Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parashat Lech-Lecha THE LORD SAID TO AVRAM: GO YOU FORTH FROM YOUR LAND FROM YOUR KINDRED FROM YOUR FATHER'S HOME TO THE LAND THAT I WILL LET YOU SEE (Bereishit 12:1)     "Go You Forth" – For Your Own Sake … At Judaism's inception, it is written, "Lech lecha", go for your own sake. This is an even greater merit. No man has the right to say: I am righteous and honest in keeping with...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parashat Lech-Lecha AND GOD SAID TO AVRAM: GO YOU FORTH FROM YOUR LAND AND FROM YOUR BIRTHPLACE AND FROM THE HOUSE OF YOUR FATHER TO THE LAND WHICH I WILL SHOW YOU.     "TO THE LAND WHICH I WILL SHOW YOU" – FAITH, REVELATION AND RESPONSIBILITY    "To the land which I will show you" – He did not designate a specific place. This is a trial within a trial; does a person go without knowing whither he is going? What did he do? Avram took...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parashat Lech Lecha BUT GOD PLAGUED PHARAOH WITH GREAT PLAGUES, AND ALSO HIS HOUSEHOLD, BECAUSE OF SARAI, AVRAM’S WIFE (Bereishit 12:17)     THE STORY OF AVRAM, SARAI, AND PHARAOH – P’SHAT AND DRASH, MORALITY AND JUSTICE   “But God plagued Pharaoh with great plagues” – Pharaoh alone with great plagues. “And his household” – He sent plagues also upon his household, but not great ones, as with Pharaoh. This, so that they see that the righteous woman alone was spared, and that they realize that it...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Lech Lecha "One day the divine beings presented themselves before the Lord, and the Adversary (ha-satan) came along with them. The Lord said to the Adversary, "Where have you been?" The Adversary answered etc." He said to Him: Master of the Universe, I have been roaming over all the world, and I have found no one as faithful as Avraham, to whom you said: (Gen.13) "Rise, walk about through the land in its length and in its breadth, for I will give it to you." (Even)...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat Lech Lecha (link to original page) Parshat Lech Lecha A House Or A Name? Yonathan Ben-Dov Parshat Lech-Lecha presents before us Avram, who is Avraham. Indeed, we know Avram from the end of the previous portion, in which it is told of his wandering with Terah to Haran and of the death of Terah. But there is a big change in the continuity of the story of the book of B'reshit, spreading from the creation to the death of Joseph, because of the famous calling of Avram in the beginning of...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat Lech-Lecha (link to original page) Parshat Lech-Lecha Abraham, Lot, the Canaanite, and the Promise of the Land Pinhas Leiser Abraham and Lot began their journey together, as it is written; "And Lot went with him" (Genesis 12:4). We can understand from their walking together that at the beginning of his way Lot joined Abraham and connected his fate and goals to the fate of his uncle, who walked following G-d's command from his country and homeland to an unknown country. The Torah tells us very little about Lot and his acceptance...