Parsha Table

Bereshit (Genesis) · Genesis 12:1–17:27 · Shabbat 24 Oct 2026

Lech Lecha לך־לך

Avram and Sarai leave home for a land they have never seen, and begin a family covenant.

Four seats at the table: The Wild Heart · Zeide's Chair · The Soulful · From the East

This is Parsha Table's free family guide for Lech Lecha, the parsha read on Shabbat 24 Oct 2026. (A parsha is the weekly Torah portion; Shabbat is the Jewish day of rest, from Friday sunset to Saturday night.) Read the story in plain words, try one Shabbat thing, play the game at the table, then pick your kid's seat and song.

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The parsha in plain words

Every week, Jewish communities all over the world read the next part of the Torah (the Five Books of Moses). Each part is called a parsha. This week's is Lech Lecha, which means "Go, for yourself."

God speaks to a man named Avram (later he'll be called Avraham, or Abraham) and tells him: leave your country, your hometown and your father's house, and go to a land I will show you. No map, no address. Avram and his wife Sarai (later Sarah) pack up and walk to the land of Canaan, the land that would one day be called Israel. Along the way they build altars, simple stone tables for thanking God.

The journey isn't easy. There's a famine (a time with no food), a quarrel between Avram's shepherds and those of his nephew Lot, and even a war in which Lot is captured. Avram rescues him, and refuses to keep any of the treasure for himself.

One night God takes Avram outside: "Look up and count the stars, if you can. That's how many children you will have." Avram and Sarai have no children yet, but Avram believes. At the end of the parsha, God gives them new names, Avraham and Sarah, and makes a covenant (a forever promise) with them. Jewish families everywhere trace their story back to them.

Why it matters at your table: every Jewish journey starts with one step into something new. Trying Shabbat for the first time is exactly that kind of step.

🕯️ Try one Shabbat thing this week

A Friday night meal with Kiddush

Avram's journey started with one step. Yours can start with one cup. Kiddush ("making holy") is the short blessing over wine or grape juice that opens the Friday night meal, and it's the easiest place to begin.

You need

  • A cup (any nice cup works)
  • Wine or grape juice
  • Two challot (braided Shabbat breads; store-bought is perfect) and a napkin to cover them
  • A little salt
  • Your local Shabbat time (Friday sunset)

How to do it

  1. Before sunset on Friday, set the table a little nicer than usual: a tablecloth, the challah under its cover, the cup ready.
  2. If you like, light Shabbat candles before sunset (see Shabbat 101). It's a lovely add-on, not a must.
  3. Sit down together. Fill the cup and say Kiddush, or play a recording and follow along. Everyone answers "Amen" after each blessing. Take a sip and share the cup.
  4. Uncover the challah, say Hamotzi (the blessing over bread), sprinkle a little salt, and pass pieces around.
  5. Enjoy the meal with phones away. Use this week's seat questions and the family game below.

The one-minute version: Short on time? Fill a cup, say Kiddush, and share the challah. That's a real Shabbat meal.

The words, in Hebrew, transliteration and English: Make Kiddush over wine or grape juice · Wash hands and say Hamotzi over challah (Shabbat 101)

🎲 Family game

Journey to the Kiddush Cup

Ages 3 and up · about 10 minutes · nothing to print

You need: The things for Kiddush: the cup, the grape juice or wine, the two challot and their cover

  1. Before Shabbat, a grown-up places the Kiddush things around the house: the cup on a shelf, the juice in the fridge, the challah cover in a drawer, the challah on the counter.
  2. At the table, announce: "Lech lecha! Go, travelers, like Avram!" Give the first clue: "Find something that holds the wine." Little ones can travel with a big sibling.
  3. Each traveler brings back one thing and sets it on the table. More clues: "Something that comes from grapes." "Something that keeps the challah cozy." "Two braided breads."
  4. When everything is on the table, everyone says together: "We made it to the land!" Now it's time for Kiddush.
  5. Kiddush listening game: before Kiddush starts, give each kid a word to listen for: "Shabbat," "Baruch" (blessed) or "Amen." Each time they hear their word, they tap the table softly. (Answer: "Shabbat" and "Baruch" each come 3 times in the blessings, and everyone says "Amen" after each one.)
  6. Talk about it: Avram packed up and walked to a new land. We just walked from a busy week into Shabbat. What did you leave behind this week, and what are you glad you brought to the table?
  7. Bonus after Shabbat: on Saturday night, step outside and count stars like Avram. When you can see three, Shabbat is over, and it's time for Havdalah (see Shabbat 101).

The song of the week

Lech LechaProduced by Elijah Tales · Watch on YouTube · @ElijahTales

Four seats at the table

Every family has different kids. Each seat tells the story in its own voice, with its own song, a question to ask, and one cool thing to share with your kid. Pick the seats at your table and we'll build your plan.

The Wild Heart

Teens and young adults who'd rather be anywhere else (we love them) · sung by Narty

Everybody's phone is buzzing, but nobody's listening. God said "go" to the whole world, and one guy actually took off the headphones. Avram walked out of everything he knew with no map, because he heard something. Later he takes on four kings to rescue his nephew and won't keep even a shoelace of the loot. And this week Leo saw two kids in trouble in the water when nobody else did. You don't need to be loud to be the one who hears. You need to be on.

Ask: If God is calling everyone, why do you think so few people pick up? What's your "mute button"?

Lech LechaProduced by Elijah Tales · Watch on YouTube · @ElijahTales

Zeide's Chair

Little kids and the grandparents who tell them stories · sung by Zeide

Kinderlach, kumt aher, come here. Avram was already an old man, like your Zeide, and he had no children. So one night Hashem (God) took him outside and said: "Habet na hashamaymah," look up! Count the stars, if you can. That's how many children you will have. And Avram believed Him. Now look around this table. You see? You are the stars he couldn't count. And Mama Rochel watches on the road for every one of you, and she was promised that every child comes home.

Ask: Little ones: how many stars can you count tonight? Grown-ups: what journey did our family take to get to this table?

Kinderlach, Hert Zich Tzu (Lech Lecho)Produced by Elijah Tales · Watch on YouTube · @ElijahTales

The Soulful

Girls and young women who feel the story deeply · sung by Soulful

Nobody gets through life without falling. Sarai left everything she knew, waited years and years, and still laughed and loved and built a home open to everyone. "Sheva yipol tzaddik vakam": a righteous person falls seven times and gets up. The Torah doesn't call you righteous because you never fall. It calls you righteous because you rise, and because you let people help you up. In Israel right now, people are learning to stand again, one small step and one kind neighbor at a time.

Ask: Who helped you get back up the last time you fell, and have you ever told them?

Sheva YipolProduced by Elijah Tales · Watch on YouTube · @ElijahTales

From the East

Everyone who loves Sephardi and Mizrachi melody, custom and warmth · sung by Mizrachi

Avraham Avinu's ("Avraham our father") tent was open on all four sides. From the east and the west, from Morocco and Yemen and Baghdad and Brooklyn, there's room. In this parsha Avram becomes Avraham, "av hamon goyim," father of many, and his name grows a letter so it can hold more people. On Thursday, 11 Cheshvan, we remember Rachel Imeinu, a mother who waits on the road for all of her children, every kind of kippah and every bare head. If Heaven sees every one of us as a tzaddik, who are we to see less?

Custom: In many Sephardi and Mizrachi communities, 11 Cheshvan is marked with Tehillim (Psalms), candles and visits to Kever Rachel (Rachel's Tomb), and "v'amech kulam tzaddikim" (your people are all righteous, Isaiah 60:21) is sung before each chapter of Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers).

Ask: Who is someone different from you that you'd love to pull up a chair for this Shabbat?

Coming Thursday 22 Oct

Kulam Tzaddikim

Produced by Elijah Tales. Subscribe on YouTube to hear it first.

This week's four

Four short pieces to read or retell at the table: Israel, Jewish history, good news, and an idea from the parsha.

🇮🇱 Israel

Learning to stand again, one small gadget at a time

Tech for Heroes, run by JDC (a Jewish aid organization) with Beit Issie Shapiro and Restart Global, matches wounded soldiers and civilians with everyday technology (smart lights, automatic shutters, kitchen gadgets, noise-filtering headphones) so they can live on their own again. So far 428 people have received 1,280 solutions, and 97% say life is better. Adi Timor, a fitness trainer who was training for his first marathon, now walks on a prosthetic leg, surfs as part of his rehab and is working his way back to running. He calls his adapted home "a safety net" that lets him push harder.

Source: ynet, 5 Oct 2026

📜 This week in Jewish history

Thursday 22 Oct (11 Cheshvan on the Hebrew calendar): Rachel Imeinu's yahrzeit

Rachel Imeinu ("Rachel our mother") was Yaakov's (Jacob's) wife, and one of the four mothers of the Jewish people. A yahrzeit is the yearly anniversary of someone's passing. By tradition, Rachel passed away on 11 Cheshvan giving birth to Binyamin, while Yaakov's family was on the road home. She was buried "on the road to Ephrat, which is Bethlehem," not in the family cave in Hebron. Rashi, the most famous Torah commentator (he lived in France about 900 years ago), explains why: centuries later, the Jewish people, forced out of their land, would walk that same road, and Rachel would be there to cry for them. The prophet Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) hears her, and hears the answer: "v'shavu vanim ligvulam, your children will return to their own border." For thousands of years, Jews from every community have come to pray at her resting place.

Source: Chabad.org: Rachel's Tomb · OU: 11 Cheshvan

🌍 Good news this week

Leo spoke up, and two boys came home safe

Leo, a young boy from South Wales, was on the beach near Sully with his dad, Ash, when he noticed something nobody else had seen: two boys caught by the rising tide off Sully Island, one already chest-deep. Starting a conversation or pointing things out is really hard for Leo. This time he told his dad the boys were in trouble. Ash knew what that took, believed him, and called the Coastguard. The Barry Dock lifeboat of the RNLI (the UK's volunteer lifeboat service) brought both boys safely ashore after dark, and the crew has thanked Leo for raising the alarm.

Source: RNLI, 19 Oct 2026

📖 From the parsha

The call that everyone gets

The Torah never tells us why God chose Avram. One beautiful answer comes from the Sefat Emet, a book by a 19th-century Chassidic rabbi: the call "Lech lecha, go, to yourself" is being said to every person, all the time. Avram was simply the one who heard it and did something about it. The call is to step out of the "land" of our fears, habits and comfort zones, toward the person we are meant to become. Most of us are too busy to notice that quiet voice. Hearing it is the first step. Walking is the second.

Inspired by a teaching of Rabbi YY Jacobson, "How Do I Hear the Call?" (TheYeshiva.net)

The thread: Hear the call, and walk each other home

Every week someone is calling, and the question is who hears it. God said "Lech lecha" to everyone, and Avram was the one who listened and started walking.

On a Welsh beach this week, a boy named Leo, for whom speaking up is really hard, saw what nobody else saw, said it, and two kids came home safe. In Israel, wounded heroes like Adi are hearing a different call: get up again. They're learning to run, cook and sit at the family table, seven falls and seven rises. And on Thursday, 11 Cheshvan, we remember Mother Rachel, who stayed on the road so she would be there for every child walking it later, and was promised that the children will come home.

Hear the call, get up, make room, and walk each other home. That's Lech Lecha at our table.

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Books for this parsha

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