Summary of the Parasha
Three days after his circumcision, sitting at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day, Abraham is visited by God, then sees three travelers. They are angels (Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, according to Rashi), but he welcomes them as men: he runs, has bread, a calf and milk prepared. This is the model of hospitality (hachnasat orchim) and of visiting the sick. The angels announce that at this time next year Sarah will have a son; Sarah laughs.
God reveals to Abraham the coming destruction of Sodom, and Abraham pleads: “Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?” He bargains from fifty righteous people down to ten. Two angels arrive in Sodom; Lot takes them in, and the mob wants to attack them. Lot and his daughters are saved, the city is destroyed by sulfur and fire, and Lot’s wife, looking back, becomes a pillar of salt. Lot’s daughters, believing the world destroyed, give birth to Moab and Ammon.
In Gerar, Abraham again presents Sarah as his sister; King Abimelech is warned in a dream and returns her. Then God “remembers Sarah”: Isaac is born when Abraham is a hundred years old, and he circumcises him on the eighth day; a feast is held on the day he is weaned. At Sarah’s request, Hagar and Ishmael are sent away; in the desert the water runs out, and an angel shows Hagar a well. Abraham makes a covenant with Abimelech at Beer Sheva and plants an eshel, a grove or an inn, where he feeds passersby and leads them to bless God.
Finally, the Akedah: God asks Abraham to offer Isaac on Mount Moriah. Abraham rises early, and father and son walk “the two of them together”. At the last moment an angel stops his hand, and a ram is offered instead. The parasha ends with the genealogy of Nachor, announcing the birth of Rebecca. In the Sephardi rite the Akedah is recited every morning; the Kabbalah sees in it the union of Abraham’s Chesed and Isaac’s Gevurah.
Summary of the Haftara
“V’Ishah Achat” (“And a woman”)
Text in II Kings 4:1–23 for Sephardim, 4:1–37 for Ashkenazim
The widow of a disciple of the prophets, whom the Midrash identifies as the wife of the prophet Obadiah, is about to see her sons sold for debt. Elisha multiplies her little bit of oil until it fills every borrowed vessel. Then a woman of Shunem generously hosts the prophet and prepares a room for him. To thank her, Elisha announces: “At this season next year, you will embrace a son”. The child is born, grows, then suddenly dies; the mother runs to the prophet. In the Ashkenazi reading, Elisha lies over the child and brings him back to life.
Parasha-Haftara Connection
Abraham and the woman of Shunem open their homes without counting the cost, and each receives the promise of a son in almost the same words (“at this season next year”). In both stories the long-awaited child comes close to death and returns to life: Isaac on the altar, the Shunammite’s son on the prophet’s bed.