In This week's Parsha, Parshat vayeitzei, we find that as Yakov Avinu continues on his journey to the house of Lavan the pasuk says וישא יעקב רגליו וילח ארצה בני קדם, and Yakov lifted his feet and went to the land of the easterners. This pasuk is very peculiar, why does it say the land of the easterners? Don't we know that he went to Charan to the house of his uncle Lavan? Why does the pasuk use this unusual wording? The simple understanding of the pasuk is that the land of Charan is east of Eretz Yisrael, but I would like to suggest that there is a deeper message that the Torah is trying to tell us. In the eyes of the author Hashem, and in the view of Yakov his servant, Eretz Yisrael is the highest point of the world, it is the center of the world, and everywhere else is just a place that is east or west of it. Indeed we find that when Avraham went back to Eretz Yisrael after escaping the famine in Parshat lech lecha it says ויעל אברםת and Avram went up. Why does it say went up? Because he went from a “lower” land to a “higher” land he went from Mitzraim to the holy land that Hashem chose. This attitude and perspective help us understand how important the land of Israel is in the eyes of Hashem, and this puts into perspective how much Hashem loves his people to whom he gave this beautiful land.
-Rafael Avner Tirat-Gefen