LEARNING WITH COMMENTATORS · 3 OF 5
Where does the call begin?
Follow Ibn Ezra and Ramban through the journey from Ur Kasdim to Haran, and identify the evidence each reading addresses.
In this lesson
Recover the point of comparison
Before opening the answer, recall What does lecha add? What question separated Rashi and Ramban? Which scriptural parallel did Ramban bring? Try to name the wording and the evidence, not just the two teachers.
1. What made that comparison precise?
Both comments addressed lech lecha in Genesis 12:1. Rashi drew out the journey’s benefit; Ramban argued that normal biblical usage accounts for the wording. His examples include lachem in the command to cross the Zered stream, Deuteronomy 2:13. The difference concerned the phrase’s explanation, not whether God promised to bless Avram.
Carry that habit into a new question: name exactly what each teacher is explaining, then identify the evidence used.
Follow the narrated journey
Our ancestor Avram is later called Avraham, or Abraham. Terach is his father. Ur Kasdim, also called Ur of the Chaldees, and Haran are places named in the family’s journey toward Canaan. Haran is a stopping point before Canaan. Read the end of Genesis 11 alongside the beginning of chapter 12.
ויקח תרח את אברם בנו
Terach took Avram his son.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
The same verse includes Lot and Sarai in the traveling household. It names Ur Kasdim as the departure point and Canaan as the intended destination. A later clause says:
ויבאו עד חרן וישבו שם
They reached Haran and settled there.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Next, chapter 12 opens with the call:
The LORD said to Avram: “Go from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
After the promises in verses 2–3, we read Avram’s response. Lot is Avram’s nephew; “the LORD” represents God’s name in this English rendering.
Avram went as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Avram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
2. In what order do these events appear on the page?
Genesis 11:31 tells of Terach taking Avram and the household reaching and settling in Haran. Genesis 12:1 presents God’s command to Avram. Genesis 12:4 tells of Avram leaving Haran as God told him.
That is the narrated order, the order in which the account presents the events. We can now ask how each commentator understands the timing of the command within the journey.
Read Ibn Ezra’s placement of the call
The words “from your land” and “from your father’s house” raise a question about the journey: Where was Avram when God commanded him to leave? Ibn Ezra, Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra, places the command in Ur Kasdim.
השם ציווה לאברהם ועודנו באור כשדים שיעזוב ארצו ומקום מולדתו, גם בית אביו
God commanded Avraham while he was still in Ur Kasdim to leave his land and his birthplace, as well as his father’s house.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Ibn Ezra calls our ancestor by his later name, Avraham, in this comment. Focus on his words “while he was still in Ur Kasdim.” Set that statement beside the order in which the Torah narrates the journey.
3. Does Ibn Ezra place the command before or after the departure from Ur Kasdim?
Before the departure. In his reading, God had commanded Avram while he was still in Ur Kasdim, although the Torah presents the command after the account of settling in Haran. Ibn Ezra’s proposed event order and the order of presentation therefore differ at this point.
“God had commanded” helps us describe Ibn Ezra’s interpretation. Keep that explanation attributed to him rather than silently changing the wording of our Genesis 12:1 source card.
Follow Ramban’s textual objection
Ramban, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, reports Ibn Ezra’s placement of the call and then challenges it. His comment draws our attention back to the opening of Genesis 11:31:
והכתוב אמר ויקח תרח את אברם בנו יורה כי אברם אחרי אביו ובעצתו יצא מאור כשדים ללכת ארצה כנען
Scripture says, ‘Terach took Avram his son.’ This indicates that Avram left Ur Kasdim for the land of Canaan following his father and his counsel.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
4. Where does the quoted verse end and Ramban’s inference begin?
“Terach took Avram his son” quotes Genesis 11:31. “This indicates…” begins Ramban’s inference from that wording. The verse names Terach as the one who takes Avram; Ramban reads that description as pointing to Avram following his father’s initiative and counsel.
The phrase about following his father’s counsel is not another quotation from Genesis 11:31. It is the conclusion Ramban draws from the verse’s account.
Here is the reasoning to follow. If the original departure were already Avram’s response to this command, Ramban expects Avram to be the initiator, with Terach accompanying him. Instead, the Torah says Terach took Avram. Terach performs the action in that sentence; Avram is the son whom he takes. Ramban uses this wording to argue against Ibn Ezra’s placement.
Later in the same comment, Ramban states his own conclusion:
כי חרן היא ארצו ושם מולדתו והיא ארץ אבותיו מעולם ושם נצטוה לעזוב אותם
For Haran is his land and his birthplace, the land of his ancestors from long ago; there he was commanded to leave them.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Ramban places the command in Haran and identifies Haran with the land and family setting named in the call. That is his position in the discussion. His full comment develops a longer argument about the family and its land; our selection lets us follow his objection and conclusion without treating every part of that longer argument as already studied.
Keep the conclusion attached to its teacher
A learner writes: “Ibn Ezra and Ramban both put the call in Ur Kasdim. Genesis 12:1 explicitly names the place where God spoke.” Repair both sentences using the source cards.
5. What two corrections does the note need?
Ibn Ezra places the command in Ur Kasdim; Ramban places it in Haran. Genesis 12:1 gives the command but does not explicitly name the place where God speaks. The commentators interpret its setting in relation to the surrounding journey.
Ramban’s statement that Haran is Avram’s land and birthplace must also stay attributed to Ramban. Reporting a teacher’s conclusion accurately is different from saying that every commentator agrees with it.
Build an evidence-based comparison
Write one paragraph with the sources open and the model closed. Include:
- The shared question about the call.
- Ibn Ezra’s placement and how it relates to the narrated order.
- Ramban’s placement and the exact wording to which he points.
- One further question you would bring to a teacher.
6. How might a supported comparison read?
“Ibn Ezra and Ramban ask us to consider where God’s call to Avram belongs within the journey. Ibn Ezra says God commanded him while he was still in Ur Kasdim, before the departure that Genesis 11:31 describes. Ramban places the command in Haran and points to ‘Terach took Avram his son’ as evidence that the earlier departure followed Terach’s initiative. I would ask a teacher how Ibn Ezra understands that wording about Terach within his own reading.”
Your final question may differ. A strong question identifies something the sources leave you wanting to understand; it does not invent the missing answer. We have read Ibn Ezra’s placement and Ramban’s objection, not a written reply by Ibn Ezra to that objection.
Now test the strength of the claim you wrote. Compare “Ramban argues from the words ‘Terach took Avram’” with “The word ‘took’ proves no other reading is possible.” What changes between those sentences?
7. Which sentence accurately describes the evidence we studied?
The first identifies Ramban’s argument and its textual basis. The second turns his inference into a claim that the wording eliminates every other reading. Our selections do not establish that stronger claim.
A precise account can be confident: “Ramban reads the verse this way, for this reason.” Naming the step from quotation to inference helps us follow his reasoning and represent the other teacher fairly.
Return next session
Without looking above, place the call according to Ibn Ezra and Ramban. Explain why Ramban points to “Terach took Avram.” Finally, distinguish the order in which the events are narrated from Ibn Ezra’s reconstruction of when the command occurred.
8. What should your comparison recover?
Ibn Ezra places the command while Avram is still in Ur Kasdim. Ramban places it in Haran. Ramban draws attention to Terach as the one who takes Avram in Genesis 11:31, arguing that the earlier journey follows Terach’s initiative.
The Torah narrates settlement in Haran before presenting the call in Genesis 12:1. Ibn Ezra understands that command as earlier in the events. Keep the verse’s wording, each teacher’s placement and the reasoned inference separately identifiable.
Read in context
Read Genesis 11:27–32 alongside Genesis 12:1–4. Compare Ibn Ezra and Ramban on Genesis 12:1, keeping Ramban’s quotations of earlier teachers distinct from his own responses. The English renderings and activities are our own.
Continue with Are they answering the same question? to see why two different comments need not be a disagreement.