Lech-Lecha - in The Liturgy

In The Liturgy

The Passover Haggadah, in the concluding nirtzah section of the Seder, in a reference to Genesis 14:15, recounts how God granted victory to the righteous convert Abram at the middle of the night.

The name “Elyon” or “God Most High,” which Melchizedek used in Genesis 14:19, is used in Psalm 92:2 to refer to God, and Psalm 92 is in turn recited after the Lekhah Dodi liturgical poem of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service.

The Amidah draws on God’s words in Genesis 15:1, “Fear not, Abram, I am a shield to you,” to refer to God as “Shield of Abraham.” In the hymn Adon Olam (“Lord of the World”), use of the title “Adon” recalls the merit of Abraham, who first addressed God with the title in Genesis 15:2.

The Haggadah, in the magid section of the Seder, quotes Genesis 15:13–14 to demonstrate that God keeps God’s promises. Thereafter, the Haggadah reports that Israel “went down to Egypt — forced to do so by the word ,” and many commentators think that this statement refers to God’s foretelling in Genesis 15:13 that Abram’s descendants would “be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them.” And in the concluding nirtzah section, in a reference to God’s promises to Abram in the Covenant Between the Pieces in Genesis 15:13–21, the Haggadah reports that God “disclosed to the one from the Orient at midnight on Passover.”

Following the Kabbalat Shabbat service and prior to the Friday evening (Ma'ariv) service, Jews traditionally read rabbinic sources on the observance of the Sabbath, including Mishnah Shabbat 18:3. Mishnah Shabbat 18:3, in turn, makes clear the precedence of the law of circumcision in Genesis 17:12 over even the observance of the Sabbath.