Parshas Lech Lecha

Shlomo starts with a mazal tov to his brother Yitzi on his bar mitzvah, then picks up Lech Lecha. Hashem tells Avram, Sarai, and Lot to leave Haran for Canaan, about 400 miles away, along with the gerim they’ve gathered. At Shechem Hashem promises the land to Avram’s descendants; Avram builds a mizbeach. Continuing between Beis El and Ai, a famine hits (the next of Avram’s ten tests after the command to leave). They go down to Egypt, where Avram asks Sarai to say she’s his sister. She’s taken to Pharaoh, who is struck with plagues before anything happens; they leave with wealth and return to the mizbeach. The shepherds of Avram and Lot quarrel over grazing, so they separate. Lot heads toward the Jordan and Sodom; Hashem again promises Avram countless descendants and the land, and Avram builds another mizbeach in Hebron. The war of the four kings (led by Chedorlaomer) against the five (including Sodom) ends with Lot captured. Avram goes out with 318 men—the gematria of Eliezer, so possibly just the two of them—while Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre guard the supplies. They win, recover everyone and everything, and Avram refuses the spoils so no one can claim the wealth came from the king of Sodom. He gives maaser to Malki Tzedek. In the Bris Bein Habesarim, animals are split and a fire passes between them; Hashem tells Avram his descendants will be slaves in Egypt under four kingdoms before emerging free. Still childless, Sarai gives him Hagar (Pharaoh’s daughter, according to many). Hagar conceives, mocks Sarai, and flees; an angel sends her back with the promise of a son, Yishmael, born when Avram is 86. At 99, with Yishmael 13, Hashem changes Avram’s name to Avraham, reaffirms the land and offspring, and commands bris milah, which they perform that day. Sarai becomes Sarah with the promise of a son; Avram laughs in joy, and the name Yitzchak is explained either by the laughter or by its gematria (10 tests, 90 for Sarah’s age, 8 for the bris, 100 for Avraham’s age).