Lech-Lecha

📜 The Story

God said to Abram, 'Go from your land, from where you were born, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.' God promised to make him a great nation and to bless him. Abram was seventy-five years old. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and everything they owned, and set out for the land of Canaan.

In Canaan, God appeared to Abram again and promised that the land would belong to his children and grandchildren. Later there was a famine, and Abram went down to Egypt. There Pharaoh almost took Sarai to be his wife, because he thought she was Abram's sister. God sent plagues on Pharaoh's house, and Pharaoh let Abram and Sarai go, with many gifts.

Abram and Lot had so many animals that their shepherds started to fight. So they decided to go separate ways. Lot chose the green plain near the city of Sodom, and Abram stayed in Canaan. Then a war broke out between the kings of the area, and Lot was taken captive. Abram gathered 318 of his men and rescued Lot and everything that was his.

God made a covenant with Abram called the Covenant Between the Pieces. He promised again that Abram's children would inherit the land. Sarai had no children, so she gave Abram her servant Hagar as a wife, and Hagar had a son named Ishmael. When Abram was ninety-nine, God changed his name to Abraham and changed Sarai's name to Sarah. God also gave him the mitzvah (commandment) of brit milah, circumcision, for himself and every male in his household.

God promised that Abraham and Sarah would have a son, Isaac, within a year, even though they were very old. That same day, Abraham circumcised himself and every male in his household. He did what God asked right away. Abraham's trust in God is where the story of the Jewish people begins.