Shabbat Parashat Shemot - 5782

Shabbat Parashat Shemot - 5782

Rabbi Hal Miller Pharaoh heard about this matter and sought to kill Moshe, so Moshe fled from before Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian. He sat at the well. [Shemot 2:15] Why do we need to know that Moshe sat at a well? It doesn't even seem to fit the verse. Rashbam tells us it is nothing to be concerned over, that it is merely a general description of the locality. But we do not find the Torah wasting words, so if it is describing the scenery, there must be a good reason for that description. Sforno explains that when Moshe was passing through Midian, he chose to settle near a certain well-known well. Again, though, there has to be a reason the Torah is telling us about this. Despite having lived before his grandson Rashbam, and well before Sforno, Rashi disagrees with them. He addresses a first, obvious question. The word is vayishev, which can refer to sitting or returning, but more often means dwelling. Rashi specifies that in this case, it means sitting, as one does not ordinarily speak of dwelling by a well. He says that Moshe learned this from Yaakov, who met his mate at a well. What Rashi did not do was explain why this identical word, which appears a few words earlier in this verse, meant 'settled' there, but 'sat' here. With his usual brevity, Rashi hints at the answer without expounding. After the death of Sarah, Avraham sent his servant Eliezer to find a wife for Yitzchak. Eliezer chose to "make his stand" at a well, and even dictated the script for how he would know the right girl. Yitzchak's son Yaakov found himself at a well, where he provided assistance to the girl he was to marry. Now we add Moshe to the list of the most prominent of the earliest Jews meeting their wives at wells. What are we to learn here, and why was Avraham not on this list? When God completed creating everything from scratch, finishing with man, the Torah tells us that God planted a garden in Eden and put the man there. Right after this, it says that a river is there that divides into four, which relate to the provision of riches and needs, and the very essence of life itself. Adam was not born/created at the water, but brought to it. Later, Noach was also did not begin at the water, but was brought to it. Moshe did not begin at the water, but was repeatedly brought to it, first to the Nile, now to the well, later to the Reed Sea, and so forth. In each case, something new and grand was begun by that event beginning the process, be it the creation or the recreation of the species, the creation of monotheism, or creation of the nation. We know that Torah is often compared to water. By substitution, we find that each of our revered ancestors was being brought to Torah at these points in their lives, to establish their way forward in the Master Plan. The issue is not that Yitzchak, Yaakov, and Moshe met wives, but that they established themselves at these points to go forward in Torah and to lead the nation. Why was Avraham not included? This is the wrong question, for he was included in the same Torah reasoning. He attained this position before leaving the Tigris and Euphrates. He already had a wife in Sarah, and together they "came to the well" of Torah.