Beresheet

Lech Lecha - Parsha

 

In our last parsha we learned about Noach. Noach had children, and his children had children and one of those children was named Terach. Terach had a son named Avram. Avram was the first Jewish person! According to Midrash, at the age of three, Avram figured out that there is one G-d who rules the whole world. He was a pretty smart guy!This is a great parsha to act out with your children.

In the parsha Lech Lecha, (which means: “YOU GO!) Hashem tells Avram, “Go from your land, from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.” How would you feel if someone asked you to leave your house and you didn’t even know where you were going? Pretty scary! But, Avram had complete faith and trust in Hashem so he started packing. He gathered his wife, Sarai and his nephew Lot, all their belongings, all their flocks and started out on his long journey. They were traveling to Canaan (which is now called Israel) and they stopped for the night and set up their tents. (*Use a parachute and have the children hold the ends of the parachute and pull it over their heads and under them to make a tent.)

As you act out the traveling, also use a parachute and have the children walk holding the ends of the parachute, which will be the tent and chant:

“Oh we walk and we walk and we walk and we walk, and we walk and we walk and we walk then we stop.” They were tired so they put up their tent and the tent went up, up, up, up, up., (everyone raise the parachute up). Then down, down, down, down, down. Then we walked and we walked, etc. )

You can do this a few times to show how far they walked to get to their new place.

The shepherds who took care of Avram and Lot’s flocks were not being kind to each other. So Avram said: “Families should not fight! We should separate; choose where you would like to live. If you go north, I’ll go south. If you go south, I’ll go north.” Lot was very selfish, he only cared about himself. So, Lot saw that in one direction there was a beautiful stream, lots of grass and trees, so he chose that way, towards Sodom. Avram was very kind to Lot. Hashem saw how kind Avram was and blessed him. He also changed Avram’s name to Avraham and changed Sarai’s name to Sarah. Then Hashem blessed Avraham, He said: “I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. You will have as many children as there are grains of sand on the beach, and as many children as there are stars in the sky.” Now this was pretty interesting because Avraham and Sarah had no children at all! What do you think happens in next week’s parsha?