3: Lech Lecha
Welcome to TLDR Torah: a synopsis of the weekly parsha based on a reading of Robert Alter’s translation, plus a question to spur your Shabbat dinner (or any!) conversation.
Parsha Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1–17:27)
TLDR:
“Go forth… to the land I will show you”, God tells Abram, who is rather abruptly introduced into the story.
Abram, along with his wife Sarai and nephew Lot, arrives in Canaan. But he doesn’t tarry. There’s a famine, he goes to Egypt, and — for the first time Abram speaks in the entire Torah — he asks for Sarai to lie to the Egyptians and say that she’s his sister. This is the first of three “this is my sister, not my wife” stories.
Abram returns to Canaan a rich man. So as to avoid fighting with his nephew Lot, Abram the politician divvies up the land.
Juxtaposing God’s twice repeated promise that he’ll give Abram all of Canaan is a description of other nations fighting over the land. Things take a turn for the worse when Lot is caught in the midst of these battles and taken captive. Abram the warrior rescues Lot in the middle of the night.
God tells Abram again that he’ll be rewarded. Abram the skeptic questions how, being childless, that will happen. “Fear not!”, God says, and ratifies the oath by passing through the halves of animals that Abram cut up (it’s quite graphic).
IS SOMETHING MISSING HERE? God is doing a lot of promising, but Abram doesn’t seem to commit to anything.
On Sarai’s direction, Abram sleeps with Hagar. Hagar conceives, flees after being harassed by Sarai, and then has Ishmael.
If you made it this far, you’re aware of the covenant God makes with Abram. It happens again, but this time, Abram actually has to do something: circumcise every male at eight days old. (As an aside, circumcision was a rite of passage for many cultures in the Ancient Near East, but typically performed at puberty, not birth).
Question:
It’s unclear why God chooses Abram. He’s not introduced the same way that Noah is (“as a righteous man”). But what we do know is that he takes a leap of faith. With few details, God tells Abram to leave his homeland and he does. Turning the question around, when was the last time you went forth and took a leap of faith? And when did you want to take a leap but found yourself rooted to the ground? Share with others at your Shabbat table!