Yohanan said, “The word באר well is written forty-eight times in the Torah, which corresponds to the forty-eight things by which the Torah is acquired (which is like a well of living water). This is what Song 4:15 means: ‘from the spring of the gardens, the well of living water and that which flows from Lebanon.’
Midrash on Song of Songs 4:15, Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, ed. Jacob N. Cerone, trans. Jacob N. Cerone, A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud & Midrash (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2022), 502.
וְאוֹלִיפְנָא דְּקוּדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא תּוֹרָה אִקְרֵי, וְאֵין מַיִם אֶלָּא תּוֹרָה, וְאֵין תּוֹרָה אֶלָּא קוּדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא
“We have learned that the Holy One, blessed be He, �is called ‘Torah’. Therefore, water is Torah, and Torah �is the Holy One, blessed be He.”�Zohar, Shemot, Beshalach, Zohar.com
The combined numerical value of the names YitZChak (208) and RiVKaH (307) is 515, the same as the numerical value of the word TeFiLaH - for both of them had to invoke the power of prayer (Likutey Halakhot VIII, p. 33a-33b)
REBBE NACHMAN'S TORAH: GENESIS - Breslov Insights into the Weekly Torah Reading (p. 200). Breslov Research Institute. Kindle Edition.
תפלה
“The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters;�The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook.”
Proverbs 18:4, NKJV
“To pray means to dig deep within ourselves. To clear away dirt, rocks, and debris. To have faith that eventually, we will find water. Deep down beyond our self-centered ego lies the fresh flowing waters of our Divine core. Prayer helps us become reunited with that part of our selves. To pray means to discover a fresh perspective about who we are and our reality. The person who begins prayers should be very different from the person who concludes them. You began as someone ensnared in your own self-centered reality, feeling arrogant and entitled. By digging deep into your emotional and spiritual self, you emerge as a humbler individual, aware of and grateful for all the good G-d has given.”
Weisberg, Chana. Shabbat deLights: Enlightening Insights on the Weekly Torah portion (p. 77). Chabad.org and EZRA. Kindle Edition.
“…whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty. The water that I give him will become a fountain of water within him, springing up to eternal life!”
John 4:13
“…the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!”
And let him who hears say, “Come!”
And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”
Revelation 22:17