Reading

Lech Lecha · Haftarah Lamah tomar Yaakov

Parasha: Genesis 12:1–17:27 · Maftir: 17:24–27 · Haftarah: Isaiah 40:27–41:16 (same for Sephardim and Ashkenazim). No special Shabbat.

Teen summary: Avram leaves home for “the land I will show you,” goes down to Egypt in a famine, splits from Lot, wins the war of the kings and refuses Sodom’s loot (“not a thread or a shoelace”), sees the stars and gets the Brit bein HaBetarim, Yishmael is born, and at 99 Avram becomes Avraham and does the brit milah.

Stories

The idol shop · The box at customs · The “helpful” giant

Bereshit Rabbah 38:13: Avram smashes his father’s idols and puts the stick in the biggest one’s hand. “They can’t do anything!” “Do your ears hear your mouth?” Nimrod throws him into the furnace; he walks out. Haran, who waited to see who’d win, does not.

Bereshit Rabbah 40:5: Avram hides Sarai in a chest. At customs he offers to pay duty on clothes, gold, silk, and gems, which makes the officers insist on opening it, and Egypt lights up.

Bereshit Rabbah 42:8: the “refugee” who reports Lot’s capture is Og, hoping Avram dies in battle. He gets long life for his steps, but ends up falling into the hands of Avraham’s descendants.

Dvar Torah · Ben Ish Chai, Halachot 2nd Year, intro to Lech Lecha

The Lion in the Hallway

“V’Avram kaved me’od bamikneh bakesef uvazahav” (13:2). The Ben Ish Chai reads kaved as heavy: Avram was lightning-fast for mitzvot, but with money and stuff he moved slowly and didn’t chase it. Turbo for mitzvot, slow-mo for stuff. (The Chida: learn speed from the ant, Mishlei 6:6, but spend it on Torah.)

Devarim Rabbah 8:6, the lazy guy’s seven excuses: lion on the road, lion in the streets, lion outside, door’s locked, five more minutes, too lazy to lift the food to his mouth, and (Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai) didn’t learn when young, can’t when old. The Ben Ish Chai: the same guy is fast at physical things, so laziness about holy things is the yetzer hara, not your nature. Earlier generations “plowed, planted, harvested… baked, cooked, and set it on the table,” and we’re too lazy to put it in our mouths. He meant indexes in the 1800s. We have every sefer on our phones.

Habit turns hard into natural. King David: “Chashti v’lo hitmahmahti” (Tehillim 119:60): old and still fast, because he never delayed when young. Zariz = zer tov (224). Joy is the mother of speed.

Teen takeaway: don’t blame the lion in the hallway. Find the joy, and the speed follows.

Halacha checklist · Sephardi / SA / YY

Six points for the Shabbat table

1. Candles 5:45 PM: Sephardim say the beracha, then light (SA OC 263:5; Yalkut Yosef). Lighting first and covering the eyes is the Rema’s Ashkenazi custom.
2. Kiddush only where you eat the meal (SA OC 273:1).
3. Lechem mishneh: two whole loaves, cut the bottom one (SA OC 274:1).
4. Seudah shlishit: even a kebeitzah of bread; don’t overstuff at lunch (SA OC 291:1).
5. Shnayim mikra v’echad targum, “even Atarot v’Divon” (SA OC 285:1).
6. Havdalah sitting per the Shulchan Aruch (OC 296:6); Rema: Ashkenazim stand. Shabbat ends 6:52 PM.

Zmanim · Bronx 10471 ET (Hebcal)

Shabbat times