Musar su Genesi 26:22

We deal here with an allusion to the three Temples that will be home to G–d on the soil of this land. Isaac had been an unblemished total offering on the site of the future altar in the Holy Temple. This is why the names of the wells allude to that event. Nachmanides explained it in these words: "The Torah elaborates on this matter of the wells, although, when reading the plain meaning of these verses, they do not appear to be particularly relevant, nor to confer much honor on Isaac. All we are told is that Isaac did the same in his time as his father Abraham had done at the time he had lived in the land of the Philistines. There is, however, a mystical dimension to all this. The Torah reveals here some historic events of the future. The words באר מים חיים 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 מקור מים חיים, "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. During that period that very name שטנה appears in the early years of the reign of Ahasverus. We find Ezra 4,6 describing that period: "They wrote Sitnah against the inhabitants of Yehudah and Jerusalem." This hostility against the Jewish state and the Temple continued throughout practically all the time that it stood. Eventually, our foes destroyed the Temple and we were consigned to a bitter exile. The third well, רחובות, 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. Concerning this Temple it is written in Ezekiel 41,7: ורחבה ונסבה למעלה למעלה, "and a widening; it will keep winding and encompassing upwards." The last words in Genesis 26,22 will then be fulfilled, ופרינו בארץ, "we shall then be fruitful in the land." This means that all of the nations will serve G–d, as per Tzefaniah 3,9. Thus far Nachmanides on our verses.