Hashem [G-d] told Avram to go to the Land of Canaan. Avram traveled to the Land of Canaan, and pitched his tent. The Torah narrates: “From there he relocated to the east of Beth-el and pitched his tent, with Beth-el on the west and Ai on the east; and he built there an altar to Hashem and invoked Hashem by Name” [Bereishis 12:8].
Is it not strange that the Torah uses so many words just to tell us where Avram pitched his tent? We know the general vicinity. Does it really matter for all eternity if it was west of Beth-el or east of Beth-el? At any rate, we do not have the exact geometric coordinates of where the tent was pitched. The Torah is always so ‘stingy’ in the use of words – why is the Torah suddenly so verbose?
Anyone who has dealt in real estate knows that the three cardinal principles of real estate acquisition are: Location, Location, Location. If one is going to open a new business, he must very carefully research the location that he is choosing. Is there traffic? Is it open? Is it accessible? Is there parking? Location is everything.
The Chofetz Chaim explained the verse as follows: Avram was concerned about this concept. Avram was also going into ‘business’. He was in the business of drawing people close to Hashem (‘kiruv’). Therefore, he needed to be very particular about where he pitched his tent. He could not afford to just pitch his tent on a side street, where someone would straggle by once every three days. That would not be good for Avram’s business.
Avram carefully chose the main crossroads between the two major cities of the area – Beth El and Ai, so that everyone traveling anywhere in the area would pass by his tent. He specifically built his altar in that location.
The question that we must ask ourselves is as follows: how much time and effort and thought do we invest in planning where to place our business so that our business will be successful, and how much time and effort and thought do we invest in placing ourselves in a situation where our spirituality will be successful? This is the difference between Avram and us. The location of Avrum’s tent was crucial because his spirituality was his ‘business’.
Shlomo [Solomon] wrote in Mishlei “If you will pursue it (fear of Hashem) like you pursue money, then you will find fear of Hashem.” [Mishlei 2:4-5]. We call consultants and we spend sleepless nights and we spend fortunes to ensure that our businesses are successful. We must apply the same effort to success in areas of spirituality.
At a Siyum (a festive meal made when one completes learning a portion of Torah) we say, “We toil and they toil. We toil and receive reward and they toil and do not receive reward. We run and they run. They run to a pit of destruction and we run to the life of the World to Come.”
I once heard an insight from Rabbi Nachman Kowalsky, of Blessed Memory: who cares what ‘they’ do? What difference does it make that they toil or that they run? Why is that included in the recitation at the Siyum? After all it is ‘our’ siyum!
The answer is that if we want to know how to be successful in our learning endeavors we must look at how ‘they’ toil in ‘their endeavors’ and how ‘they’ run towards their aspirations in life.
It always amazes me that when seats go on sale for a World Series, people camp out in line for a night or two beforehand to make sure that they can purchase “good tickets”. (For ‘Rock Concerts’ the advance wait in line can be 4 or 5 nights!)
Imagine the best Torah teacher in the world — whoever that might be — would be coming to town and tickets would go on sale for that lecture. How many people would camp out a whole night to guarantee that they would receive good tickets to the shiur [Torah class]?
“If like money you will pursue it...” If one runs after spirituality like he runs after money or like he runs after sports or after all of life’s trivialities, then he will find fear of Hashem.
This is why the Torah went to such great lengths to describe the process by which Avraham pitched his tent. Location mattered to him, because location would determine the success of his spiritual endeavor.
