Lech Lecha
Vayera -- Abraham's apostasy and the Akeda
Posted by Manny Jacobowitz | Tags: Lech Lecha
From a standpoint of ordinary human ethics, Vayera is perhaps the most difficult of all the parashot. When we read the Akeda, those of us with children shudder at the thought of a man unhinged enough to offer up his own son as a sacrifice, and cringe at a G-d who would put him to that kind of test....
Jewish Literacy
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags: Lech Lecha
This week at MJE, we kicked off our new season of classes. Most of our participants have not had a lot of exposure to Jewish learning and we try to both educate and inspire them. For true-blue beginners, we have "Conversations" or Basic Judaism classes, mostly non-textual discussions of the big...
Parshat Lech Lecha: Walkthrough
Posted by Jack Kustanowitz | Tags: Lech Lecha
Now God says to Avram, “Leave your land, where you were born, and where your family is, and go to the land that I will show you. There, you will be a great nation, and you will be blessed, and the world will be a better place because of you.” So Avram (at the age of 75) does as he’s told, and...
The Local Mitzvah Movement
Posted by Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld | Tags: Lech Lecha
There is a budding movement spreading quickly around the country known as the Local Food movement. The Local Food movement is “an effort to build a locally based and self-reliant economy in which food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic,...
Selling The Dream
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags: Lech Lecha
October 22, 1938[1] was one of those quiet days that changed the world as we know it. Chester Carlson, aspiring inventor and part-time patent clerk (which is what Einstein did to pay the bills also) made the first photocopied image on that day. He called his process electrography, which became...
My Weekly Drash (a mini D'var Torah) -- Lech L'cha (3)
Posted by Daniel M. Kimmel | Tags: Lech Lecha
One of the stories about Abram (soon to become Abraham) that isn't dwelt on in Hebrew school appears in Parshah Lech Lecha. There is a famine and Abram takes his family to Egypt. There he tells his wife Sarai, "If the Egyptians see you and think, 'She is his wife,' they will kill me and let you...
My video divrei Torah on this parasha from youtube
Posted by Jonathan Ginsburg | Tags: Lech Lecha
Tower of Babel vs Abraham's Call Lech lecha jewu 440 How do non-Jews achieve salvation? Noahide laws JewU 155 Torah portion Noah and the flood JewU 60Sputnik, Bears half-time speech and rainbows JewU 245 Noah, water-too much and too little JewU 247
My Weekly Drash (a mini D'var Torah) - Lech Lecha (2)
Posted by Daniel M. Kimmel | Tags: Lech Lecha
There's no doubt the story of Abram and Sarai's sojourn in Egypt is an odd one. "As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, 'I know what a beautiful woman you are. If the Egyptians see you, and think, 'She is his wife,' they will kill me and let you live.'" (Gen. 12:11-12). ...
God has Heard
Posted by Abe Mezrich | Tags: Lech Lecha
i The angel of God tells Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid, that the name of Abraham's son whom she will bear will be Yishmael. That name means God has heard. * For Hagar is suffering. And the Lord has heard the affliction that Hagar has suffered. And the name Yishmael tells of God's hearkening...
My Weekly Drash (a mini D'var Torah) - Lech Lecha
Posted by Daniel M. Kimmel | Tags: Lech Lecha
There’s much talk of names in Parshah Lech Lecha, with Abram and Sarai becoming Abraham and Sarah, and God being identified by different names as well. Perhaps lost in the shuffle is the identification of “Abram the Hebrew” (“Avram ha’Ivri”) in Gen. 14:13. What does it mean? The ancient...
