By Rabbi Ira Flax, Lt. Col., USAF (Ret.)
Of our three patriarchs, Isaac is perhaps the least dramatic. Abraham challenges kings, argues with God, and establishes a covenant. Jacob struggles with angels and becomes Israel.
And Isaac? Isaac digs wells.
In Genesis, the Philistines fill with earth the wells dug by Abraham’s servants. Isaac returns, clears the debris, restores the water, and gives the wells their original names. Abraham established something essential. Isaac made certain it survived.
I spent 26 years in the United States Air Force, serving as a chaplain in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East. Early in my career, I was assigned to an F-16 fighter squadron. We tend to think of the Air Force in terms of pilots and aircraft. However, I spent considerable time with the crew chiefs and mechanics who kept those planes flying. The pilot might fly the mission, but it is the people who inspected, repaired, and maintained the aircraft who ensured the viability of the mission. Their work was repetitive, demanding, largely invisible, and indispensable.
My responsibility was different. As a chaplain, I cared for the people carrying out those missions. Beneath their uniforms were individuals with families, fears, responsibilities, and burdens of their own. Aircraft require maintenance. So do the human beings who fly and maintain them.
Much of military service is not the dramatic act of winning a battle. It is the daily, often unrecognized work of ensuring that the nation remains prepared, protected, and capable of defending itself. It is, in its own way, digging the wells again.
Freedom, like a well, does not maintain itself. It can be neglected, threatened, or lost. Someone must assume responsibility for preserving it. Isaac’s efforts did not immediately bring peace. The Philistines disputed the wells he reopened. He persisted, and eventually Abimelech, who had driven him away, came seeking a covenant. Isaac’s objective was not conquest. It was securing the water necessary for life. And the ultimate purpose of military service is not war. It is preserving the conditions in which peace and ordinary life are possible.
On Veterans Day, we honor those who accepted that responsibility. Some fought in battle. Others maintained aircraft, guarded installations, supplied troops, commanded units, or ministered to those who served. Different duties. A common obligation. I am proud to have served among them. But that obligation does not end when the uniform comes off. The freedoms veterans defended must be preserved by the citizens who inherit them.
Abraham dug the wells. Isaac reopened them. Every generation must decide whether it is willing to keep the water flowing. The wells do not remain open because we remember those who dug them. They remain open because someone keeps digging.
Image: “Isaac Wells” in the collection of Revd. Philip De Vere at St. George’s Court, Kidderminster, England; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Rabbi Ira Flax is a retired JWB-endorsed Air Force chaplain. Learn more about JWB Jewish Chaplains Council and Jews in the military on our website.