One More Try (29:10)

In this week’s Torah portion, Jacob, who has run away from Eisav in order to escape his brother’s animosity, arrives in Charan seeking refuge.  His first stop in the new land is the local watering hole where several shepherds are lounging around.

Jacob is puzzled at their lack of industriousness.  His exact words to them are, “It’s still the middle of the day.  It’s not yet time to bring the livestock together.  Why not water the sheep and go on grazing?”  They are quick to answer, “We can’t, until all the flocks have come together.  Then all of us will roll the stone from the well’s mouth.”

While this conversation is going on, Jacob’s cousin and soon to be first love, appears.  Not wishing that Rachel and her sheep should have to wait, Jacob steps forward and single-handedly rolls away the stone covering the well.

Our Rabbis question the entire episode.  First of all, what is the point of the narrative?  Why was Jacob so critical of the shepherds, accusing them of idleness?  And if he was objecting that they had not even attempted reaching the water, how did he in fact know that they had previously not tried moving away the rock?  Perhaps they had already tried before and meeting no success, realized that further attempts were futile?

The Sfas Emes answers that even if their initial efforts failed, they still had no excuse for not trying again.  And that is the point that the Torah wishes to make in recounting the story.
How often does it occur that one finds himself stymied by a particular obstacle, yet after repeated persistence everything falls into place?  Or a group of people all failing to open up a stubborn bottle cap only to see someone much weaker accomplish what they had deemed impossible?

It is not necessary to theorize that Jacob was some Herculean figure.  If so, how could he demand of the shepherds what normal strength could not accomplish?  Rather, Jacob’s moving of the rock was to show them that they had given up prematurely.  For even if their previous efforts appeared a waste of time and energy,  it was probably their efforts that had loosened the rock sufficiently for anyone, even themselves, to move had they just tried one more time.

The argument of Jacob has recently become the rallying cry of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Schneerson.  “Now is not the time to give up hope,” he says.  “So what if you’ve been all these years in exile.  Moshiach and Redemption could be just one mitzvah away. Give it one more try.”