Avram is no gung-ho superhero, no conquerer, no Superman, no Rambo. He is stricken with anxiety, with self-doubt, with conflict, with blame. The crushing weight of responsibility sits on his shoulders - After an exhausting night of defending the carcasses of sacrifice, "a great dark dread descended upon him." Rashi says this is representative of the woes and gloom of the Jews in exile. But for Avraham, he is as a nation, a people within himself - with all the internal struggle that that entails. More on that come Parsha Vayera!

After all that, he'd be forgiven for being an overly-serious grinch. But this founding patriarch is no self-aggrandising pompous stoic! His very first action under the name Avraham is to laugh in the face of God and doubt the efficacy of his loins!

I don't have a blog, but I'm starting to see the appeal.

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#mazeldon #jewdiverse #parsha #parshah #ParshahThoughts #torah #torahstudy #lechlecha

The plagues that afflict the Pharoah and his household - the very ones Avram feared would kill him - are on account of Sarai. And that which Avram acquires thanks to her is from the Egyptians: The Jewish nation will be strangers among them for many years to come, and yet it is their riches that helped sustain the creation of Am Yisrael.

And so what is his response to the King of Sodom's offer of possessions for persons? "You shall not say, ‘It is I who made Avram rich.’" Because that would be a falsehood - Avram was made rich by many before him!

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#mazeldon #jewdiverse #parsha #parshah #ParshahThoughts #torah #torahstudy #lechlecha

In turn, they are sustained by the tents he pitches, the altars he builds, the lives he saves, the nation he will birth. It is worth mentioning that the first time Avram is told of the land being assigned (Bereshit 12:7), it is assigned only to his offspring, not directly to him. His name will be made great, but the great name in question is the one he will be given. The goal he is pursuing is one he will never personally witness.

And so it goes on, with Sarai's support - "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."

"And because of her, it went well with Avram; he acquired sheep, oxen, donkeys, male and female slaves, jennies, and camels." (it is worth mentioning that according to Midrash, this bounty includes Hagar!)

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#mazeldon #jewdiverse #parsha #parshah #ParshahThoughts #torah #torahstudy #lechlecha

After a very satisfying hour of Torah study...

A Layman's Thoughts on Parsha Lech-Lecha:

I begin with an aside: Gematria and that sort of number-coincidence thing aren't really for me, but it feels worthwhile to at least mention that in the year that Israel turned 75, this is the parsha where Avram is mentioned as being 75 at the start of his journey. Now, on with the show.

Selfless In Every Sense, or; The Model Of The Torahic Hero

Everything Avram achieved was supported by someone else.
Everything Avram achieved was in support of someone else.
He is selfless in both senses of the word - without others, he is nothing, but they too are sustained by his actions.

"Go forth from your native land, your father's house." His upbringing, and indeed his entire adulthood, shaped him. This is a 75 year old man with 75 years of life lessons and personal influences. The self-made man is a myth!

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#mazeldon #jewdiverse #parsha #parshah #ParshahThoughts #torah #torahstudy #lechlecha

@kirz @RebeccaShapiro @aha

עברית 😉
עורית is more like "blindness" 😂

BUT NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT #Avraham was called #Hebrew - the Ivri because he was "over" the line. The whole world was on one side and he was on the other: the only person on earth who recognized his single, everloving Creator. #Torah #Parshah #LechLecha

This week's #Torah #Kasha #Parsha #LechLecha #Judaism

In #yeshiva, I learned that promises of good or rewards in #Tanakh are guaranteed, but promises of punishments are not neccesary, they 're like warnings. So for example when #Hashem promises success through the #Navi, it's guaranteed, but if He promises #exile, it's possible to avoid it.

If so, then why did so many #Rishonim try to calculate the #400years of slavery? Why didn't they just say "The warning no longer applied after ~200 years"

A Change of Scenery: Avraham's Journey

If you don't change direction, you may end up where you're heading.Chinese Proverb (attributed to Laozi - probably falsely IMHO) The Question Part: Our sages tell us that when it says in Parshas Bereishis אלא תולדות שמים וארץ בהבראם - it means that the heavens and earth were created "for Avraham".[...]

http://dewofyouryouth.com/a-change-of-scenery-avrahams-journey/

#Abraham #Avraham #Journey #LechLecha #parsha #question