Lech-Lecha

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Lech-Lecha, Lekh-Lekha, or Lech-L'cha (לך לך – Hebrew for "go!” or "leave!" or "go for you" – the first two words in the parshah) is the third weekly parshah or portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Genesis 12:1–17:27. Jews in the Diaspora read it the third Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in October or November.

Abraham Journeying into the Land of Canaan (illustration by Gustave Doré)

1 Summary
2 In Rabbinic interpretation
3 Commandments
4 Haftarah
5 Further reading
6 External links

[edit] Summary

[edit] The calling of Abraham

God told Abram to leave his native land and his father’s house for a land that God would show him, promising to make of him a great nation, bless him, make his name great, bless those who blessed him, and curse those who cursed him. (Gen. 12:1–3.) Following God’s command, at age 75, Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and the wealth and persons that they had acquired in Haran, and traveled to the terebinth of Moreh, at Shechem in Canaan. (Gen. 12:4–6.)

God appeared to Abram to tell him that God would assign the land to his heirs, and Abram built an altar to God. (Gen. 12:7.) Abram then moved to the hill country east of Bethel and built an altar to God there and invoked God by name. (Gen. 12:8.) Then Abram journeyed toward the Negeb. (Gen. 12:9.)

[edit] Wife as sister

Famine struck the land, so Abram went down to Egypt, asking Sarai to say that she was his sister so that the Egyptians would not kill him. (Gen. 12:10–13.) When they entered Egypt, Pharaoh’s courtiers praised her beauty to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh’s palace. Pharaoh took Sarai as his wife. (Gen. 12:14–15.) Because of her, Abram acquired sheep, oxen, donkeys, slaves, and camels, but God afflicted Pharaoh and his household with mighty plagues. (Gen. 12:16–17.) Pharaoh questioned Abram why he had not told Pharaoh that Sarai was Abram’s wife, but had said that she was his sister.(Gen. 12:18–19.) Pharaoh returned Sarai to Abram and had his men take them away with all their possessions. (Gen. 12:19–20.)

[edit] Abram and Lot divide the land

Abram, Sarai, and Lot returned to the altar near Bethel. (Gen. 13:1–4.) Abram and Lot now had so many sheep and cattle that the land could not support them both, and their herdsmen quarreled. (Gen. 13:5–7.) Abram proposed to Lot that they separate, inviting Lot to choose which land he would take. (Gen. 13:8–9.) Lot saw how well watered the plain of the Jordan was, so he chose it for himself, and journeyed eastward, settling near Sodom, a city of very wicked sinners, while Abram remained in Canaan. (Gen. 13:10–13.)

God promised to give all the land that Abram could see to him and his offspring forever, and to make his offspring as numerous as the dust of the earth. (Gen. 13:14–17.) Abram moved to the terebinths of Mamre in Hebron, and built an altar there to God. (Gen. 13:18.)

[edit] War between the four kings and the five

The Mesopotamian Kings Amraphel of Shinar, Arioch of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer of Elam, and Tidal of Goiim made war on the Canaanite kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar, who joined forces at the Valley of Siddim, now the Dead Sea. (Gen. 14:1–3.) The Canaanite kings had served Chedorlaomer for twelve years, but rebelled in the thirteenth year. (Gen. 14:4.) In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the Mesopotamian kings with him went on a military campaign and defeated several peoples in and around Canaan: the Rephaim, the Zuzim, the Emim, the Horites, the Amalekites, and the Amorites. (Gen. 14:5–7.) Then the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar engaged the four Mesopotamian kings in battle in the Valley of Siddim. (Gen. 14:8–9.) The Mesopotamians routed the Canaanites, and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled into bitumen pits in the valley, while the rest escaped to the hill country. (Gen. 14:10.) The Mesopotamians seized all the wealth of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as Lot and his possessions, and departed. (Gen. 14:11–12.)

Abram and Mechizedek (painting by Peter Paul Rubens)

A fugitive brought the news to Abram, who mustered his 318 retainers, and pursued the invaders north to Dan. (Gen. 14:13–14.) Abram and his servants defeated them at night, chased them north of Damascus, and brought back all the people and possessions, including Lot and his possessions. (Gen. 14:15–16.)

When Abram returned, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh, the Valley of the King. (Gen. 14:17.) King Melchizedek of Salem (Jerusalem), a priest of God Most High, brought out bread and wine and blessed Abram and God Most High, and Abram gave him a tenth of everything. (Gen. 14:18–20.) The king of Sodom offered Abram to keep all the possessions if he would merely return the people, but Abram swore to God Most High not to take so much as a thread or a sandal strap from Sodom, but would take only shares for the men who went with him. (Gen. 14:21–24.)

[edit] The covenant between the pieces

Some time later, the word of God appeared to Abram, saying not to fear, for his reward would be very great, but Abram questioned what God could give him, as he was destined to die childless, and his steward Eliezer of Damascus would be his heir. (Gen. 15:1–3.) The word of God replied that Eliezer would not be his heir, Abram’s own son would. (Gen. 15:4.) God took Abram outside and bade him to count the stars, for so numerous would his offspring be, and because Abram put his trust in God, God reckoned it to his merit. (Gen. 15:5–6.) God directed Abram to bring a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a bird, to cut them in two, and to place each half opposite the other. (Gen. 15:9–10.) Abram drove away birds of prey that came down upon the carcasses, and as the sun was about to set, he fell into a deep sleep. (Gen. 15:11–12.) God told Abram that his offspring would be strangers in a land not theirs, and be enslaved 400 years, but God would execute judgment on the nation they were to serve, and in the end they would go free with great wealth and return in the fourth generation, after the iniquity of the Amorites was complete. (Gen. 15:13–16.) And there appeared a smoking oven, and a flaming torch, which passed between the pieces. (Gen. 15:17.) And God made a covenant with Abram to assign to his offspring the land from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates: the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. (Gen. 15:18–21.)

[edit] Hagar and Ishmael

Having borne no children after 10 years in Canaan, Sarai bade Abram to consort with her Egyptian maidservant Hagar, so that Sarai might have a son through her, and Abram did as Sarai requested. (Gen. 16:1–3.) When Hagar saw that she had conceived, Sarai was lowered in her esteem, and Sarai complained to Abram. (Gen. 16:4–5.) Abram told Sarai that her maid was in her hands, and Sarai treated her harshly, so Hagar ran away. (Gen. 16:6.)

An angel of God found Hagar by a spring of water in the wilderness, and asked her where she came from and where she was going, and she replied that she was running away from her mistress. (Gen. 16:7–8.) The angel told her to go back to her mistress and submit to her harsh treatment, for God would make Hagar’s offspring too numerous to count; she would bear a son whom she should name Ishmael, for God had paid heed to her suffering. (Gen. 16:9–11.) Ishmael would be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him, but he would dwell alongside his kinsmen. (Gen. 16:12.) Hagar called God “El-roi,” meaning that she had gone on seeing after God saw her, and the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. (Gen. 16:13–14.) And when Abram was 86 years old, Hagar bore him a son, and Abram gave him the name Ishmael. (Gen. 16:15–16.)

[edit] The covenant of circumcision

When Abram was 99 years old, God appeared to Abram as El Shaddai and asked him to walk in God’s ways and be blameless, for God would establish a covenant with him and make him exceedingly numerous. (Gen. 17:1–2.) Abram threw himself on his face, and God changed his name from Abram to Abraham, promising to make him the father of a multitude of nations and kings. (Gen. 17:3–6.) God promised to maintain the covenant with Abraham and his offspring as an everlasting covenant throughout the ages, and assigned all the land of Canaan to him and his offspring as an everlasting holding. (Gen. 17:7–8.) God further told Abraham that he and his offspring throughout the ages were to keep God’s covenant and every male (including every slave) was to be circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin at the age of eight days as a sign of the covenant with God. (Gen. 17:9–13.) If any male failed to circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, that person was to be cut off from his kin for having broken God’s covenant. (Gen. 17:14.)

And God renamed Sarai as Sarah, and told Abraham that God would bless her and give Abraham a son by her so that she would give rise to nations and rulers. (Gen. 17:15–16.) Abraham threw himself on his face and laughed at the thought that a child could be born to a man of a hundred and a woman of ninety, and Abraham asked God to bless Ishmael. (Gen. 17:17–18.) But God told him that Sarah would bear Abraham a son, and Abraham was to name him Isaac, and God would maintain the everlasting covenant with him and his offspring. (Gen. 17:19.) In response to Abraham’s prayer, God blessed Ishmael as well and promised to make him exceedingly numerous, the father of twelve chieftains and a great nation. (Gen. 17:20.) But God would maintain the covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah would bear at the same season the next year. (Gen. 17:21.) And when God finished speaking, God disappeared. (Gen. 17:22.) That very day, Abraham circumcised himself at the age of 99, Ishmael at the age of 13, and every male in his household, as God had directed. (Gen. 17:23–27.)

[edit] In Rabbinic interpretation

The Midrash asked why God chose Abraham. Rabbi Hiyya said that Abraham's father Terah manufactured idols and once went away and left Abraham to mind the store. A woman came with a plateful of flour and asked Abraham to offer it to the idols. Abraham took a stick, broke the idols, and put the stick in the largest idol’s hand. When Terah returned, he demanded that Abraham explain what he had done. Abraham told Terah that the idols fought among themselves and the largest broke the others with the stick. “Why do you make sport of me?” Terah cried, “Do they have any knowledge?” Abraham replied, “Listen to what you are saying!” (Genesis Rabbah 38:13.)

The Mishnah taught that Abraham suffered ten trials — starting at Genesis 12:1 — and withstood them all. (Avot 5:3.) The Babylonian Talmud reported that some deduced from Genesis 12:1–2 that change of place can cancel a man’s doom, but another argued that it was the merit of the land of Israel that availed Abraham. (Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah 16b.)

Rab Judah deduced from Genesis 12:3 that to refuse to say grace when given a cup to bless is one of three things that shorten a man’s life. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 55a.) And Rabbi Joshua ben Levi deduced from Genesis 12:3 that every kohen who pronounces the benediction is himself blessed. (Babylonian Talmud Sotah 38b.)

Resh Lakish deduced from Genesis 12:5 that the Torah regards the man who teaches Torah to his neighbor’s son as though he had fashioned him. (Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 99b.)

The Mishnah equated the terebinth of Moreh to which Abraham journeyed in Genesis 12:6 with the terebinths of Moreh to which Moses directed the Israelites to journey in Deuteronomy 11:30 to hear the blessings and curses at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal (Mishnah Sotah 7:5; Babylonian Talmud Sotah 32a), and the Talmud equated both with Shechem. (Babylonian Talmud Sotah 33b.)

The Rabbis deduced from Genesis 12:10 that when there is a famine in town, one should emigrate. (Babylonian Talmud Bava Kamma 60b.) Rab deduced from Genesis 12:11 that Abraham had not even looked at his own wife before that point. (Babylonian Talmud Bava Batra 16a.) Rabbi Helbo deduced from Genesis 12:16 that a man must always observe the honor due to his wife, because blessings rest on a man’s home only on account of her. (Babylonian Talmud Baba Metzia 59a.)

The Babylonian Talmud expanded on Abraham's conversation with God in Genesis 15:1-21, quoting Abraham to ask: “Master of the Universe, should Israel sin before You, will You do to them as You have done to the generation of the Flood and to the generation of the Dispersion?” God replied: “No.” Abraham then said to God: “Master of the Universe, ‘Let me know whereby I shall inherit it.’” (Gen. 15:8.) God answered: “Take Me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old.” (Gen. 15:9.) Abraham then continued: “Master of the Universe! This holds good while the Temple remains in being, but when the Temple will no longer be, what will become of them?” God replied: “I have already long ago provided for them in the Torah the order of sacrifices, and whenever they read it, I will deem it as if they had offered them before me, and I will grant them pardon for all their iniquities.” (Babylonian Talmud Taanit 27b.)

The Mishnah deduced from Genesis 13:13 that the men of Sodom would have no place in the world to come. (Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:3.)

Rabbi deduced from Genesis 17:1 that only after Abraham had circumcised himself was he considered complete and whole. (Mishnah Nedarim 3:11.) The Mishnah notes that transgressing the command of circumcision in Genesis 17:14 is one of 36 transgressions that cause the transgressor to be cut off from his people. (Mishnah Keritot 1:1.)

[edit] Commandments

According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there is one positive commandment in the parshah:

The precept of circumcision Gen. 17:10.

(See, e.g., Maimonides. The Commandments: Sefer Ha-Mitzvoth of Maimonides. Translated by Charles B. Chavel, vol. 1, 230–31. London: Soncino Press, 1967. ISBN 0900689714. Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, vol. 1, 85–87. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1991. ISBN 0873061799.)

[edit] Haftarah

The haftarah for the parshah is:

for Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews: Isaiah 40:27–41:16
for Karaite Jews: Joshua 24:3–18

[edit] Further reading

The parshah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:

Vassal treaties of Esarhaddon
"To go/pass through" in Hans G. Guterbock & Harry A. Hoffner (eds.), The Hittite Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, vol. P, 36-37. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1997.
Genesis 20:1–16; 26:1–33.
Jeremiah 34:18–20.
Mishnah: Nedarim 3:11; Sotah 7:5; Sanhedrin 10:3; Eduyot 2:9; Avot 5:3; Keritot 1:1.
Tosefta: Berakhot 1:12–13; Shabbat 7:24, 15:9; Yevamot 8:5; Nedarim 2:5; Sotah 5:12; Sanhedrin 13:8; Eduyot 1:14.
Jerusalem Talmud: Berakhot 17a–b.
Babylonian Talmud: Berakhot 55a; Rosh Hashanah 16b; Taanit 27b; Sotah 32a, 33b, 38b; Bava Kamma 60b; Baba Metzia 59a; Bava Batra 16a; Sanhedrin 99b.
Genesis Rabbah 39:1–47:10.
Qur’an 2:258; 4:163; 6:74–84; 19:41–50.
Zohar 76b–96b.
Thomas Mann. Joseph and His Brothers. Translated by John E. Woods, 4–11, 36, 43, 52–54, 59, 78, 89–91, 93, 95–98, 100–02, 125, 141, 148, 153–54, 342–46. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. ISBN 1400040019. Originally published as Joseph und seine Brüder. Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer Verlag, 1943.
Zofia Kossak. The Covenant: A Novel of the Life of Abraham the Prophet. New York: Roy, 1951.
Mario Brelich. The Holy Embrace. Translated by John Shepley. Marlboro, Vermont: Marlboro Press, 1994. ISBN 1568970021. Originally published as Il Sacro Amplesso. Milan: Adelphi Edizioni s.p.a., 1972.
Terrence Malick. Days of Heaven. 1978.
Walter Wangerin, Jr.. The Book of God, 13–25. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1996. ISBN 0310200059.
Orson Scott Card. Sarah: Women of Genesis. Salt Lake City: Shadow Mountain, 2000. ISBN 1570089949.
Marek Halter, Sarah. New York: Crown Publishers, 2004. ISBN 1400052726.