“Isaac in search of water remembered where Abraham his father had dug wells.  The Philistines had covered them up and they were lost.  But ‘Isaac,’ we are told, ‘dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham, his father, and found there a well of living water.”

This becomes the refrain of Rabbi Olan’s sermon: let us dig again the wells of our fathers and find a well of living water.

At a time when liberals and conservatives seem to be more polarized than at any time in living memory, maybe we could benefit from the Rabbi’s request that we consider the true meaning of these words.  How can we welcome the new without cutting ourselves off from the “living waters” of the past?

*Written by Joshua Hirsch.*