(1) God said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. (2) I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. (3) I will bless those who bless you and curse the one who curses you; and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you.” (4) Abram went forth as God had commanded him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
[T]he Torah is trying to communicate to us that leave-taking itself is extremely significant. It is the prerequisite to any encounter with God. Most such encounters in the Torah, and in biblical literature, and in all the sacred literatures of the world, are preceded by a leave-taking. Very often there is no clear destination mentioned. The very first words God speaks to Abraham, the progenitor of the Jewish people, are “Lech lecha” – “Just leave.” Leave your father’s house, your birthplace, your culture, everything that has ever made you comfortable and secure, and go “el eretz asher arecha” – “to a land which I will show you later” – to a destination that I will not even trouble myself to identify for you now, because the point is simply to leave without any secure sense of destination, the point is to take a leap of faith. Leave-taking – home-leaving – always precedes the Divine Encounter, because when we leave home, when we leave everything that is familiar to us, we leave convention, and most significantly, we leave habit, for God is never encountered in either convention or habit.
Alan Lew, Be Still and Get Going: A Jewish Meditation Practice for Real Life (2005)
וַיִּקַּ֨ח תֶּ֜רַח אֶת־אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֗וֹ וְאֶת־ל֤וֹט בֶּן־הָרָן֙ בֶּן־בְּנ֔וֹ וְאֵת֙ שָׂרַ֣י כַּלָּת֔וֹ אֵ֖שֶׁת אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֑וֹ וַיֵּצְא֨וּ אִתָּ֜ם מֵא֣וּר כַּשְׂדִּ֗ים לָלֶ֙כֶת֙ אַ֣רְצָה כְּנַ֔עַן וַיָּבֹ֥אוּ עַד־חָרָ֖ן וַיֵּ֥שְׁבוּ שָֽׁם׃
Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan; but when they had come as far as Haran, they settled there.
(ה) וַיִּקַּ֣ח אַבְרָם֩ אֶת־שָׂרַ֨י אִשְׁתּ֜וֹ וְאֶת־ל֣וֹט בֶּן־אָחִ֗יו וְאֶת־כׇּל־רְכוּשָׁם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר רָכָ֔שׁוּ וְאֶת־הַנֶּ֖פֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר־עָשׂ֣וּ בְחָרָ֑ן וַיֵּצְא֗וּ לָלֶ֙כֶת֙ אַ֣רְצָה כְּנַ֔עַן וַיָּבֹ֖אוּ אַ֥רְצָה כְּנָֽעַן׃ (ו) וַיַּעֲבֹ֤ר אַבְרָם֙ בָּאָ֔רֶץ עַ֚ד מְק֣וֹם שְׁכֶ֔ם עַ֖ד אֵל֣וֹן מוֹרֶ֑ה וְהַֽכְּנַעֲנִ֖י אָ֥ז בָּאָֽרֶץ׃ (ז) וַיֵּרָ֤א יי אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם וַיֹּ֕אמֶר לְזַ֨רְעֲךָ֔ אֶתֵּ֖ן אֶת־הָאָ֣רֶץ הַזֹּ֑את וַיִּ֤בֶן שָׁם֙ מִזְבֵּ֔חַ לַיי הַנִּרְאֶ֥ה אֵלָֽיו׃
(5) Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the wealth that they had amassed, and the persons that they had acquired in Haran; and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in the land of Canaan, (6) Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, at the terebinth of Moreh. The Canaanites were then in the land. (7) God appeared to Abram and said, “I will assign this land to your offspring.” And he built an altar there to God who had appeared to him.
God cannot be found as readily in the opulent surroundings of Haran as in the pasture lands of Canaan.
Midrash HaGadol
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אַבְרָ֗ם אדושם יי מַה־תִּתֶּן־לִ֔י וְאָנֹכִ֖י הוֹלֵ֣ךְ עֲרִירִ֑י...
But Abram said, “O Almighty God, what can You give me, seeing that I shall die childless...?!”
(13) And [God] said to Abram, "Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years; (14) but I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve, and in the end they shall go free with great wealth. (15) As for you, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried at a ripe old age."
וְהֶאֱמִ֖ן בַּֽיי וַיַּחְשְׁבֶ֥הָ לּ֖וֹ צְדָקָֽה׃
And he put his trust in God, which was reckoned as tzedakah to his merit.