There is a whole lot of movement in Parshat Lech Lecha. We begin the parashah with God’s command to Avram to leave his homeland and go to a new place. Avram, Sarai and their nephew Lot leave Ur Kasdim ...

“Hashem said to Avram: Get yourself away from your country and from your birth-place and from your father’s house” (Genesis 12:1). “But Lord, how can I leave my country? Look – I’m 75 years old, You ...

Jewish tradition places great significance on names. With the addition of just one letter, at the age of 99, Abram becomes Abraham and his transformation to the father of many nations is confirmed. At ...

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Rabbi Avi Weiss, is an American open Orthodox ordained rabbi, author, teacher, lecturer, and activist who is the founder of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in The Bronx, New York. He is the founder ...

As the Torah introduces the greatness of Avraham, we find the Hebrew patriarch striving to discover Divine truth in a hostile and idolatrous world. He leaves everything he had ever known in order to ...

This week’s Torah portion is Lech-Lecha: Genesis 12:1 – 17:27 Lech-Lecha, the divine command to Abraham in Genesis 12:1, is often translated as “Go forth.” But the Hebrew is richer and much more ...

Avram and Sarai decide to leave Canaan in a surprisingly abrupt fashion. Just a few verses earlier, at the beginning of Genesis Chapter 12, Avram was told to uproot his family and venture into the ...

A Senior Lecturer in English discusses how the "whole student" can only be taught by the "whole professor." “Lech lecha me’artzecha umimoladetcha umi beit avicha...” Now the LORD said unto Abram: “Get ...

Twenty years ago today, on October 15, 1998, I made Aliyah at age 20 from Manchester, UK. That’s right. I have officially spent half my life (if you don’t count our three-year hiatus in the US, which ...