Imagine… Avraham and Yitzchak come to the land of Israel. Maybe it was hot. Maybe it hadn't rained in a while. You need water to live, don't you? Where can we find… water? Well, maybe we should dig some wells…
Imagine… Avraham and Yitzchak come to the world. The only thing humanity is concerned with is the physical, the earthly. Completely dry. God may be God up in heaven, but down here, all that matters is what's on the surface of reality. God isn't to be seen. In fact, no one is really looking. Our Sages teach us that the Avot (founding fathers) started the world of tikkun (fixing). They were the ones who brought God down into the physical world. They were able to show how even in the coarsest, most mundane aspects of the world, there are wellsprings of life, beauty and holiness just below the surface. Life, on the face of it, may sometimes feel dry and stale and old, days repeat themselves and nothing really changes. All there is is what you can see;there's nothing deeper, nothing new and beautiful to live and connect to. The Avot discovered that in all of the earthiness and apparent dryness, there is a spark. It's hidden, maybe deeply hidden, but it's always there, if you're willing to dig for it. Everything in the world has holiness and meaning in it, every desire, every day you live, every person you meet. Only - you have to dig through all the dirst, all the surface levels covering it up. You have to touch that place of mayim chaim (living waters), that well that springs from deep inside the earth itself, from deep within the reality of the world itself. The Avot showed that God isn't the God of the heavens; He is in heaven and in earth. He's in every moment of my life, in everything I see around me, even when they seem the furthest away from what I understand of life and truth, even when they seem dead and false!
Many time we run into "Philistines" in the world and in ourselves, that try to fill up the wells that we've managed to dig; "You think he's really your friend?!? Don't be ridiculous; there's not really any such thing as true friendship, true love - he must want something from you! What's the reason he's your friend? Maybe it's because you're funny or smart or 'cool?' Maybe you make him feel good about himself? Don't be so na?ve!!!" Then suddenly, all the light and life and love that you felt a second ago gets covered up under layers of dirt and cynicism.
When that happens, don't give up! Dig another well! And another! Don't let the "Philistines" in you tell you that people are all the same, that your life (or even this day in your life) has no real meaning or purpose, that your feelings of love are just the effects of hormones on your brain… Look deeper, dig deeper, and see the spark of holiness and meaning that God put in everything He created.
Look deep inside yourself. You can't count on other people's wells. Avraham's wells got filled-up so that Yitzchak would need to dig them again, because Yitzchak has to dig his own wells. No one else can connect to God for you, and no one can dig the wells that you can dig. Your path to God has to be your path, and not someone else's. Only after you've truly, deeply dug on your own can you go back, and, like Yitzchak, call the wells by the name your fathers gave them, reconnect to the wells of your fathers and teachers and draw water and life from there, too.
It's hard sometimes. I go through life and I don't always know how to dig these wells. Sometimes my days feel dead and lifeless, just a bunch of hours to go till I can go to sleep again. I don't always know how to see how full of beauty and light life is. Those times are always painful; but maybe it's exactly that pain that gives you the strength and the desire not to give up, to search under all the dirt that sometimes covers everything and find that place where the world is continuously fresh and new and full of the glory and the beauty that God endows it with… Good Shabbes…