Lech-Lecha

Lech-Lecha, Lekh-Lekha, or Lech-L'cha (Biblical Hebrew: לֶךְ־לְךָ, romanized: leḵ-ləḵā, lit. 'go!,leave!'—the fifth and sixth words) 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 tells the stories of God's calling of Abram, 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, the changing of Abram's name to Abraham, and the covenant of circumcision (brit milah). The parashah is made up of 6336 Hebrew letters, 1,686 Hebrew words, 126 verses, and 208 lines in a Torah scroll. Jews read it on the third Shabbat after Simchat Torah, in October or November.