Family Parshah
Parshah Roundup

Abraham has just gone through a circumcision at 99 years old, not an easy age to go through this. So G-d sends a very, very hot sun so that no one should travel and stop in Abraham’s house to bother him while he is recovering. But Abraham is upset that there are no guests that day and sits by one of the entrances to his tent, waiting for someone to come so that he can fulfill mitzvah of having guests in one’s home.

So G-d sends three angels dressed as men to Abraham and Abraham excitedly runs to prepare a delicious meal for them. One of the angels announces that in one year from that time, Sarah would have a son. Sarah hears this and laughs; remember – she was 89 years old!

The other angels are given a mission from G-d. They have to destroy the city of Sodom because it is full of wicked people who stole, killed and did lots of bad things. Abraham prays to G-d and asks Him to save the city but, alas, there are no righteous people in whose merit the city can be saved. But the angels save Lot, Abraham’s nephew who had moved to Sodom, and his family. As they lead them out of the city they warn them not to look back, but Lot’s wife looks book and turns into a pillar of salt. The city of Sodom gets turned over and disappears forever.

Abraham and Sarah move to Gerar where Sarah is again taken captive, this time by King Avimelech, but G-d reveals Himself to this king in a dream and warns him to free Sarah, and he does. A little while after this event, G-d remembers His promise to Abraham and Sarah, and Sarah becomes pregnant and has a child whom they name Yitzchak-Isaac as G-d told them to do. When Isaac turns eight days old they make a big party and circumcise him. Everyone sees the great miracle G-d has done - Sarah looks like a young woman of 20!

Abraham was a very special man who loved G-d very much, and to test his love, over the years G-d sent him different tests. In this parshah we learn that G-d sends Abraham the tenth and most difficult test of all: He commands him to bring his son Isaac as a sacrifice! Abraham doesn’t cry or complain, he takes Isaac, saddles his donkey and goes to Mount Moriah. There, Isaac himself doesn’t complain and lets his father tie him to the altar. At that point an angel stops Abraham and he is told that this was only a test, so Abraham sacrifices a ram instead and stores the horns away for the future.

Mount Moriah is the mountain on which the Holy Temples were built, now known as the Temple Mount. At the end of the parshah we read that Rebecca, the daughter of Abraham’s nephew Bethuel, is born.