When we picture Avraham leaving Ur Kasdim for Eretz Yisrael, there is something strange about his journey.
If Ur Kasdim is identified with ancient Ur in southern Mesopotamia (Iraq), Eretz Yisrael lies essentially to the west. Yet the natural travel route did not simply cut straight across. Avraham’s family traveled northward toward Charan (Syria) and only afterward turned toward Eretz Yisrael.
Why travel so far out of the way?
Geography gives us a simple answer. A straight route would have taken a large household with livestock across increasingly dry steppe and desert. The longer route followed the great river systems and inhabited regions of the Fertile Crescent. There was water, pasture, settlements and supplies.
The straight road was shorter on the map. The roundabout road was easier to actually travel.
It immediately recalls the famous story in Eruvin 53b. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya asks a child which road leads to the city. The child tells him:
זו קצרה וארוכה וזו ארוכה וקצרה
“This road is short and long, and that road is long and short.”
Rabbi Yehoshua chooses the short road, only to discover that although it approaches the city quickly, gardens and orchards prevent him from actually entering. He returns to the child, who reminds him: I told you it was short—but I also told you it was long.
Sometimes the shortest road is not the road that gets you there.
The Torah does it again
When Bnei Yisrael leave Egypt, the Torah makes almost exactly this point explicitly:
וְלֹא נָחָם אֱלֹהִים דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ פְּלִשְׁתִּים כִּי קָרוֹב הוּא
God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although it was near.
The Torah itself emphasizes that there was a shorter route.
But the Jewish people were not ready for it. If they encountered war, they might turn around and return to Egypt. So Hashem led them on a longer road through the wilderness.
Once again:
קצרה וארוכה — ארוכה וקצרה.
There is the road that looks short, and there is the road that actually brings you to your destination.
Every step has value
This gives another Midrash about Avraham extraordinary meaning.
Hashem tells Avraham:
לֶךְ־לְךָ… אֶל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ
“Go… to the land that I will show you.”
Hashem does not initially tell him where he is going.
Bereishit Rabbah asks why Hashem concealed the destination. One of its answers is:
ליתן לו שכר על כל פסיעה ופסיעה
So that Avraham would receive reward for every single step.
That changes the meaning of the journey.
We naturally imagine that the important moment is the arrival. Avraham’s goal is Eretz Yisrael, so success means reaching Eretz Yisrael.
Chazal tell us otherwise.
Hashem valued every step along the way.
Our own Lech Lecha
Perhaps Eretz Yisrael can also be understood spiritually as a metaphor for deveikut—the place we are trying to reach in our relationship with Hashem.
We want emunah. We want better middot. We want greater awareness of Hashem. We want our tefillah to be real. We want to become the person we know we could be.
And naturally, we want the shortest road.
We want to arrive.
But spiritual growth rarely works that way.
Sometimes we move forward and then seem to turn sideways. Sometimes Hashem takes us through a wilderness. Sometimes we discover that the road we thought would be easy is blocked. And sometimes, like Avraham, we are simply told to walk toward a destination that we cannot yet see:
אֶל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ.
I will show you.
Keep walking.
This is where שכר על כל פסיעה ופסיעה becomes so important.
Hashem is not waiting at the finish line before our spiritual life begins to matter.
Every sincere attempt to pray better matters.
Every moment of choosing emunah over fear matters.
Every time we control an angry response matters.
Every effort to understand Torah matters.
Every time we fall and decide to begin again matters.
Every פסיעה has value.
Perhaps that is one of the great lessons of Avraham’s journey.
The goal is certainly to reach Eretz Yisrael. The goal is certainly greater deveikut with Hashem.
But Hashem chose not merely a destination for Avraham.
He chose a journey.
The apparently direct road is not always the true road. The detour may be the road that actually makes arrival possible.
זו קצרה וארוכה וזו ארוכה וקצרה.
And when Hashem leads us along the ארוכה וקצרה—the road that seems longer—we should remember Avraham.
We may not yet see where the road is taking us.
But no sincere step toward Hashem is wasted.
שכר על כל פסיעה ופסיעה.
There is reward—and purpose—in every single step.
