“They took him (Joseph) and cast him into the pit; the pit was empty, no water was in it” (Genesis 37:24).
Our sages took note of the seeming redundancy here. If the pit was empty, it had no water.
The Talmud famously suggests that yes, it had no water – but it did have snakes and scorpions! (Tractate Shabbat 22a)
There is a vital lesson here for us. Water is symbolic of Torah. Letting our spiritual tanks go to empty is dangerous. Nature abhors a vacuum. If our minds are not filled with Torah – they will get filled up with negativity.
If we fill ourselves with Torah and positive spiritual thoughts, there won’t be room for darkness. The Kotzker Rebbe would say that he doesn’t avoid sin so much because it’s wrong but because there is no time. Being busy with learning, working on our character traits, and helping others simply doesn’t allow time for us to go off course.
By Rabbi Michael Skobac
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