Lech-Lecha

Lech-Lecha, Lekh-Lekha, or Lech-L'cha (לֶךְ-לְךָ 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 (פָּרָשָׁה, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Genesis 12:1–17:27. The parashah is made up of 6,336 Hebrew letters, 1,686 Hebrew words, and 126 verses, and can occupy about 208 lines in a Torah Scroll (סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה, Sefer Torah).Jews read it on the third Sabbath after Simchat Torah, in October or November.

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 (בְּרִית מִילָה, brit milah).

Readings

In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or עליות, aliyot. In the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Parashah Lech-Lecha has three "open portion" (פתוחה, petuchah) divisions (roughly equivalent to paragraphs, often abbreviated with the Hebrew letter פ (peh)). Parashah Lech-Lecha has several further subdivisions, called "closed portion" (סתומה, setumah) divisions (abbreviated with the Hebrew letter ס (samekh)) within the open portion (פתוחה, petuchah) divisions. The first open portion (פתוחה, petuchah) divides the first reading (עליה, aliyah). The second open portion (פתוחה, petuchah), covers the balance of the first and all of the second and third readings (עליות, aliyot). The third open portion (פתוחה, petuchah) spans the remaining readings (עליות, aliyot). Closed portion (סתומה, setumah) divisions further divide the fifth and sixth readings (עליות, aliyot).