Vayeitzei - And the Stone Was Rolled Off The Well

Well, three flocks around it, big rock on well’s top.  Medrash has different takes on the well. Key here, is the rule that the Torah doesn’t tell plain old stories, and from each part there’s what to learn for the path of a Jew.This applies to the well.  

The world is a field.  We can grow beautiful fruits.  And also we can grow thorns and thistles.  So too with all creation. On the one hand we can reach high levels and on the other hand it is a lowly and physical world. When HK”BH - the Holy One Blessed Be He sends a Jew’s soul from the soul quarry to this low world, He prepares a well in the field, a place to take nourishment/nursing to fulfil our task and purpose in this world. And the field, the source of nourishment,  has several aspects:

First of all is Shabbos.  It is THE well in the field, the source of nourishment for a Jew here.  Zohar :All blessings above and below depend on the seventh day.  

The high blessing for the high ones, 

the low ones for the lower people - 

all take nourishment from Shabbos.

This is the meaning of saying the flocks will drink from the well, ALL of the flock, Shabbos nourishes all. Even in the lowest level a Jew can take holy strengthening from Shabbos.  And this gives a person the strength to fulfil his designated mission and purpose in this world.  

VeChagor natnah la’kena’ani - It’s like a drowning person getting a rescue rope and if he can hold it he’s saved.  Shabbos is a life-rope even for one of the level of a Cananite, immoral, yet - even for them Shabbos is a rescuing belt.  

"And there were 3 flocks of sheep grazing around the well." This parallels the three times of Shabbos, three meals, paralleling and fixing nefesh, ruach, and neshamah.  As we sing in Kah Echsof- Shabbos is the sweetness of souls, the seventh day the delight of spirits, and the Eden/bless of souls, to be blissful with Your love and with your awe. Shabbos, my soul longs for your love, Israel finds protection under your wings, is satiated by the abundance of your heart.  Shabbos is the fixing for all parts of the neshamah.

The stone was large, covering the well’s opening. The rock = the Yetzer HaRah (Sukkah 52 - Even is one of the seven names of the Yetzer Harah).  Pasuk says, I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh.  This is the big rock on the well.  As Shabbos approaches the Y”H gets strong, to stuff up his head and heart, to prevent its getting the nourishment it needs.  This is how the Y”H wins, by blocking the nourishment of Shabbos.  After falling in the week you can be renewed by Shabbos. Therefore the Y”H strengthens itself… Country at war and tries to overcome the enemy by making a siege so food and water can’t go in, and then surrender is inevitable- no choice.  The most dangerous Y”H is the taking away of taking in nourishment.

The answer to fight back is to gather together and roll off the stone.  Knesset Yisrael is the partner of Shabbos.  Meaning when we gather together this is our partnering with Holy Shabbos.  An individual is far off from reaching the Holy of Holies of Shabbos, lacking the needed strength.  When all the flocks gather, that united power rolls the rock away and we’re empowered to achieve the level of Shabbos Kodesh.

And Torah itself is the well in the field, nourishment for Jews.  From it we get the nourishment, and drink.  Whatever situation we’re in we get our nourishment from the Holy Torah.  When we’re involved in it and when we’re not we’re protected (Sotah). Torah is the Y”H antidote on any level.  The three flocks allude to (Shabbos 88a) - a threefold Torah (Tanach) to a threefold nation (Kohein…), through the third one (Moshe, third born).  The rock sits on top, but we can beat it, but it tries when we are occupied in Torah, it comes into our thoughts.  Regarding this we have the idea of all the shepherds uniting to roll the rock off the well.  Torah is acquired only in a chaburah/charrutah/connection/group.  An individual can’t reach the Torah, as Chazal say- a sword will be against scholars sitting and learning alone, as the negative forces affect them and make them forget their learning.  Only through the strength of the many, gathering the shepherds of the flocks can the well be rolled off.  

And the well is Tefilah and Avodah, cleaving to G-d, connecting and thus getting nurturing.  The three flocks/three prayers.  Tehillim 55 - Evening, morning, and afternoon I will speak and moan and G-d will hear my voice.  Through this we reconnect with G-d. The rock is the distraction the Y”H brings when we pray, brings confusion, harassment so we won't feel we’re standing before G-d and won’t be able to connect. The answer is to gather all the flocks together. A Tzibur’s tefillah rolls the rock off, is accepted, not rejected.  R of Lechovitch - ten Jewish men together on the outside are an external community, but if they connect inside, they are an internal tzibbbur with special power to roll the rock.

Shabbos has all these elements.  Moshe worried about Torah when the Jews would be busy with their land - what would be of Torah?  Hashem said, Shabbos.  There’s time to learn then, and via it you reach Torah.  And Shabbos is all prayer, a day of closeness to G-d.  all our limbs praise G-d then. R of Kobrin said start with Shabbos to be holy.  Shabbos has all the wells in it from which all the flocks take nourishment.

(learned in a shiur of R Nossen Shafer)