TORAH: Summary of Lech Lecha

(Bereishit 12:1 - 17:27)

a. G-d calls to Abram to leave his land and promises to bless him, make his name great and ‘make of’ him a great nation
b. Abram and Sarai, his wife, and their family leave Haran and travel to Canaan. G-d promises to give the land to Abram’s descendents.
c. A famine in the land results Abram and Sarai traveling to Egypt where Abram asks Sarai to say she is his sister, so that it may “go well” for him.
d. They return to Israel, where Abram and his nephew, Lot, part ways
e. Military war: capture of Lot, War of the Kings and Abram’s shunning of honor
f. G-d’s promises / predictions: offspring plentiful as stars in the heavens, descendents will live in a foreign land for 400 years of oppression
g. Sarai and Hagar
i. After 10 years in the Land of Caanan, Sarai gives her Egyptian maidservant, Hagar, to Abram.
ii. Hagar becomes pregnant
iii. There is conflict between Sarai and Hagar and Sarai deals harshly w/ Hagar who then flees
iv. An angel encounters Hagar in the desert and sends her back to Sarai w/ the promise of conceiving Ishmael who will be a ‘wild-ass’ of a man [16:11 – further describes]
h. Circumcision as a sign of Covenant between G-d and Abraham and descendents of Abraham
i. Changing of names: Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah
j. Circumcision of Abraham (at age 99), Ishmael and all people of his household, including those born in his household and those purchased for money from a stranger