Lech-Lecha
Lech-Lecha, Lekh-Lekha, or Lech-L'cha ( leḵ-ləḵā—Hebrew for "go!" or "leave!", literally "go for you"—the fifth and sixth words in the parashah) is the third weekly Torah portion (, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Genesis 12:1–17:27. The parashah tells the stories of God's calling of Abram (who would become Abraham), Abram's passing off his wife Sarai as his sister, Abram's dividing the land with his nephew Lot, the war between the four kings and the five, the covenant between the pieces, Sarai's tensions with her maid Hagar and Hagar's son Ishmael, and the covenant of circumcision (brit milah). The parashah is made up of 6,336 Hebrew letters, 1,686 Hebrew words, 126 verses, and 208 lines in a Torah Scroll (Sefer Torah). Jews read it on the third Sabbath after Simchat Torah, in October or November. Readings In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , aliyot. In the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Parashah Lech-Lecha has three "open portion" (, petuchah) divisions (roughly equivalent to paragraphs, often abbreviated with the Hebrew letter (peh)). Parashah Lech-Lecha has several further subdivisions, called "closed portion" (, setumah) divisions (abbreviated with the