Parashat Lech Lecha (Genesis 12–17): Summary and Commentary

Parashat Lech Lecha (“go”) is the third portion of the book of Bereshit (Genesis 12:1–17:27). It is read on the Shabbat of October 24, 2026 and that of November 13, 2027. It is also spelled Lech Lecha, Lekh Lekha, Lech Lecho or Lekh-Lekha. It takes its name from the first words: “And Hashem said to Avram: Go from your land” (12:1).

The tradition proposes reading each portion in four steps: what the text says, what it hints at, what the sages explain and what it conceals. Let us take them in turn.

Peshat: the simple meaning

Let us begin with what the text says, adding nothing to it.

First is how it begins: without introduction. Until now, the text has said of Avram only that he was the son of Terach, that his wife was Sarai and that he had no children (11:27-30). And suddenly, a command: “Go from your land, from your birthplace and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you” (12:1). The text does not say which land. Then, seven promises in a single sentence (12:2-3), and Avram’s response, which takes one line: “And Avram went, as Hashem had told him” (12:4), and his age: seventy-five years (12:4).

Then comes the journey: Avram passes through the land as far as Shechem and builds an altar there (12:6-7), and later another near Beit El (12:8). And the text tells what happens when bread runs out: “There was famine in the land, and Avram went down to Egypt” (12:10).

The separation from Lot has a memorable sentence: “Let there be no strife between you and me…, for we are brothers” (13:8). Avram lets Lot choose, and Lot chooses the Jordan valley, “like the garden of Hashem” (13:10).

In chapter 14, the rescue of Lot is the only episode of war in Avram’s life: three hundred and eighteen men of his household (14:14). And on returning, Avram refuses the spoils with one sentence: “I will not take so much as a thread or a sandal strap” (14:23).

Chapter 15 is a conversation. Avram complains: “Lord Hashem, what will You give me, since I go childless?” (15:2), and Hashem answers with an image: “Look at the sky… so shall your offspring be.” And the text says, in a single sentence: “And he believed in Hashem, and He counted it to him as righteousness” (15:6).

And the close of the chapter is the covenant of the pieces: split animals, birds, a deep sleep, and a smoking oven and a flaming torch that pass between the pieces (15:9-17).

Chapter 17 opens with a new introduction: “I am El Shakai; walk before Me and be whole” (17:1). The names change: Avram becomes Avraham “for I have made you the father of many nations” (17:5), and Sarai becomes Sarah (17:15). The sign of the covenant is circumcision on the eighth day (17:12). And Avraham, that very day, circumcises Yishmael and all the males of his household (17:23).

Remez: what the letters hint at

Remez means “hint.” Here the reading pauses on letters and numbers: on how a word, when the value of its letters is added up (gematria), coincides with another that illuminates its meaning. The great collector of these hints is the Baal HaTurim, Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher (13th–14th centuries), author of the Arba Turim. In Lech Lecha he points out, among others, these eight.

The first, in the first command. “Lech lecha” (לך לך), “go” (12:1), adds up to 100. The Baal HaTurim reads it in two ways: when Avraham was a hundred years old, Yitzchak would be born; and, since Avram was seventy-five years old when he left (12:4) and lived a hundred and seventy-five in all, from here on he would live exactly a hundred years more.

The second, in the land. “Areka” (אראך), “I will show you” (12:1), adds up to 222, the same as “be’ananim” (בעננים), “in clouds”: the Baal HaTurim reads it as the clouds going before him and showing him the way.

The third, in the blessing. “Va’avarechecha” (ואברכך), “and I will bless you” (12:2), adds up to 249, and Avraham (אברהם) adds up to 248: with the kolel, they match.

The fourth, in the enemies. “Umekalelecha a’or” (ומקללך אאור), “and him who curses you I will curse” (12:3), adds up to 434, the same as “zeh Bil’am haba lekalel banecha” (זה בלעם הבא לקלל בניך), “this is Bilam, who will come to curse your children.”

The fifth, in the king. The initial letters of “melech Shalem” (מלך שלם, 14:18) form, rearranged, Shem (שם): the Baal HaTurim, like Rashi, reads that Malki-Tzedek is Shem, son of Noach.

The sixth, in the name. “Av hamon” (אב המון), “father of a multitude” (17:4), adds up to 104, and appears twice in the text: 208, the same as Yitzchak (יצחק). And “arbeh” (ארבה), “I will multiply,” also adds up to 208.

The seventh, in the oven. The initial letters of “va’alatah hayah vehineh tanur” (ועלטה היה והנה תנור, 15:17), read backward, form tohu (תוהו): the Baal HaTurim reads it as an allusion to His showing him the exiles, which resemble the formless and void.

The eighth, in Yitzchak. “Ve’et briti akim et Yitzchak” (17:21): the initial letters of “asher kidesh yedid mibeten” (אשר קדש ידיד מבטן), “who sanctified the beloved from the womb,” form akim (אקים), “I will establish.”

Drash: the teaching of the sages

Rashi, with the Midrash and the Talmud, gathers here the lessons of the sages.

“Go for your own good.” Lech lecha, says Rashi, means “for your pleasure and for your good.” Here you do not deserve to have children; there I will make you a great nation, and I will make your name known in the world.

Three things that the road takes away. Rashi explains why Hashem gives him three blessings: the journey diminishes three things: children, money and name. That is why Hashem promises him all three: “a great nation” (children), “I will bless you” (money) and “I will make your name great.”

“I will show you.” The text does not tell him which land. Rashi explains that He did not reveal it to him at once to make it dearer to him and to give him reward for each word, and compares it with the binding of Yitzchak: “your son, your only one… to one of the mountains that I will tell you.”

“The souls they made in Charan.” The text says that Avram took with him “the souls they had made in Charan” (12:5). Rashi explains: they were the people he brought close to Hashem; Avraham converted the men and Sarah the women, and the text counts it as if they had made them.

318. “His trained men, three hundred and eighteen” (14:14). Rashi relates that the sages say that it was only Eliezer, because 318 is the numerical value of his name.

“And He counted it as righteousness.” On “and he believed in Hashem” (15:6), Rashi explains that Avram did not ask for a sign concerning the promise of the son, but did concerning that of the land: “How will I know that I will inherit it?” And Hashem counted to him as merit and righteousness the faith with which he believed.

“Shakai” and whole. When Hashem says “I am El Shakai” (17:1), Rashi explains the name: “I am the One whose divinity is sufficient (dai) for every creature,” and therefore: “walk before Me.” And “be whole”: according to the Midrash, through the commandment of circumcision, because as long as you have the foreskin you have a defect before Hashem.

Sod: what is hidden

The Zohar

The Zohar asks what lech lecha means. Rabbi Elazar answers: “for yourself,” to repair you and strengthen your degree; it is not fitting for you to stay here among these wicked people. And he adds a secret: Hashem had given Avraham a spirit of wisdom, and he knew the forces that govern the different places of the world. He weighed them and calculated them, and when he reached the central point, the calculations no longer came out: he saw that the force there was deep and hidden, and he could not cleave to its will. That is why they left Ur of the Chaldeans and reached Charan.

When Hashem saw that restlessness and that desire, He revealed Himself to him and said “lech lecha,” “to know you and repair you.” And the Zohar explains each word: me’artzecha, “from your land,” is from the side of the earth to which you clung; mimoladtecha, “from your birthplace,” is from the wisdom with which you calculate your birth, the hour and the star under which you were born; umibeit avicha, “from your father’s house,” is not depending on it. And el ha’aretz asher areka, “the land that I will show you,” is what you could not comprehend.

The Zohar also counts the seven blessings: lech lecha is the first (“a great nation”), “from your land” the second (“I will bless you”), “from your birthplace” the third (“I will make your name great”), and “from your father’s house” the fourth (“you shall be a blessing”); and then “I will bless those who bless you,” “him who curses you I will curse” and “in you all the families will be blessed.” When he received those seven, the text says: “And Avram went as Hashem had told him.”

The attribute: leaving calculation behind

Rashi and the Zohar agree on one idea: Avraham’s faith begins when he stops calculating. Rashi says it with the stars: “go out from your astrology” (15:5), and the Zohar with the hour of his birth. It is the first step of the whole book: to set out without knowing where to.

More weekly commentary in the list of parashiot.