Parashat Vayigash- Desert Revelations

Yitzhak. Vayomer Ehlohim l’Yisrael b’mar’ot halaila vayomer Yaakov Yaakov vayomer hineini. Vayomer Anokhi haEl ehlohei avikha al tira meirda Mitzraimah ki l’goi gadol asimkha sham.

And Israel journeyed with all that was his, and he came to Beer Sheva and offered sacrifices to God, the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night, and said, “Yaakov, Yaakov” and he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “I am the God of your father; do not fear going down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there.”

On his journey back to Joseph, Jacob travels by way of Beer Sheva. It is a logical stop on the way to Egypt from Hebron, a last stop before entering the desert. It was a place of peace between Avraham and Avimelekh. Beer Sheva is a natural oasis, the site of seven wells dug by Isaac (of which three or four have been identified). It is the place Jacob left just prior to his famous dream and his full acceptance of the covenant with God.  It would later be a site of refuge for Elijah, and one of the cities rebuilt by the Jews after the return from Babylon. Beer Sheva marked the southern tip of biblical Israel.

In modern times Beer Sheva continued to inspire. A growing city, Beer Sheva is home to Ben Gurion University, founded with the Ben Gurion’s ideal of making the desert bloom. David Ben Gurion once said, “In Israel, to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.” Beer Sheva is a place from which miracles emerge. There is a calming spirituality there, on the edge of the desert. Avraham found it. Isaac knew it. Yaakov returned to it.  And Ben Gurion envisioned it the seed of a modern miracle.