| * | Bereishit / "Summary: This is one of the most complex parashiyot in the Torah. As it opens, Abraham is sitting at the opening of his tent, when he notices three ""men"" approaching. The men, who are actually messengers from God, accept Abraham's offer of hospitality and then announce to Abraham and Sarah that Sarah will bear a child in her old age. Sarah (as would most 90 year old women) responds to this news by laughing. Afterwards, Abraham accompanies the three visitors as they proceeded on their journey. Two of the divine messengers make their way toward Sodom, while God makes known to Abraham the plan to destroy the sinful city. Abraham debates with God, earnestly interceding on behalf of the doomed city. But after protracted haggling, when not even ten righteous people are found in Sodom, God proceeds with the city's destruction. Abraham's nephew Lot, who tried to protect the messengers from the Sodomites' abuse, escapes the destruction with his two daughters. Later, hidden in a cave, thinking that they are the only ones left in the world, Lot's daughter's ply him with drink and sleep with him, hoping to repopulate the world. Abraham then moves southward, and settles near Gerar. Here, with Abimelech the King of Gerar, there is a repeat of the earlier wife/sister deception with Pharaoh (Gen 20). Soon after this event, Isaac is born to Abraham and Sarah. Abraham, who is now a hundred years old, circumcises his new son with great celebration. But Sarah now becomes deeply jealous of Hagar and her son Ishmael, and insists that Abraham send them away. Abraham consults with God, who assures him that Ishmael too will become the father of a great nation. Next, after a gap of many years, we see Abraham put to his greatest test. God appears to Abraham and commands him to go and offer Isaac as a sacrifice. They travel together to Mount Moriah (later to be the site of the Temple in Jerusalem) where Abraham binds up Isaac and raises his knife to slaughter him. But he is stopped by God, who provides a ram as a substitute. Abraham then returns to his home at Beer Sheba." |