Summary of parashat Vaiera
God reveals himself to Abraham three days after the circumcision of the first Jew at the age of 99; but Abraham quickly withdraws from the encounter to prepare a meal for three guests who appear in the desert heat. One of the three, who are angels disguised as men, announces that, exactly in one year, the barren Sarah will give birth to a son. Sarah laughs.
Abraham pleads with God to save the wicked city of Sodom. Two of the three disguised angels arrive in the lost city, where Abraham's nephew, Lot, extends his hospitality and protects them from the evil intentions of the mob. The two guests reveal that they came to destroy the city and to save Lot and his family. Lot's wife is turned into a pillar of salt when she disobeys the command not to look back at the burning city as they escape.
While sheltering in a cave, Lot's two daughters (believing they and their father were the only ones alive in the world) got their father drunk, slept with him, and became pregnant. The two sons born from this encounter are the ancestors of the nations of Ammon and Moab.
Abraham moves to Grar, where the Philistine king Abimelech takes Sarah, who is presented as Abraham's sister, to his palace. In a dream, God warns Abimelech that he will die unless he returns the woman to her husband. Abraham explains that he feared being killed by the beautiful Sarah.
God remembers His promise to Sarah and gives her, along with Abraham, a son, who is named Isaac ("he will laugh"). Isaac is circumcised on the eighth day; Abraham is 100 years old and Sarah 90 at the time of the birth.
Hagar and Ishmael are cast out of Abraham's house and wander in the desert; God hears the cries of the dying boy and saves his life by showing his mother a well of water. Abimelech makes a covenant with Abraham in Beersheba, where Abraham gives him seven sheep as a symbol of the covenant.
God tests Abraham's devotion by commanding him to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount) in Jerusalem. Isaac is bound and placed on the altar, and Abraham raises the knife to slaughter his son. A voice from heaven calls him to stop; a ram, caught in the bushes by its horns, is offered in Isaac's place. Abraham receives news of the birth of a daughter to his nephew Bethuel.
