Here is the second installment of our series ‘In The Beginning…’ on Bereishit – this one for Parshat Lech Lecha.
In ch.12 of Bereishit, Avram’s leaves Egypt with great wealth given by Pharoah. But two chapters later he refuses the offers of riches from another foreign king, Bera, the king of Sedom.
What has brought about this change? We will claim it is the encounter with a third foreign king, Malchitzedek, who teaches Avram a lesson that if we truly understand that God is koneh shamayim v’aretz, owner of heaven and earth – then that must affect how we look at the property we own and what we do with it.