With a guaranteed reversal of fortune like this one, was it really so difficult for Avraham to obey God's word and emigrate to Canaan? Why do the Rambam and other commentators on the mishna list his move as the first of the ten great achievements for which Avraham is so famous?
The mishna in Pirkei Avot teaches that Avraham Avinu successfully withstood ten trials through which the Almighty tested him. It is generally understood by the commentators that the opening commandment of Parashat Lekh-Lekha, after which the parasha is named, marks the first of these trials. Uprooting oneself from his past and resettling in a foreign country with a cloud of uncertainty hovering over his future certainly is a difficult challenge for anyone. If nothing else, the sense of disorientation, language adjustment, and general culture shock contribute to make relocation to a new country indeed a most difficult decision.
In Avraham's case, however, he seems to have had little reason for hesitation. After ten years of childless marriage, he is now promised a family in his new location. He is also guaranteed wealth, prosperity, prestige and honor. With a guaranteed reversal of fortune like this one, was it really so difficult for Avraham to obey God's word and emigrate to Canaan? Why do the Rambam and other commentators on the mishna list his move as the first of the ten great achievements for which Avraham is so famous?
Rav Moshe Feinstein zt"l suggests that Avraham faced here not the emotional challenge or physical strain of moving, but rather a theological test. God never explained to Avraham why he can beget a son and earn wealth and prestige only in Canaan and not in his homeland of Charan. What difference should it make? Rav Moshe adds that the population in Canaan were more corrupt than the people of Charan. (Evidence for this assumption may be drawn from Parashat Chayei-Sara, where Avraham adamantly insists that his son marry a girl from Charan, rather than from the local Canaanite populace.) If anything, Avraham would fare better spiritually back in his homeland than he would in Canaan. This was Avraham's trial - to trust God's word even when it seems counterintuitive. He asked no questions; he simply packed his bags and left. Having reached the conclusion of the existence of an omniscient, all-powerful God, he understands that one cannot disobey Him, no matter what demands He makes of us.
If so, then this first trial of Avraham directly corresponds to the final and most famous of his trials: the binding of Yitzchak. (We follow the common position that the "akeida" marked the tenth and final test; some commentators claim that the purchase of a burial site for Sarah - after the "akeida" - constituted Avraham's last test.) Chazal already drew a parallel between these two tests, noting the common expression, "lekh lekha" employed by God in both commands. In our parasha, Avraham is bidden to forego on his past and build for himself a brand new life; at the "akeida," God orders Avraham to destroy his future. Both, however, require him to subdue his own intellect and reasoning in humble submission to God's will.
Avraham's contemporaries could not accept the existence of a non-physical God, they could not perceive anything outside the strict confines of time, matter and space that characterize our world. Avraham advanced the notion of a purely spiritual Being responsible for creating and overseeing the earth. He was then called upon to demonstrate the ramifications of this belief by submitting himself unconditionally to the command of the God that he could not even see.