Immediately following the Divine decree to leave his home and travel to the Land of Israel, Avram is found moving from place to place throughout the land. He doesn’t stay in any one place for long.
First, we find him in the Shomron in the north, where he builds an altar and “calls out the Name Hashem” in Beit El (Bereishit 12:8). Soon afterward, he is traveling about the Negev in what Rashi points out is the portion of Yehuda, circling Yerushalayim from the north and the south. In the prayer beginning “Hodu,” drawn from Tehillim and Divrei HaYamim, which we recite daily, we learn of how our forefathers “traveled from people to people and from one nation to the next.” (Tehillim 105:13; Divrei HaYamim I 16:20). Metzuda there notes that the forefathers tended to travel a lot and to encounter many people. In doing so, they ran the risk of inviting hostility and even aggression, but it was essential to their purpose in the world.
Rav Kook describes the purpose of the forefathers, and by extension of Israel, when Avram, as noted above, “calls out the Name.” This is an interesting turn of phrase because it exactly parallels the Torah’s description of the generation of Enosh. Yet the commentators seem united in their view that in that context it is a negative thing and here with Avram it is obviously positive. So Avram somehow seems to be consummating the spiritual process begun with Enosh, finally achieving the spiritual possibilities of humanity – in Hebrew also known as “Bnei Enosh,” the descendants of Enosh. Rav Kook teaches that this calling out the Name of Hashem exemplifies our purpose as the Nation of Israel, the descendants of Avram, because he and we are seeking to evoke Hashem’s mercy, to spread His goodness and the knowledge of His kindness to the world.
Rav Kook also reads the peripatetic movement of Avram and the other forefathers in a similar light. He says that they, and we, have to move through the world, interacting with other people to set a positive example and to inspire the people of good heart and good conscience among the nations to unite behind the purpose of glorifying Hashem, joining in His work of spreading light and life and beauty. He says that at the end of days, when the light of the knowledge of Hashem comes to truly suffuse Creation, the individuals who were exposed to Avram – or, more precisely, their spiritual descendants – will rise up to partner with Israel in spreading the message of the redemption of humanity. Rav Kook explains that every nation has their own talent and their own unique task, and that this is Israel’s – to bring redemption to the world. The only way we can truly be effective in accomplishing our mission is by interacting constructively, as much as possible, with everyone in the world.