“Avram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, all the possessions they had acquired, and the souls they had made in Charan. They set out to go to Eretz Canaan, and they arrived in Eretz Canaan.” (Bereishis 12:5)
This pasuk requires explanation. At the beginning of the parshah, Hashem tells Avram, “Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.”
The Midrash Rabbah asks why HaKadosh Baruch Hu did not reveal his destination to him. Why did Hashem say, “To the land that I will show you,” without telling him where to go? The Midrash explains that this was to make the land dear to him and to give him sechar for each and every step.
We see, then, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu had not yet revealed to Avraham where he was going. If so, how can our pasuk say, “They set out to go to Eretz Canaan”? They did not leave with the intention of going to Eretz Canaan. They left to go wherever HaKadosh Baruch Hu would direct them! Seemingly, the Torah should have said only, “They arrived in Eretz Canaan.” What, then, is the meaning of the words, “They set out to go to Eretz Canaan”?
Maran HaGaon Rav Chaim Kanievsky zt”l explained that Avraham and all those accompanying him indeed did not know where they were going. His companions followed him to whichever place Hashem would direct him. The Torah is telling us that only once they reached Eretz Canaan did they understand, in retrospect, that their departure from Charan had been a journey to Eretz Canaan, since that was where they ultimately arrived.
In fact, the wording of the pasuk is very precise. There seems to be a repetition: “They set out to go to Eretz Canaan, and they arrived in Eretz Canaan.” If they set out for Canaan, presumably that is where they arrived. It would seemingly have been enough to write, “They left Charan and arrived in Eretz Canaan.”
The explanation, however, is as we have said. When they left Charan, they had no known destination. They were following Hashem, ready to go wherever He would tell them. Only afterward did it become clear to them that their departure had been for the purpose of going to Eretz Canaan. This became known to them when they arrived there and were commanded to remain.