3 I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse, so that all the families of the earth may receive blessing through you.” 4 So Abram left, just as the Lord had told him to do, and Lot went with him. (Now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.) 5 And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they left for the land of Canaan. They entered the land of Canaan.

2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from having children, please sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.” Abram did what Sarai told him. 3 So after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years, Sarai, Abram’s wife, gave Hagar, her Egyptian servant, to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. Once Hagar realized she was pregnant, she despised Sarai.

10 He departed from there and went toward the south. When he reached Hebron (Hebron was built at that time), he stayed there for two years. Then he went to the southern territory as far as Boa Lot. There was a famine in the land. 11 So Abram went to Egypt in the third year of the week [1956]. He lived in Egypt for five years before his wife was taken from him by force. 12 Egyptian Tanais was built at that time — seven years after Hebron.

“The Lord afflicted Pharaoh ... with great afflictions.” It is written: ‘The righteous man flourishes like a palm tree; [like a cedar in Lebanon he grows tall]’ (Psalms 92:13) – just as the palm and cedar have neither curvatures nor protuberances, so, too, the righteous have neither curvatures nor protuberances. Just as the palm tree and cedar, their shade extends far away, so the reward of the righteous extends far away. Just as the palm tree and the cedar, their heart [trunk] goes straight upward, so too the righteous, their heart is straight toward the Holy One blessed be He. That is what is written: ‘My eyes are always toward the Lord, as He draws my feet out of the net’ (Psalms 25:15). Just as the palm tree and the cedar have desire, so too the righteous have desire. What is their desire? It is for the Holy One blessed be He, as it is stated: ‘I hoped for the Lord’ (Psalms 40:2). Rabbi Tanḥuma said: There was once an incident involving a palm tree that was situated in Ḥamtan, and it would not produce fruit. A certain palm farmer passed by and saw it. He said: ‘This palm is yearning toward Jericho.’ Once they pollinated it [from that Jericho palm], it produced fruit. But might one not argue: Just as vessels are not made from [the wood of] the palm tree, so, too with the righteous? That is astonishing. The verse therefore states: ‘Like a cedar.’ Rav Huna said: There, they do craft utensils from it [palm wood]. And might one not argue: Just as the cedar does not produce fruit, so too the righteous? That is astonishing. The verse therefore states: ‘Flourishes [like a palm tree].’ [Furthermore,] just as the palm has nothing that goes to waste, but, rather, it [produces] dates for eating, fronds for praise, branches for roofing, fiber for ropes, leaves for sieves, large beams for roofing the house, so, too, Israel has no one who goes to waste. Rather, some of them are masters of Bible, some of them are masters of Mishna, some of them are masters of Talmud, some of them are masters of aggada. [Furthermore,] just as with the palm tree and cedar, anyone who climbs to the top of them and does not take care falls and dies, so, too, anyone who comes to accost Israel, will receive his just deserts by their hand. You may know that it is so, since Sarah, because Pharaoh took her for just one night, he and the members of his household were punished with afflictions. That is what is written: ‘The Lord afflicted Pharaoh ... with great afflictions.’