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Toledot November 14, 2026
Dear CAS Friends, This week's Torah portion, Toledot, whose name means "generations" or "descendants," invites us to consider what one generation inherits from another, and what responsibility we have to those who will follow us. One of the most striking passages in the parashah describes Isaac returning to the wells his father Abraham had dug. After Abraham's death, the Philistines had stopped up the wells. Isaac reopens them, giving them the very same names his father had given them. The commentator Chizkuni suggests that Isaac does this deliberately, recognizing that the success he enjoys is connected to his father's merit and the work his father had established. Isaac understands that not everything he accomplishes begins with him. But Isaac doesn't simply restore his father's work. As he digs, he encounters resistance. The first well becomes Esek (dispute), the second Sitnah (hostility). Finally, he moves on and digs another well, Rechovot (open spaces), declaring: "Now at last the LORD has granted us ample space to increase in the land." Isaac honors what his father built, works through the obstacles that stand in his way, and ultimately creates something new. This story reminds us that every generation inherits something from those who came before: their wisdom, values, accomplishments, dreams, and sometimes their unfinished business. Sometimes we are called to continue a journey someone else began. Sometimes we must reopen wells that have been stopped up, restoring access to something precious. And sometimes, after honoring what came before, we must dig entirely new wells of our own. We see this even earlier in Genesis, when Abraham continues the journey to Canaan that his father, Terah, had begun but never completed. Perhaps this is part of what it means to live within a chain of generations. We are neither starting from scratch nor simply repeating what came before. We are entrusted with an inheritance, but also with the responsibility to shape it. We might ask ourselves: What have previous generations set in motion that deserves to continue? What has been neglected that needs to be restored? And what new wells might we dig for those who will come after us? Perhaps the measure of a generation is not only what it accomplishes in its own lifetime, but also what it makes possible for the generation that follows. May we have the wisdom to honor the journeys we have inherited, the courage to continue the work that matters, and the imagination to create new possibilities. And may those who follow us find not only the work we leave unfinished, but also the space and resources to build something even greater. Shabbat shalom, Rabbi Dahlia Bernstein
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