Avraham is the founding father of Judaism. Born Avram in Ur Kasdim (Ur of the Chaldees), he represents the tenth generation after Noah.
The Torah reveals nothing about Avram's childhood. The famous Midrashim about the patriarch intuiting the existence of God and smashing idols in his father's idol shop do not appear in the Biblical text about Avram/Avraham.
Avram’s wife Sarai is barren. Led by Terah, the family sets out from Ur Kasdim (Ur of the Chaldees) for the Land of Canaan. They get as far as Haran, where Terah dies. (Parashat Noah)
God appears to Avram and tells him to leave his homeland and travel to a land that He will show him. This first communication of God to Avram is considered the first of many tests posed by God to Avraham.
At this early point in Avram's story, God promises to make Avram into a great nation. Avram accedes to God's command and travels to Canaan with his wife and his nephew Lot, following God's lead. Once there, God makes His second promise: to give the land to Avram's descendants.These two promises: that Avram will have many descendants, and that they will inherit the land of Israel, are repeated often to Avraham as well as to Yitzhak and Yaakov. The promises are referred to frequently in the rest of the Torah (see for example Exodus 6, 4; 32, 13) as well as in the Neviim and Ketuvim (Prophets and Writings).
A famine in Canaan sends Avram and Sarai to Egypt where Avram pretends that his wife is his sister. Upon returning to Canaan, Avram and Lot part ways since each is very wealthy and their flocks require separate grazing land. Lot, who chooses to live in Sodom, gets caught up in a war between city states and Avram rushes to his rescue. In gratitude for his assistance, Bera, the king of Sodom, offers the plunder to Avram. Avram turns him down, saying that he'd prefer his wealth to be attributed to God's beneficence and not to the king's gifts.
God again promises Avram that he will found a great nation and compares his descendants to the numerous stars (Genesis 15, 5). God and Avram strike a covenant known as "The Covenant Between the Pieces" in which the promise of the land is again enunciated. During this episode God informs Avram that his descendants will be oppressed in a foreign land.
Following his wife's suggestion, Avram marries Hagar, Sarai's maid, so that she may bear Avram a child, since Sarai remains barren. Avram is 86 years old when Hagar gives birth to a son, Yishmael.
God appears to Avram again, promising to give him the land and to make him the founder of a great nation. To emphasize this second point God changes His beneficiary's name from Avram to Avraham, arguing that Avraham signifies "father of a multitude of nations" (Genesis 17, 5). It is at this time that God introduces the practice of circumcision to Avraham. He is commanded to circumcise himself and all future male descendants. This will be the physical sign of the covenant between God and Avraham's family. God also renames Sarai in preparation for her becoming a mother, changing her name to Sarah. Upon hearing that he and his wife will have a son together, Avraham laughs. He is, after all, 99 years old at this point and Sarah is 90. Nevertheless, God assures him that he will have a son and instructs that the boy be named Yitzhak. The covenant that God has forged with Avraham will find expression in Yitzhak. Avraham proceeds to circumcise himself, Yishmael and all of his household. (Parashat Lekh Lekha)
Three men come to visit Avraham and during the course of the encounter, Sarah overhears the news that she will give birth to a son in a year.
God informs Avraham that He plans on destroying the towns of Sodom and Amora due to the wickedness of their inhabitants. This leads to a lengthy dialogue between God and Avraham wherein the latter begs God to spare the towns. Avraham travels to Gerar where he again presents his wife as his sister. Avimelekh, the king, takes Sarah. He is warned by God in a dream that he will die for having taken a married woman. Avimelekh confronts Avraham who defends himself by arguing that indeed Sarah is related to him on his father's side, and by claiming that he had to protect himself from the immorality of the place. Avimelekh sends the couple away with many gifts and later on forges a pact with Avraham.
Yitzhak is born and is circumcised. Avraham's other son Yishmael makes sport of Yitzhak, and Sarah demands that Avraham banish Yishmael and Hagar, saying that she will not have Yishmael inherit along with Yitzhak. Avraham is upset by Sarah's request but God tells him to grant Sarah's wish. Avraham sends Yishmael and Hagar away, and God promises him that Yishmael too will found a great nation.
God gives Avraham his greatest test when He asks him to sacrifice Yitzhak on an altar - the episode known as Akeidat Yitzhak (The Binding of Yitzhak). Without hesitation, Avraham takes his son and travels to a place indicated by God and prepares to kill his son. At the last moment Avraham is stopped by an angel who declares that Avraham has proven his complete faith by this act of utter submission to the will of God. (Parashat VaYera)
Sarah dies at age 127, and after mourning her, Avraham proceeds to buy a burial plot and cave from Ephron the Hittite at a location in Hebron known as Me’arat haMakhpela (The Makhpela Cave). Avraham next sends his servant to his homeland to find a wife for Yitzhak. Avraham refuses to let his son marry a local girl and also warns the servant against taking Yitzhak out of Canaan to settle in Avraham 's native land. Avraham lives to 175 and upon his death is buried in the family burial plot by his sons Yitzhak and Yishmael. (Parashat Hayyei Sarah)
Avraham remains the father figure for the Jewish people and is generally called Avraham Avinu- Avraham our father. The Bible, the prayer book and Jewish culture often recall the unique relationship Avraham had with God, sometimes referring to God as “the God of Avraham.”
