Lech Lecha - לֶךְ־לְךָ - Genesis B'reisheet 12:1-17:27 Making Torah Personal

(1) יהוה said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. (2) I will make of you a great nation,
And I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
And you shall be a blessing.
(3) I will bless those who bless you
And curse the one who curses you;
And all the families of the earth
Shall bless themselves by you.” (4) Abram went forth as יהוה had commanded him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. (5) Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the wealth that they had amassed, and the persons that they had acquired in Haran; and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in the land of Canaan, (6) Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, at the terebinth of Moreh. The Canaanites were then in the land.

“The Lord said to Abram: Go you, from your land” – what is written prior to this matter? “Teraḥ died in Ḥaran” (Genesis 11:32). Rabbi Yitzḥak said: If you follow the calculation [of years] until now, he [Teraḥ] still had an additional sixty-five years coming to him. The explanation is that, initially, you expound that the wicked are considered dead [even] during their lifetimes. Because our forefather Abraham was fearful, and he said: ‘If I go, the name of Heaven will be desecrated because of me, as people will say: He abandoned his father and left him in his old age.’ The Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘I exempt you from honoring your father and mother, but I do not exempt anyone else from honoring their father and mother. Moreover, I will have his death recorded before your departure; first: “Teraḥ died in Ḥaran” and then: “the Lord said to Abram.”

(10) There was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. (11) As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. (12) If the Egyptians see you, and think, ‘She is his wife,’ they will kill me and let you live. (13) 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.”

(1) From Egypt, Abram went up into the Negeb, with his wife and all that he possessed, together with Lot. (2) Now Abram was very rich in cattle, silver, and gold. (3) And he proceeded by stages from the Negeb as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been formerly, between Bethel and Ai, (4) the site of the altar that he had built there at first; and there Abram invoked יהוה by name. (5) Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, (6) so that the land could not support them staying together; for their possessions were so great that they could not remain together. (7) And there was quarreling between the herders of Abram’s cattle and those of Lot’s cattle.—The Canaanites and Perizzites were then dwelling in the land.—

(1) Some time later, the word of יהוה came to Abram in a vision:
“Fear not, Abram,
I am a shield to you;
Your reward shall be very great.” (2) But Abram said, “O lord יהוה,[ traditionally read aloud as ’adonai ’elohim (rather than ’adonai twice] what can You give me, seeing that I shall die childless, and the one in charge of my household is Dammesek Eliezer!” (3) Abram said further, “Since You have granted me no offspring, my steward will be my heir.” (4) The word of יהוה came to him in reply, “That one shall not be your heir; none but your very own issue shall be your heir.” (5) [Then in the vision, God] took him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them”—continuing, “So shall your offspring be.” (6) And he put his trust in יהוה, who reckoned it to his merit. (7) Then [God] said to him, “I am יהוה who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to assign this land to you as a possession.” (8) And he said, “O lord יהוה, how shall I know that I am to possess it?” (9) Came the reply, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young bird.” (10) He brought all these and cut them in two, placing each half opposite the other; but he did not cut up the bird. (11) Birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

(1) Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. (2) And Sarai said to Abram, “Look, יהוה has kept me from bearing. Consort with my maid; perhaps I shall have a child [be built up] through her.” And Abram heeded Sarai’s request. (3) So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took her maid, Hagar the Egyptian—after Abram had dwelt in the land of Canaan ten years—and gave her to her husband Abram as concubine. (4) He cohabited with Hagar and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was lowered in her esteem. (5) And Sarai said to Abram, “The wrong done me is your fault! I myself put my maid in your bosom; now that she sees that she is pregnant, I am lowered in her esteem. יהוה decide between you and me!” (6) Abram said to Sarai, “Your maid is in your hands. Deal with her as you think right.” Then Sarai treated her harshly, and she ran away from her.

When Sarah noticed that Hagar exploited her pregnancy to belittle her she became angry at the very idea that a slave should belittle her mistress. There is every reason to believe that Abraham could not have been unaware of Hagar's conduct. Our verse need not be understood as if Sarah had only now brought this to her husband's attention. Our verse reflects Sarah's anger that her husband had not reacted sooner to the slights she experienced at the hands of Hagar. When Abraham slept with Hagar in order to establish a man-wife relationship, Hagar in effect had become a free woman legally, as we have demonstrated from the rulings quoted. When Hagar assumed haughty airs it was because she no longer viewed herself as a slave. Sarah blamed her husband for enabling Hagar to have attained the status of a free person. She did not express anger at Hagar, seeing that Hagar was correct in no longer viewing herself as subservient to Sarah.

Sarah now challenged Hagar's new found legal status. She did this by emphasising that it was she who had initiated the union between Hagar and Abraham, not Abraham. She had given Hagar to Abraham inasmuch as she could dispose of the activities of her slave Hagar. Why would the Torah repeat ("I have given my slave to your bosom") something we knew already, except to stress the conditions under which Hagar had been given to Abraham? According to what we have explained earlier Abraham had no claim to the fruit of Hagar's womb. Any child of Hagar's would belong to Sarah, her mistress. Hagar had never been Abraham's slave so that he could have freed her. Hagar could only have been freed if her mistress had not given her to Abraham as a slave, or even specifically as a wife and we would fall back on the argument that Abraham would not consort with a harlot and that therefore even if he had not promised freedom to Hagar it was implied by his sleeping with her. All of this would apply only if Hagar had at that time been Abraham's slave, not when she was Sarah's slave. Sarah claimed that she had been very careful at the time she suggested that Abraham sleep with Hagar. She said (verse 2): "please sleep with my slave." She had given Abraham notice that Hagar would remain her slave also after he had slept with her. Had Sarah not had such an intention, she would simply have said to Abraham: "sleep with Hagar!"

(7) A messenger of יהוה found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the road to Shur, (8) and said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” And she said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.” (9) And the messenger of יהוה said to her, “Go back to your mistress, and submit to her harsh treatment.” (10) And the messenger of יהוה said to her,
“I will greatly increase your offspring,
And they shall be too many to count.” (11) The messenger of יהוה said to her further,
“Behold, you are pregnant
And shall bear a son; You shall call him Ishmael,[God heeds]
For יהוה has paid heed to your suffering. (12) He shall be a wild ass of a person;
His hand against everyone, And everyone’s hand against him;
He shall dwell alongside of all his kin.” (13) And she called יהוה who spoke to her, “You Are El-roi [God of Seeing] by which she meant, “Have I not gone on seeing after my being seen!”(14) Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi;[the Well of the Living One who sees me.] it is between Kadesh and Bered.— (15) Hagar bore a son to Abram, and Abram gave the son that Hagar bore him the name Ishmael. (16) He was 86 years old when Hagar bore his son Ishmael.

(5) And you shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I make you the father of a multitude of nations.

(10) Such shall be the covenant between Me and you and your offspring to follow which you shall keep: every male among you shall be circumcised.

“The Lord said to Abram” – Rabbi Berekhya began: “By the fragrance of your good oils, your name is like poured oil” (Song of Songs 1:3). Rabbi Berekhya said: To what was Abraham our patriarch comparable? To a flask of balsam oil surrounded with a fastened cover, that was placed in a corner and its fragrance did not diffuse. When it was moved, its fragrance diffused. So, the Holy One blessed be He said to Abraham our patriarch: ‘Move yourself from one place to another place, and your name will be exalted in the world.’

(1) When Abram was ninety-nine years old, יהוה appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai.[God Almighty].Walk in My ways and be blameless. (2) I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will make you exceedingly numerous.” (3) Abram threw himself on his face; and God spoke to him further, (4) “As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You shall be the father of a multitude of nations. (5) And you shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham,[father of a multitude].for I make you the father of a multitude of nations. (6) I will make you exceedingly fertile, and make nations of you; and kings shall come forth from you.

(15) And God said to Abraham, “As for your wife Sarai, you shall not call her Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah [princess].(16) I will bless her; indeed, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she shall give rise to nations; rulers of peoples shall issue from her.” (17) Abraham threw himself on his face and laughed, as he said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man a hundred years old, or can Sarah bear a child at ninety?” (18) And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live by Your favor!” (19) God said, “Nevertheless, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac [laugh] and I will maintain My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring to come. (20) As for Ishmael, I have heeded you. I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and exceedingly numerous. He shall be the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation. (21) But My covenant I will maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.” (22) Done speaking with him, God was gone from Abraham.

(23) Then Abraham took his son Ishmael, and all his homeborn slaves and all those he had bought, every male in Abraham’s household, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins on that very day, as God had spoken to him. (24) Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin, (25) and his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. (26) Thus Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on that very day; (27) and all [men of] his household, his homeborn slaves and those that had been bought from outsiders, were circumcised with him.