In 1885, Karl Benz of Mannheim, Germany, builds what many considered the first automobile, the first self-propelled carriage that didn’t rely on human or animal power to move. It would start a revolution that would change the world. Others would refine the concept and in the space of 25 years, the automobile would evolve from a hand-made luxury convenience to a mass-produced vehicle that would prove to be an essential tool of modern life ever since.

Benz’s achievement did not come easily. He spent years in obscurity, working through failure, debt, and ridicule to prove that his motorized carriage could truly replace the horse. Even after perfecting the design, few believed in it, until his wife, Bertha, took the invention on an unannounced 65-mile journey in 1888, becoming the first person to drive long-distance. Her bold trip captured public attention and transformed skepticism into curiosity. What began as one man’s improbable experiment became the spark of a global transformation in how humanity moves.

In this week’s reading of the Torah, the portion called “Lech Lecha” which can be translated as “Go for you,” introduces us to Abraham (whose name is still merely Abram at this point) and his wife, Sarah (who is called Sarai at this point).

Abraham, together with Sarah, would eventually transform how humanity thinks and specifically theologically. They would demonstrate that the belief in one omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient deity could replace the pantheon of pagan gods that the rest of the world took as a given.

In our first encounter with Abraham, God directs him to leave his homeland, his birthplace, and his father’s house, to journey westward to the land of Canaan. For reasons that we will only discover later, God promises Abraham that he will become the progenitor of a great nation and that the land of Canaan will be given to them in the future.

However, Canaan proves less than hospitable. At some point it is hit by famine and Abraham and Sarah (together with their nephew Lot, who we’ll hear more about later) have little choice but to go southwest to Egypt. We are then given another tidbit, that Sarah is an extremely beautiful woman. She is so beautiful that Abraham fears that the Egyptians will kill him to take his wife. Sarah and Abraham agree to pretend publicly that they are siblings rather than husband and wife.

The ruse works briefly. The stunning Sarah is quickly noticed and is eventually taken into the Pharaoh’s household. Sarah’s “brother” Abraham is richly compensated by the relationship. Pharaoh gifts him with a preponderous wealth of flocks and gold. However, Sarah’s stay in Pharaoh’s palace is short-lived, as God strikes Pharaoh and his household with a plague which Pharaoh correctly interprets as being because he took another man’s wife.

Pharaoh kicks Abraham and Sarah out of Egypt, though he let’s them keep their wealth. They return to Canaan, but a new challenge develops. Both Abraham and Lot are now fabulously wealthy, but the land can’t amicably support both of their extensive flocks, causing their respective shepherds to quarrel. They agree to part ways and Lot ventures down from the central mountain range of Canaan to the lush fields of Sodom. The Torah tells us as an aside that the residents of Sodom are particularly evil.

Lot picked the wrong place at the wrong time, as he gets caught up in a regional war and is taken captive by the conquering army. Abraham finds out and quickly assembles a small militia of his own that pursues the winning army, defeats them, and returns all the captives, including Lot, and their possessions, while not claiming any spoils for himself.

After this God talks to Abraham again and promises him that his reward will be great. Abraham retorts that he doesn’t have any children. God reassures him that his children will be as numerous as the stars. However, a few things will happen before that, including enslavement in a foreign land for a number of generations after which they will be freed, carrying great wealth.

Sarah, frustrated by her lack of ability to have a child and already in her mid-seventies, suggests to Abraham that he take her handmaid, Hagar, and try to produce a child together. They are successful, and Ishmael is born. Abraham is 86 years old at this point. God then proceeds to change Abraham’s name from the original Abram to Abraham.

Thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael, God commands Abraham, at the ripe age of 99 years old, to circumcise himself, all the male members of his household and all future generations as an eternal covenant between God and Abraham’s descendants. God then also changes Sarah’s name from Sarai to Sarah and informs Abraham, that together they will have a son named Isaac.

An item of interest as that through Abraham’s journey and travails, he is consistently calling out “in God’s name.” While it’s not clear exactly what that entails, the people, nations and rulers who interact with Abraham see him as a great and holy man. He proves himself to be powerful, morally, economically, and militarily. While he is enmeshed in a pagan world, he starts the fire of the monotheistic idea and spreads it wherever and whenever possible. While on one hand he is a prudent realist, as we saw with his precautions in what he correctly understood was a licentious Egypt, he is also a daring idealist, as we saw in his military campaign against the conquerors of Sodom though he clearly had no material or political motivations, beyond the simple rescue of his nephew Lot.

This is only the beginning of the Torah’s account of Abraham. Next week, we will hopefully understand why he was particularly beloved by God, and the next steps in the story of the founding fathers of the Jewish people.