Parashat Lech Lecha - Seventh Aliyah
Read the biblical text and try to understand it on your own, before reading the commentary.
God commands Abraham to circumcise, as a sign of the covenant with him and his descendants. He also changes Sarai’s name to Sarah and promises that she will bear a son, Isaac, with whom the covenant will continue. Abraham falls on his face and laughs, and also pleads for Ishmael, the son already born to him. After God finishes speaking, he carries out the command that same day: he, Ishmael and all the males in his household are circumcised.
What is in Abraham’s laughter?
Abraham hears that Sarah will give birth and thinks of their ages: he will be a hundred and she ninety. His laughter might sound like disbelief, but Ramban explains it as joy at something wondrous. There is laughter of mockery and laughter of joy; here Abraham marvels at the news and rejoices in it.
According to this interpretation, the question about their ages does not reject the promise. It expresses wonder at something extraordinary that Abraham does not consider impossible.
The news of Isaac awakens concern for Ishmael
Immediately afterward, Abraham asks:
lu Yishma’el yichyeh lefanecha.
Translation: If only Ishmael might live before You.
Ramban explains that until now Abraham had thought Ishmael was the son who would inherit from him. When he was told that Sarah would bear the heir, he feared that Ishmael might die. His request is therefore that Ishmael live and that his descendants endure through the generations.
God responds with two distinct promises: the covenant will be established with Isaac, and the request concerning Ishmael has also been heard. Ishmael will be blessed, multiply greatly and become a great nation. In Ramban’s reading, Abraham is not asking to give up the news of Isaac; he asks that it not come at the cost of losing his son.
That same day, with the son already here
Abraham immediately sets about carrying out the circumcision. Rabbeinu Bahya explains that he circumcised his household first and himself afterward: had he begun with himself, his condition following circumcision would have prevented him from attending to theirs.
Near the end, it says:
be’etzem hayom hazeh nimmol Avraham veYishma’el beno.
Translation: On that very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised.
Isaac will be born the following year. Meanwhile, the son whose life Abraham pleaded for is mentioned again by name, circumcised alongside his father. The covenant will continue with Isaac, but Abraham also pleads for Ishmael’s life. And the parashah ends with a picture that holds them both: Isaac in the promise for the future, and Ishmael circumcised with his father that same day.
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