Torah portion Genesis 12:1 – 17:27

Torah portion Genesis 12:1 – 17:27


Collected from my thoughts, my OneNote notes from multiple sources, Midrash (usually Genesis Rabbah), TBI’s Torah study group, Ten Rungs by Martin Buber and the books Midrashic Women by Judith Baskin and People of the Covenant by a group of non-Jewish scholars who are occasionally obviously anti-Israel but otherwise have good points. I blame no one but myself for all my negative thoughts about Abraham’s and Sarah’s behaviors.

A theme here is that we should trust in God and follow his wishes even though many years may pass before we know the full instruction or the outcome. The Lord promised land, which soon after Abram moved, did not support his household. The Lord also promised offspring, but Sarai was barren until she was 90 years old. There were many faith trials (Maimonides outlined ten in Abram's lifetime) but everything turned out well for Abram (who became Abraham) in the end.

The parsha also suggests to me (through Abram’s repeated conversations with God) that maybe in addition to waiting patiently, there may sometimes be a need to ask God in order to receive what is promised us!

In the previous parsha, Abram's father began this journey to Canaan with his family and stopped at Haran, which means crossroads. Torah does not explain the reason for this journey. Abram's father died.

When Abram is 75, God told him (according to the translation Rabbi Martin Buber used, which is different from my JPS edition): "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee." Buber says: "'out of your country' means the dimness you have inflicted on yourself, 'out of your birthplace' means the dimness your mother has inflicted on you, 'out of the house of your father' means the dimness your father inflicted on you... Only then will you be able to go to the land I will show you." (See my thoughts, in italics, below) The Lord promised Abram would father a great nation, his name would be great and he would be a blessing. (Not that Abraham would bless us, but that he will be a blessing - meaning that others will learn and be blessed by Abraham's story.)

People of the Covenant says that within the Bible, there are three references to calculate the date of Abraham's journey. All start from the fourth year of Solomon's reign, which is accepted by science and religion to be accurate within a few years at 960 BCE. The arithmetic leads to dates of 1870, 2055 or 2085. People of the Covenant also says that there is no archaeological evidence that Abraham existed. Nor are there any extrabiblical sources mentioning him.

During this time period economic, environmental and political unrest caused civilizations to come and go quickly and many formerly agricultural types to revert to nomadism or semi nomadism. The Egyptians called wanderers who settled near them ‘Apiru, which later became Hebrew.

However, Jews, Muslims and Christians all claim Abraham as their ancestor. So we will assume that he existed for purposes of this parsha.

Why did God choose Abram? Since the parsha does not state it outright, we wonder and create theories. In Torah study, we discussed in 15:6 the Hebrew word for trust, which is related to word "amen", which means agreement. Abram's trust in God was his righteousness. Moreover, Midrash says Abram's father was an idol maker. Abram scorned worshipping things that could be burned or broken. He actually broke all the idols except the largest one, and then placed the sledgehammer in the lap of this last idol. His father returned and was furious when Abram suggested the big idol crushed all the smaller ones; his father exclaimed that idols cannot move! Abram had thus proved his point.

My thought: Leaving the house of his father could also mean leaving idolatry.

Midrash also says Abram testified mightily on God's behalf. The persons or souls (the word neshama is used in the text) he had acquired and brought with him to the Promised Land were converts (nefesh/souls). Included in these converts were Hagar, the daughter of Pharaoh and Eliezer, the son of Nimrod.

During the famine, Abram and his household left the land God promised him for Egypt. Curious that Promised Land would have severe famine so soon without any human wrongdoing.

Abram did eventually go back to his Promised Land - when he was tossed out on his rear for lying about Sarai. This is a difficult parsha for a woman to read. In Egypt, Abram asked Sarai to say she was his sister because she was very beautiful and someone desiring her might kill him to get her. Both Midrash and Torah say she was indeed his half-sister, so he wasn't completely lying. However, it appears to me he was pimping her so he could profit from her instead of possibly dying because of her. Since he didn't know, but only worried that he might be killed because of her, wasn't his behavior reprehensible? The Torah does not record Sarai's thoughts, but I'll bet they weren't happy ones. (However, Rabbi Maurice, in his devar at TBI, said he imagined a serious conversation between them and Sarai agreeing willingly.) As one lady pointed out in Torah study, at least she was "safe" since she was barren; she would not have a half Egyptian child.

Why wasn't Abram punished instead of Pharaoh? Pharaoh did not know he was taking a married woman. Was he rough with her? How did Pharaoh know that he was being punished by God because of Sarai ? Did God speak to him? My JPS version says simply that Sarai "was taken into Pharaoh's palace" but Rabbi Maurice said she was seized. If Abram had gone after her, I would be inclined to believe so, but the next sentence says because of her, Abram grew rich!

In our conversation later, Rabbi Maurice said he understands why I might not like Abraham very well after reading this parsha. He reminded me that a very serious famine forced them to travel to a foreign land that was very dangerous and beg for food. They were desperate. Sarai, especially, acted very bravely here. He also reminded me that the likeability of our patriarchs and matriarchs was never the point. We agreed that if they were perfect, we’d have less to study. But also he said we would be less likely to identify with them and feel that they were family. Rabbi Maurice said I might learn to identify with Abraham because like him, I firmly believe I should go against what I had been taught (and not taught) about religion by my family and society to vigorously pursue becoming Jewish. He said that Abraham's desire to worship only God in a land of idol worshippers was far more dangerous to him than my situation was likely ever to be for me, but perhaps though my own struggle, I might see how brave he was.

On the journey back to the Promised Land, Abram suggested he and his nephew Lot (who had lived with him since he was orphaned) split up amicably since there was not enough good pasture to support their livestock. Lot took the obviously lush pasture where they were rather than risking the return to the Promised Land. Thus, Abram made Lot happy without violating his own orders from God.

Abram showed great loyalty and bravery when Lot was captured. Lot, by the way, was an ancestor of Ruth, who was an ancestor of David, so it was a good thing Lot was saved! Since Abram only had 318 volunteer soldiers, none of them trained, his victory must have been with God's help. When allied kings offer him loot in reward, he says he wants nothing other than that his soldiers be compensated.

People of the Covenant, which I mentioned earlier is sometimes quite anti-Semite, had a really good point here that I somehow missed despite reading this parsha numerous times. Lot is the closest thing Abram has to a son for most of his life. When he and Lot split here, Abram has only Sarai. PotC does mention without belab
oring the son point that Abram rescues Lot. A sticky subject for many Torah readers is that Abram argues so earnestly to save Sodom but goes quietly up the hill to sacrifice Isaac. I think he does believe that Sodom will be destroyed (with his near-son Lot) but does not believe Isaac will be destroyed. More on that later.

God appears to Abram and tells him his "reward will be very great".  Abram responds that he is childless and has only his faithful servant, who is not his flesh and blood.  God asks him to look up at the heavens and try to count the stars; so will his own flesh and blood offspring be.  God tells him to make a sacrifice.  It was typical for people of that time to split an animal in half and for all the attendees of the sacrificial ritual to walk between the two halves, showing that they are accepting the animal's flesh in place of their own for the sacrifice.  In this strange passage, only Abram and God are present.  God is not physically present, but is a voice, and after Abram was acceptably fearful, a smoking oven and torch passed between the two halves of the offering.  God speaks then, declaring "To your offspring I assign this land..." so it is fairly clear that God Himself has passed between the sacrificial animal halves.  This is truly stunning. 

Sarai, who was barren, gave Abram her maid Hagar to Abram as a concubine, hoping for offspring. In those times the firstborn son, and thus his mother, received half of his father’s inheritance. Any other sons split the remaining half. A barren woman received nothing. I suspect that Sarai expected to raise the child as her own and was disappointed to put it kindly, that Hagar kept the child.

When Hagar apparently was disrespectful to Sarai after she became pregnant, Sarai, instead of dealing with Hagar directly, chastised Abram! She actually says the Lord shall decide between him and her! She said it was his fault! (Who was it who didn't have children again? And who acted disrespectfully towards her mistress? Not Abram in either case. Since her anger towards him was irrational, I think she was still angry that she was traded to Pharaoh for livestock! She also seemed to expect Abram to stand up for her, which he did not.)

Genesis Rabbah excuses Sarai’s behavior by saying Hagar told others that if Sarai were truly righteous, she would not have been barren. If Hagar really spoke thus, Abram most certainly should have come to Sarai’s aid. Instead, he told her to do with Hagar whatever she thought was right. Embittered, Sarai was so cruel that Hagar ran away and had to be told by an angel to turn around and go back.

Even the Rabbis, who want so much to exalt Sarai and vilify Hagar, noticed the obvious sympathy towards Hagar at this point in the text. This meeting with an angel (or some say the Lord Himself) caused Talmudic rabbis, who did not themselves meet an angel (or the Lord) to wonder at the great merit this slave girl must have had, despite her relationship with Sarai.

Hagar's son was named Ishmael, which means "God will hear." His line also became a great nation, the nation of Islam.

God changed the names of both Abram and Sarai, adding an "h" sound to indicate holiness.

God told Abraham that every male in his household eight days old and up must be circumcised, even his purchased slaves. He further said he would bless Sarah with a son. Abraham threw himself to the ground, in the pose of submission he often took, possibly also to hide his laughter. 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?’ And Abraham said to God, ‘O that Ishmael might live by Your favor!’ God answered that Sarah will indeed have a son, to be named Isaac, for “laughter”.

Abraham immediately followed orders, circumcising possibly dozens of men and children on that very same day, including Ishmael. That cutting there should be a sign to God seems strange, but that organ is the organ the rabbis considered the one in charge of procreation (women's organs didn't count) and procreation is the only way we can be like God, by creating life.

The parsha ends here, just before Abraham meets three angels, one of whom may have been God Himself. This parsha is often read with Isaiah 40:27-41:16; in my ignorance I wonder why it is assigned to the parsha of Abraham, since it speaks often of Jacob. But I am struck by Isaiah 41:8, in which God says, “My servant Jacob, whom I have chosen, Seed of Abraham, My friend.” And as you will see, Abraham indeed meets three divine beings as friends.