Lech Lecha Summary:
God told Abram to leave his native land and go where God tells him; God promised to make Abram a great nation, to bless him and make his name great, to bless those who bless Abram and to curse those who curse him. Abram followed God’s directions and left his home, Haram, with his wife Sarai and his son Lot. The group traveled throughout Canaan, building some altars to God. After a while, there was a famine in Canaan, so Abram needed to go to Egypt to get food.
Before he entered Egypt, Abram said to Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. If the Egyptians see you and think, ‘She is his wife,’ they will kill me and let you live. Please say that you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may remain alive thanks to you.” After they entered Egypt, Pharaoh fell in love with and married Sarai and because of her, Abram was given good treatment as well. However, God afflicted Pharaoh and his household with plagues because of Sarai. Pharaoh then got frustrated with Abram that he lied that Sarai was his sister, and he kicked them out of Egypt.
Abram and Lot both had become very wealthy at this point, with lots of cattle, tents, and resources. Abram suggested that they split up because of this, so they did. However, the area where Lot went was soon invaded, and the invaders captured Lot. When Abram heard of this, he went to where Lot was being held captive, and Abram and his men defeated the invaders and took back Lot, all his possessions, and the other things that were stolen. After this, Abram was offered a reward by the King of Sodom, the place that was attacked, but Abram declined. Some time after this, God made a promise to Abram assigning him and his offspring the whole land of Canaan.
Sarai and Abram wanted to have kids, but they weren’t able to yet. Sarai had a maidservant named Hagar, and she suggested to Abram that he should try to have kids with Hagar. Soon after, Hagar and Abram had a baby together, and this made Sarai mad and jealous. In response, Abram gave Sarai permission to do whatever she wanted to Hagar, so Sarai treated Hagar harshly and Hagar ran away. God sent an angel to find Hagar, and the angel told her to go back to Sarai and have the baby, and the baby would be named Ishmael and he would be important and have many offspring. At the end of the portion, God establishes a covenant with Abram, and changes his name to Abraham (because God will make Abraham the father of a multitude of nations). Abraham’s part of the deal is that all of his descendants must be circumcised, to uphold the covenant. God also changes Sarai’s name to Sarah, and God promises that Sarah will give birth to a baby with Abraham and that she will give rise to nations and rulers and have many important descendants. Abraham laughed at the fact that Sarah was 90 and he was 100, and God said they would have a baby, but God still said that they would have a son, and he would be named Isaac. God also blessed Ishmael and promised to make him “exceedingly numerous” and be the father of 12 chieftains. God left Abraham, and then Abraham, Ishmael, and every other male in Abraham’s household all circumcised themselves to uphold the covenant with God.
Commentary:
One major part of this portion was when Abram decided to pretend that Sarai was his sister and not his wife, for that was a very bad and selfish decision by Abram. First of all, since Pharaoh and the Egyptians thought Sarai was beautiful, Pharaoh married her. That must have been terrible for her since she was already married to Abram but was forced to pretend to be his sister and get married to Pharaoh. Then, God cast plagues upon Pharaoh since he married Sarai, and that made Pharaoh angry about the fact that Abram lied to him and told him Sarai was his sister. So, Pharaoh and Sarai were hurt by this experience. However, the one person that this story helped was Abram! The Torah says that because Pharaoh married Sarai, “it went well with Abram. He acquired sheep, oxen, donkeys, male and female slaves, she-donkeys, and camels.” This shows that even though Sarai was forced to marry Pharaoh and Pharaoh suffered from plagues since he married her, Abram’s decision to pretend that Sarai was his sister only helped himself, while hurting others. Overall, even our greatest leaders and ancestors can sometimes make poor decisions, like Abram did in this portion.
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