In this week’s Torah reading, Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1–17:27), we encounter G-d’s call over Avram's life. The portion opens with G-d speaking directly to Avram, the same Creator who formed the heavens and the earth, who spoke light into existence, and who fashioned all life—plants, animals, and humanity. This G-d, who breathed life into man, now calls Avram to leave his father’s land and journey to a new place that He will reveal to him (Genesis 12:1).

G-d makes remarkable promises to Avram: blessings for all the families of the earth through him, land for his descendants, and a future lineage as numerous as the dust of the earth and stars of the sky (Genesis 12:2–3, 13:15–16, 15:5). Later, G-d changes Avram’s name to Avraham, signifying his role as the "father of many nations" (Genesis 17:5). G-d establishes an everlasting covenant with Avraham, a promise that will extend to all his descendants. As a sign of this covenant, G-d institutes brit milah (circumcision), setting Avraham's family apart from other nations (Genesis 17:10–11).

In this parasha, G-d also reveals the future enslavement and oppression of Avraham’s descendants in a foreign land for 400 years. G-d assures Avraham that He will judge that nation and ultimately deliver His people, bringing them out with great wealth (Genesis 15:13–14).

The Torah portion concludes with the covenant of circumcision, the outward sign by which Avraham’s descendants are to be distinct, marking them as G-d’s people forever (Genesis 17:9–14).