VaYera (Genesis 18:1-22:24)

The portion is named , literally "and He appeared", because it begins with God appearing
before Abraham, enabling him to notice three angels who come to bring him God's word.

This week's portion begins with three men, angels, who bring God's word to Abraham. Abraham greets them and goes to much trouble in order to please the guests. The three bear an important message: Abraham and Sarah will have a son, despite their old age - a year from the time of the visit. After this, the men turn towards Sodom, which is to be destructed. God decides to tell Abraham of his plan, and Abraham tries to convince him not to destroy the city, suggesting that there may be some righteous people there after all.

The three men arrive in Sodom, and are greeted by Lot, Abraham's nephew. He is apparently the only righteous man in Sodom. The other inhabitants demand that Lot send his guests out to them because they would like to sodomize them (a word which was created due to this biblical story). Lot refuses, and the angels interfere - blinding the people of Sodom and telling Lot to take all his family away from the city before they destroy it. The husbands of Lot's daughters refuse to come with him. Lot's wife comes with him, but looks back despite a clear command not to do so. She is then turned into a pillar of salt. Therefore, only Lot and two of his daughters are left as refugees from the city which is destroyed with unusual might.

Lot and his daughters flee to the mountains, and the daughters are certain that they are the only people left in the world. They therefore give their father wine in order to make him drunk, and are impregnated by him - the Ammonites and the Moabites are the two peoples who are born as a result of these relations.
The city of Sodom and the entire area surrounding it are destroyed, and turned into the desolate Dead Sea area. The reason for their destruction is the great moral corruption of the residents.

After this, Abraham and Sarah go to live in the Philistine city Grar. Abraham again tells a foreign king that Sarah is his sister in order to escape from death, but the king, Abimelech, discovers the truth in his dream, after not having touched Sarah at all. Abimelech is insulted, and states that Abraham's conduct was inappropriate, placing him in a position where he might have committed a great sin. Abimelech invites Abraham to live in his city, and Abraham prays for Abimelech and the punishment for having taken Sarah is cancelled. Eventually Abraham and Abimelech make a covenant between them.

As predicted, Sarah gives birth to a son, Isaac. Abraham circumcises him when he is eight days old as God commanded him. When the child is weaned, a sign of maturity and of passing the critical age of two, Abraham hold a big party for his son.

During the party, Sarah sees Ishmael, Abraham's older son, behaving inappropriately, and demands that Abraham send him from their house. Ishmael and his mother, Hagar, go to the Beer Sheba desert and are lost with no water. An angel reveals himself to them and shows them a well, and they settle in the desert.

After the long waited for birth of Isaac, God tests Abraham by commanding him to kill his son as an offering to God. Abraham intends to do so, and is stopped by an angel at the last minute, when he is about to slaughter his son. He finds a ram stuck in the bushes which he sacrifices instead of Isaac.

The portion ends with an update on Abraham's brother left in Mesopotamia and the children born to him, in fact preparing us through the family genealogy for the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca.