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Home -> 5758 -> Lech Lecha

Moshe Marcovich
In Lech Lecha, 5758

Your name shall no longer be called Avram, but your name shall be Avraham. (17:5)

In the Talmud Berachos 13A, Chazal remark that anyone who refers to Avraham Avinu as Avram violates a negative and a positive commandment.  Interestingly, we do not find this distinction in regard to Yaakov Avinu, whose name also underwent a change.  We note (in Bereishis 32:29 and 35:10) the Torah states:  “Your name shall not always be called Yaakov, but Yisrael  shall be your name.”  What difference is there between Yaakov and Avraham? While Yaakov’s name was also changed, it had no halachic consequences?  We still refer to him as Yaakov. Horav Zaidel Epstein, Shlita, explains that the difference lies…

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Home -> 5758 -> Lech Lecha

Moshe Marcovich
In Lech Lecha, 5758

Walk before Me and be perfect. (17:1)

Rashi says that Avraham’s perfection, his capacity to be tamim, was attained by his observance of the mitzvah of Bris Milah.  As long as he had the arlah, foreskin, he had a physical imperfection.  With its removal, he now became perfect.  We may wonder why Avraham needed the mitzvah of Milah to become a tamim; Noach was called a tamim without the mitzvah of Milah.  Horav Dov Eliezrav, Shlita, distinguishes between Noach’s virtue and that of Avraham.  We find that Noach’s righteousness is the topic of a dispute among Chazal.  Was he a tzaddik only because he lived in a…

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Home -> 5758 -> Lech Lecha

Moshe Marcovich
In Lech Lecha, 5758

And Sarai, Avram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maidservant…and gave her to Avram her husband, to him as a wife. (16:3)

Avraham and Sarah had almost everything, they lacked only a child to carry on their legacy.  Sarah suggested that Avraham take Hagar, her Egyptian maidservant, as a wife.  Sarah would raise the child, that would hopefully be born to them, as her adopted child.  One would think that Hagar would be enthusiastic about  the idea of becoming Avraham’s wife.  Indeed, her father told her, “Better to be a maidservant to Avraham and Sarah than a mistress anywhere else.”  Rashi, however, says that Sarah had to convince Hagar to marry Avraham.  This hardly seems consistent with a person who pursued any…

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