Shabbat Lech Lecha: Gen. 12.1-17.27.
Haftorah: Isaiah 40.27-41.16.

By: Rabbi Mordechai Yitzchok Friedman
הרב מרדכי יצחק פרידמאן, שליט"א
טירנויא רב

Parshat Lech Lecha personifies the entire relationship between Hashem and the Jewish people. The Parsha delineates what Hashem expects of us and what we receive in return. Who are the real and only recipient of the promised land? “Why are Jews commanded to be circumcised?”

The fundamental relationship between Hashem and the Jewish People is graphically illustrated in Bereshis, Genesis Chapter 15, Verse 18 (Chas numerically is 8, Yud is 10, combining to be 18 in which Chas plus Yud is Chai, or life). In this verse, the Nation is given life, when it realizes what the Almighty promised Abraham, “…In that day G-d made a covenant with Abraham, I have given your children from the river Egypt to the great river Euphrates.” Indeed, these verses give us the exact and precise boundaries of Israel.

Hashem informed us in Chapter 17:19, ‘‘G-d said, In truth, Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish my covenant with him as a covenant that is everlasting for his offspring after him”. And “But my covenant I will establish with Isaac whom bear to you, will Sarah at this time in the year that follows” (Genesis 17:21) and “For only through Isaac will they be considered your offspring” (Genesis 21:12), ipso facto, the Almighty informs Abraham and the entire world, only the Jews are the heirs to Abraham and the covenant, the land of Israel!!!!!)

The land of Israel and the Jewish people are intertwined. Indeed, Hashem demands an everlasting “sign” that this covenant transpired, “Los Bris”, “you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and that shall be the sign of the covenant between me and between you.” (Genesis 17:11) So powerful and all encompassing is the “Sign”, if one does not have the sign (circumcision) that ‘An uncircumcised male who will not circumcise the flesh of his foreskin - cut of shall be that soul from its people; My covenant he has breached’ “ (Genesis 17:14). By the Talmudic method of Pilpul, if one does not have just the sign, one is Chayav Kores-incurs penalty of Excision, certainly if one denies the covenant itself, not accepting Hashem (Torah) or Eretz Yisrael (Israel), OR BOTH, is too be cut off from his people. Indeed, we have a quid pro quo, we accept Hashem and in return we receive all the Land.