Parashah Lech Lecha - Genesis 12:1 - 17:27
The story of Abram begins when he lived in the land of the Chaldeans. From there he was called by Yehovah to go out after Him, to a land that would be shown to him. However, it was his father Terah who took the initiative to set out on this journey, taking with him Abram, his wife and Lot who was the son of Haran, who died at an early age in Ur. Their first station was in a place called Haran and Terah stayed there until the day of his death, but Abram continued his journey to reach the land of Canaan.
This portion (Parashah) of Scripture allows us to take a glimpse of the pilgrimage of our father Abram, for whom it was not easy to leave behind the stability that represented remaining settled in one place surrounded by his entire family.
At the conclusion of this reading, we find Abram – exalted father, transformed into Abraham – father of multitudes. As we read carefully, we will discover the changes in Abraham’s character throughout his journey.
Abraham was the first Hebrew (Hebrew word that comes from: heber and means: to cross over to the other side), a figure that becomes for us a model. Those of us who know Yehovah and his Torah, are called to “cross over to the other side”, that is to say, to leave the system of the world to enter the Kingdom of Heaven governed by Him.
Abraham’s determined and diligent obedience is challenging, because as soon as he received the command of circumcision as a sign of the covenant, he carried it out that very day: Genesis 17:23.
This is the kind of obedience we are called to live: with decision, diligence and firm will in spite of how difficult this may be; for taking this last sign of the covenant as an example, it would be one thing to circumcise boys on the 8th day; and quite another (and painful by the way), to circumcise adult men and older men.
