ויאמר ה' אל אברם לך לך מארצך וממולדתך ומבית אביך אל הארץ אשר אראך, in this instance the word ויאמר refers to something G’d had already said to Avram before he had even moved away from Ur Casdim, a move he made at the command of G’d. We know this from Genesis 15,7 where G’d reminds him that “I am the Lord Who has taken you out of Ur Casdim.” It is possible that G’d repeated this directive once more while Avram was in Charan. As to the meaning of the word lecha, i.e. “for your own good,” this does not have any special significance, being a commonly used figure of speech. One example would be Exodus 18,27 וילך לו where Yitro’s return to Midian is described in a similar way, and no one suggests that he did so “for his own good.” Another such example is found in Jeremiah 5,5 אלכה לי, “I am going,” where no one suggests that Jeremiah had ulterior motives in going to the wealthy people to speak to them in the belief that they knew the ways of the Lord. Still other examples of a similar construction are found in Numbers 22,34 אשובה לי or in Genesis 45,19 קחו לכם.

מארצך, G’d had to add this as it is difficult for a person to leave a homeland in which he had dwelled for many years, all the more so if that land was at the same time the place where he had been born. This is why G’d added: וממולדתך, since it is doubly difficult to separate from one’s family also and to go to a country where one knows no one. This is the meaning of מבית אביך, “away from your father’s house.”

אל הארץ אשר אראך, if G’d had told Avram that He would show him a land which was rich, fertile, good, etc., it would not have been as difficult to comply with such a directive. But the fact that G’d did not add these inducements made it more difficult for Avram to decide. The reason why G’d did not offer these inducements was to show us, the readers, how great was Avram’s love of G’d that he unquestioningly abided by what G’d had asked him to do. He was determined to carry out the wishes of his G’d.

ואעשך לגוי גדול, even though your wife is barren, I will cure her and in this country she will bear a child.

ואברך, I will give you additional goodness, such as material wealth, possessions and honour, as we read in 13,2 “Avram was very rich in cattle, silver, and gold.”

ואגדלה שמך, your name will be known throughout many nations due to how blessed you are, due to your good deeds, and the success of your undertakings. Examples were Avram’s defeat of the four most powerful kings on earth at that time, when he freed Lot and the King of Sodom. The Canaanites (בני חת) said to him when he wanted to buy a burial plot for Sarah “you are a prince in our midst” (Genesis 23,6). We find a similar statement which G’d made to David in Chronicles I 17,8 ועשיתי לך שם בשם הגדולים אשר בארץ, “I will make you as renowned as the greatest men on earth.” This is part of the good that G’d does for people.

והיה ברכה, the construction והיה is similar to the future tense (not imperative) תהיה, i.e. “you will become.” [the author, presumably, finds it difficult for man to be commanded to be a source of blessing. How does one go about carrying out such a directive? Ed.] We encounter a similar construction as an imperative when G’d orders Moses to ascend the mountain and to die there on the mountain, עלה ומות בהר, seeing that “dying” is understood to be something passive, not active. Hence he would translate that verse also as “ascend the mountain where you will die.” (Deuteronomy, 32,48-50) Similar constructions which describe something impossible are found in Ovadiah 1,4 ואם בין כוכבים שים קנך, where one cannot order someone to make his nest among the stars. These formulations are substitutes for regular future tenses. G’d is telling Avram that his blessings and his fame will be so great that they will spill over to benefit those around him. This promise has become fulfilled to such an extent that when people bless their children they wish them: “may the Lord bless you with the blessing of Avraham”

ואברכה מברכך, your allies and those who seek your welfare.” A reference to Oner, Eshkol, and Mamre, Avram’s allies, as well as others whom the Torah has not named. The blessing‘s effect is that people displaying sympathy and love for Jews will be recompensed by G’d. A prominent example of this is that the house of Potiphar was blessed as a result of Potiphar’s positive attitude to Joseph, his Hebrew slave. (Genesis 39,5) Even Yaakov’s arch enemy Lavan, admitted that his presence with him had resulted in G’d making him rich. (Genesis 30,27)

ומקללך אאור, it is not customary to use the plural mode when speaking of curses. Seeing that there would be very few people, if any, who would curse Avram, this is hinted at in the use of the singular mode in the word ומקללך, “someone who curses you.”

ונברכו בך כל משפחות, all the families of the earth within whose radius Avram would make his residence, such as the land of Canaan, Egypt, and the land of the Philistines, would experience a special blessing due to the proximity of Avram.

וילך אברם, he came as far as Charan where he left his father behind, and proceeded to the land of Canaan.

'כאשר דבר אליו ה, he did not ask G’d for further instructions thereby “testing” G’d, but continued on his journey because he believed that G’d would keep His promise as He had said.

בצאתו מחרן, perhaps, prior to leaving his father behind, he had spent a few days trying to convince him to come along with him. At the time he left Charan he was 75 years old. [it is hard to see why he would have tried to persuade his father to come along, as he then would not have complied with the commandment to leave his father’s house. Ed.]

ויקח...ואת לוט בן אחיו, seeing that Lot was amenable to his uncle’s invitation, Lot left his grandfather behind, preferring the company of his uncle.

אשר רכשו, the plural ending refers to both Avram’s and Lot’s possessions.

ואת הנפש אשר עשו בחרן, the male and female servants they had acquired in Charan. The word עשו must be understood as similar to Deuteronomy 8,17 עשה לי את כל החיל הזה, “has gotten me this wealth.” According to Onkelos, the word עשו refers to the people whom Avram and Lot had succeeded in bringing back to monotheism, i.e. the same religion as that professed by Avram. Lot too, professed the belief in the one and only invisible G’d, the Creator of the universe Lot did not merely join Avram because he was his uncle and much younger than his grandfather, but he shared his religious beliefs and was active as an evangelist for that faith himself. This is the reason why the Torah wrote the word עשו in the plural mode instead of the singular. According to our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 39,14) the plural mode of the word עשו is meant to prove that both Avram and Sarai, each were active in converting their respective friends to monotheism. The use of the root עשה to describe such “brainwashing,” is also found in Samuel I 12,6 אשר עשה משה את משה ואת אהרן, where it refers to G’d having been the mentor of both Moses and Aaron.

ויצאו ללכת, they were all ready to go to the land of Canaan with Avram and they carried out their intention.

ויעבר אברם..עד מקום שכם, until the outskirts of Shechem. Perhaps the locations mentioned in the Torah are the ones that any traveler who came from Charan to the land of Canaan encounters in the order in which they appear in our paragraph. Avram may have briefly lived in these locations until G’d told him to move on and criss cross the land in 13,17. According to a Midrash quoted by Rashi, Avram saw a prophetic vision of the rape of Dinah in that town, and how the sons of Yaakov would avenge that deed. He therefore stopped there and offered a prayer on behalf of the family of Yaakov, asking G’d to save them from the pursuit and hatred of the Emorites who would try and avenge their compatriots. We know that this prayer was answered from Genesis 35,5 ויהי חתת אלוקים על הערים וגו', “the fear of G’d was on these cities, etc.” [according to Eliyahu Mizrachi, the words עד מקום שכם instead of עד שכם, are hard to justify otherwise. Ed.]

עד אלון מורה, he foresaw that there the Jewish people (at Mount Gerizim and Mount Eyval) would confirm that the Torah was binding for them, [especially those commandments that are essentially observed in private, their observance by individuals being difficult to confirm. Ed.] The word אלון is an allusion to the oath the people would swear in that location not to violate those commandments. (compare Deuteronomy 11,30) Avram prayed here to G’d asking Him to make the hearts of the people amenable at that time to take upon themselves this oath.

מורה, according to Onkelos this is the name of an individual, just as כנעני. אלון is the name of a plain, this plain bearing the name of a man known as מורה.

והכנעני אז בארץ, all these places belonged to the Canaanite, one of the 7 tribes making up that nation. We encounter such a reference to the Canaanites as a generic term in Deuteronomy 11,30 בארץ הכנעני אשר יושב בערבה, “in the land of the Canaanite who dwells in the Aravah, wilderness.”

אז בארץ, this is to teach us how G’d deals with those whom He loves. Avram was traveling through the land of the Canaanite with his herds and flocks. He was not challenged by anyone as being guilty of encroaching on their property, stealing their grazing land, etc. This was proof that G’d was with him. Avram was well aware that this was a demonstration of G’d’ keeping His promise to him that his very presence would be considered a blessing for the people surrounding him. There are commentators (Rashi) who say that the reference to the Canaanite occupying that land אז, at that time, means that until shortly before that time the whole land had belonged to Shem and his descendants, and that only at that time had the Canaanites begun to dispossess the Semites in that land. The proof quoted for this theory is 14,18 ומלכי צדק מלך שלם, that this king was Shem, the son of Noach who was still king in Jerusalem at that time. In other words, at the time Avram came to the land of Canaan, the Canaanites had not yet captured Jerusalem.

וירא ה' אל אברם, at Elon Moreh, He appeared to him, telling him that this is the land He promised to show him.

ויאמר לזרעך אתן, G’d told him that although He had bidden him to leave his homeland and to come to this country and to settle in it, He had not said that He would give this land to Avram forthwith by dispossessing the present inhabitants, as this was not practical, Avram being only a single individual. Possession of this land was possible only after his descendants had become sufficiently numerous. As of the time G’d was speaking to Avram, the land, instead of being an inheritance, would be like a gift to him, and he was expected to familiarise himself with his gift. He would encounter only sympathy and goodwill from the local inhabitants. When, in due course, his descendants, more than 600.000 strong, would come back here they would encounter hostility, and the conquest would take quite a while, the inhabitants being killed or driven out in stages, as was spelled out in greater detail in Exodus 23,30.

ויבן שם מזבח, in response to this promise, Avram erected an altar there in honour of the G’d Who had appeared to him.

ויעתק משם ההרה, he folded his tent to set out to go to the more mountainous regions east of Bet El, to examine that part of the land, and pitching his tent anew in the area between Bet El and Ai. When arriving there he again built an altar proclaiming the supremacy and uniqueness of the Lord G’d. The ending ה in the word אהלה means the same as the ending ו, i.e. as if the Torah had written אהלו. Avram in “proclaiming” the name of the Lord, issued invitations to the local population to visit this altar, pointing out that this altar was exclusively for serving the Lord and sacrificing to Him. Perhaps the repetition of the words בשם ה' indicates that the people whom Avram invited to his altar were already very close to becoming monotheists. According to Bereshit Rabbah 39,16, quoted by Rashi, he prophesied that at that site or near it, some of his descendants would fall in battle, due to the sin of Achan and members of his family. (Joshua 7,5).

And Avram journeyed - journeyed from here, and went. Continually traveling - from place to place.

הנגבה, until he came to the southern region of the land of Canaan. According to Bereshit Rabbah, all of Avram’s journeys were in a southerly direction, towards the region where the Kingdom of Yehudah would be centred.

ויהי רעב בארץ, this was one of the ten trials Avram was subjected to by G’d. He successfully mastered all of them. He never second-guessed G’d, thinking that if G’d had done things differently it would have been better, especially, better for him. He could have said that G’d had said to him that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through his presence, and if so how did his presence help them if the now had to face a famine? He did not question

מצרימה, generally speaking, there was always plenty of food in Egypt even if famine was prevalent in neighbouring countries because Egypt did not depend on rain from above, but relied on the waters of the river Nile which were most dependable both in quality and in quantity. Even the Torah mentions this as an advantage of Egypt in Deut. 11,10 when comparing the land of Israel to that of Egypt. Avram could not cope with the famine in the land of Canaan, due to all his herds and flocks requiring water and grazing land. Besides, by then he had a household comprising many people for whose welfare he was responsible.

לגור שם, he did not intend to settle in Egypt, only to wait out the famine there.

ויהי כאשר הקריב, not just he himself, but when he had brought his camp close to the Egyptian border. He was traveling slowly, in keeping with the pace of those animals that could not move quickly. Seeing that the word הקריב is in a transitive mode, the verse must refer to Avram’s entire entourage. We encounter the same construction when the Torah reports the pursuit of the Israelites by Pharaoh in Exodus 14,10, i.e. ויהי כאשר הקריב פרעה, when the reference is to Pharaoh and his army.

הנה נא ידעתי, even though the word נא generally describes a knowledge which one has just acquired, Avram did not want Sarai to think that he had only now discovered her good looks. He therefore used a formulation which indicated that he had been aware of her beauty ever since he had first met her. Similar constructions without the addition of ידעתי in the past tense are found in 19,2 הנה נא אדני, “now my lords,” or in 19,19 הנה נא מצא עבדך , חן, “now that your servant has found favour.” The comparison with these examples shows that the addition of the word ידעתי in our example had as its purpose to reassure Sarai that he had not only suddenly discovered that she was physically attractive.

והיה כי יראו אותך המצרים, the Egyptians themselves are physically not as attractive as the Canaanites, their relative ugliness being due to their living in a southerly extremely hot climate. Moreover, they are steeped in sexual licentiousness that makes them disregard moral mores and causes them to ignore obstacles to satisfying their lust. Avram therefore was concerned that when such ugly people see as beautiful a creature as Sarai, and they find out that she is married, they will simply dispose of the husband to remove him as an obstacle to satisfy their lust. Had Avram been aware of this situation, he would never have set out on his journey towards Egypt, but would have been content to endure the famine just as did most of the other inhabitants of the land of Canaan. He most certainly would not have put his wife at risk. Even now, Avram was not concerned that Sarai might be exposed to many rapes, something which would have been considered as ongoing violence and not have been tolerated even in Egypt. He was afraid that the Egyptians would commit only a single act of violence, namely to murder him, which would make Sarai a widow, and anyone sleeping with her would not violate the local laws of the sanctity of marriage. As to why he did not trust G’d, Who had promised to make him into a great nation, a promise that had not yet begun to be fulfilled, and preferred to resort to subterfuge, this is not surprising. We find that Yaakov also took extreme precautions in spite of having been given many assurances by G’d. The promises by G’d are based on man having taken every reasonable precaution not to require a miracle to save him from danger. When one is aware that one finds oneself in a situation where danger to one’s life is likely, one must first take every precaution at one’s disposal to counter such danger. Our sages (Pessachim 64) have told us that it is inadmissible to sit with one’s hands in one’s hands, waiting for G’d to perform a miracle to save one’s life. They base this advice on the verse in Deut. 6,16 לא תנסו את ה' אלוקיכם, “do not put the Lord your G’d in a position of having to perform a miracle for you.” When the prophet Samuel went to anoint a son of Yishai (David as it turned out) as replacement for King Sha-ul (Samuel I 16,2) he told G’d that he was afraid to do this as King Sha-ul would kill him if he heard about this, G’d did not criticise him for being afraid, but instructed him to use subterfuge so as to avoid suspicion of traitorous conduct. We learn from these examples how a righteous person must behave when he faces danger in carrying out what he knows to be G’d’s will. One must not leave matters to miracles.

ואותך יחיו, they will only let you live in order to use you as a sex object for their gratification. We encounter a similar situation when certain girls who were saved in the punitive campaign by the Israelites against Midian, were permitted to remain alive (Numbers 31,15) [all of the girls who had been too young to lose their virginity. Ed.] (compare also what the angel said to Bileam in Numbers 22,33)

אמרי נא, tell those who ask you.

למען ייטב לי, so that on account of your describing yourself as my sister they will treat me well. The “good treatment” Avram referred to was not financial reward but simply that they would let him live. It is quite inconceivable that Avram wanted to use his wife as a pimp uses a prostitute. Even though we read in verse 15 that Avram, in the event, experienced many financial favours as the man whose consent was sought to have his sister as someone’s wife, this is something he had not counted on at all. In fact, we know how unwilling Avram was to accept people’s favours when he turned down the spoils of war which were not a gift to him but his due as he had fought that war. (Genesis 14,23.) Had he not been in Pharaoh’s country and been afraid to reject these gifts, he would most certainly not have accepted them. Avram was not interested in acquiring more wealth than G’d had seen fit to grant him.

ויראו...ותקח, our sages, in comparing the abduction of Esther, and that of Sarai, point out that whereas with Esther the word used is ותלקח, here the word used by the Torah is ותקח, a pual (strong passive) mode, as opposed to a nifal-passive mode. (compare Torah Shleymah item 157 on this) In Sarai’s case, the formulation reflects the fact that she was a married woman, so that her abduction was a violation of her and her husband’s rights, whereas in Esther’s case it was “merely” a violation of her rights. According to our author Esther had been agreeable to participating in the contest. [The passive form would only reflect that none of the girls were active, but were selected by the king’s servants who had to decide if they had a chance to appeal to the king. Ed.]

ולאברם היטיב בעבורה, as soon as the king had taken Sarai he showered Avram with favours, seeing that she had described him as her brother. The favours consisted of the king sending him livestock, as well as other gifts which he could enjoy personally, so that he would give his consent to the marriage. Afterwards, when he had been punished by G’d, he did not ask Avram for forgiveness but deported him, as opposed to Avimelech (Genesis 20,14) The meaning of the words

ויהי לו, is that these gifts which used to belong to Pharaoh remained in Avram’s possession.

'וינגע ה, immediately, in the night following Sarai’s abduction. G’d’s objective was to prevent Pharaoh from defiling Sarai through sexual contact with her.

ואת ביתו, the men of his household, the very men who had praised Sarai’s beauty to their king and had abducted her. Alternatively, the meaning of these words could be that all members of the palace household, whether male or female, were afflicted with this plague in order for them to recognise the finger of G’d’s retribution for violating Sarai’s rights as an individual.

על דבר שרי, so that they could not claim that the plague was a coincidence, not related to Sarai’s abduction. An allegorical approach (related to a Midrash quoted by Rashi) the words על דבר שרי אשת אברם were spoken by the angel who inflicted this plague on Pharaoh and his household. The plain meaning is that after suffering this affliction, Pharaoh searched in his mind why this should have happened to him, and it eventually occurred to him that Sarai might have been a married woman. He then asked Sarai to tell her the truth. She replied that she was indeed Avram’s wife, and that seeing they had been afraid for Avram’s life, she had agreed to this semi-deception. As a result of this revelation, Pharaoh called Avram and confronted him personally.

למה...לאשה, I did not take her merely to sleep with her but I took her to be my wife.

הנה אשתך, here she is, as much your wife as before, since I did not touch her.

קח ולך, go and leave immediately before any person in my kingdom tries to rape her. She is too beautiful for most of my subjects to resist the temptation she represents for them. The reason why Avram did not bother to answer Pharaoh as he did Avimelech later (20,11-13) was because Avimelech had not expelled him, so that he deserved an answer.

ויצו עליו פרעה אנשים, to protect both him and his wife, so that the Egyptians would not molest them.

וישלחו אותו, as far as the border of the country.