Wake Up And Smell The Parsha

I'm trying to pay more attention to the parshiot as they come around this year.

The Torah says black on white that Noach did not have children till he was 500. This helps explain why he wasn't taking many grandchildren and great grandchildren onto the teiva.

Does the word semite come from Shem - the descendants of Shem? That seems to be the theory. I never knew that, or if I did I forgot it and just re-got it.

In Lech Lecha G-d uses the star and sand images in two separate revelations, doesn't say them in the same presentation. I always thought they were said together, maybe later in the story.

I noticed for the first time that the Torah, out of the blue, reveals the end of the story of Sdom at the beginning. It says that "Lot lifted his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, saw that all of it was well watered - before the L-rd's destruction of Sedom and Amora." I don't know if there are other instances of this. Some teachers like to save the pay off for the end, but this is a clear example of choosing to present the ending at the very start.

It's also of note that Sdom is compared, from Lot's POV, to "the garden of the L-rd" and to "the land of Egypt.

Since I was a kid I was taught that Avraham told the king of Sdom that he wouldn't take anything from him - not even a shoelace. It dawned on me this year that he really referred to a sandal strap.