Fleeing for his life after killing an Egyptian taskmaster, Moses finds himself by a well in Midian. He intervenes on behalf of the seven daughters of the local priest, pushing past the shepherds to provide water for the women’s flocks.

This heroic intervention sparks the above response from their father. The Midrash reads these words as a recognition by Re’uel that this drawer of water is clearly someone special: “Since you say that he drew water and provided for all of the flocks, he must be one of the children of Jacob, who stood by the well, and the well was blessed on his behalf” (Shemot Rabbah 1).

Jacob, who also met his wife Rachel by a well, came from a long line of well-builders. Each patriarch has their own story of building and maintaining wells. Water, an important resource in its own right, represents the power of this family to nourish those around them.

Moses’s moment by the well resonates with his family history, and is also a sign of things to come throughout his own life. As a baby, he was cast into the Nile and then rescued.

His ability to split the waters of the sea will be crucial to the Israelites’ escape from Egypt, and ultimately the issue of providing water to his people in the desert will be his undoing, as he strikes the rock when faced with national thirst.

The book of Shemot represents a narrative shift, as the Torah moves away from the story of a single family and begins to follow a nation and their travails. Moses’s encounter at the well reminds us that he, like the nation he leads, is still very much a member of the family started by Sarah and Abraham.

As the Midrash intimates, his relationship with water is a symbol of the ways in which he is poised to bring blessing into the world.

Bruce Feiler, the author of The Secrets of Happy Families, has written about the importance of having a family narrative that is passed down from one generation to the next.

The Jewish community has many such narratives. The story of bringing water to the world, and with it nourishment and life, is one of those stories. Let it inspire our Jewish families for generations to come.