This week's Parsha begins with Hashem's command to Avraham: "Lech Lecha - go forth from your land, from your birthplace and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1).

But there is something unusual about the words "Lech Lecha."

Why doesn't the Torah simply say "Lech," meaning "go"? What does the additional word "Lecha" teach us?

Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, 1040-1105) explains that the words mean "for your benefit and for your good." Although Avraham was being asked to make an enormous sacrifice, Hashem was assuring him that the journey would ultimately be to his advantage.

Yet there is a difficulty with this explanation.

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On July 4, 1776, just hours after declaring independence from Great Britain, the Continental Congress turned its attention to another important task: designing an official seal for the new nation.

A committee was appointed to come up with a suitable emblem. Its three members were Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, some of the most prominent figures in the American Revolution.

Franklin wanted the seal to depict Moses standing at the Red Sea, raising his staff as the waters parted and Pharaoh's army was swallowed by the waves.

Jefferson suggested an image of the Israelites wandering through the wilderness, guided by a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night.

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On June 10, 1943, as the Nazis were systematically murdering the Jews of Europe, the Alabama legislature took a stand that no other American state had yet taken.

By unanimous vote, it adopted a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the Land of Israel. The measure declared that the extermination of European Jewry "cries out for action" and described a Jewish homeland as "an act of justice to the Jewish people and the righting of an ancient wrong."

Five years before Israel declared independence, lawmakers in the heart of the Deep South were publicly endorsing the Jewish people's right to a national home.

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The ark that Noach built was enormous. But it was also far too small.

The Torah gives its dimensions precisely: 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high, making it approximately 530 feet long according to Rav Moshe Feinstein's measurement of a cubit.

Inside, Noach was to shelter his family, representatives of the animal kingdom and enough food to sustain them throughout the Flood.

But how could they possibly all fit?

The Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, 1194-1270), commenting on Genesis 6:19, asks this very question. Given the number and size of the animals, not to mention the food they required, even ten arks of those dimensions would not have been enough.

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This week's Haftorah (Isaiah 54:1-55:5 according to the Ashkenazi custom) contains an extraordinary Divine promise to the Jewish people.

But what makes it so striking is not merely what Hashem promises. It is how He chooses to express it: "For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you in" (Isaiah 54:7).

When Hashem speaks of abandoning the Jewish people, He measures it in time: "for a brief moment." But when He speaks of gathering them in, He uses an entirely different measure: "great compassion."

Why the difference?

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