Halakhah к Берешит 12:1

The first personal mitzvah given to the first Jewish person was the mitzvah of circumcision. However, according to all [other opinions] it was the mitzvah of going up to the land [of Israel], as it is said "Ad-nai said to Abram, 'Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.'"However, the mitzvah of settling the land is a collective mitzvah, that encompasses all those living in the Jewish people in general, and the life of every Jewish individual in particular, but as a personal mitzvah the circumcision is the first mitzvah. There is a connection between the mitzvah of settling in the land and circumcision, since through those two mitzvot holiness reveals itself both in body and in physicality. Through settling in the land it becomes clear that there is value in every act of work that is connected to the building of the land, and through the brit milah it becomes clear that there is holy value to the body, therefore the orlah needs to be separated from it.

And so we find that the sages said about Avraham our Father, who worried about getting out of Haran and abandon his father Terach on his old age, and God said to him "Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you" (Gen. 12:1), and [God] exempted him with this from the mitzvot related to honoring parents (Bereshit Rabbah 39:8). And so our sages said that Yaakov our Father was punished through his son Yosef abandoning him for 22 years, because he himself abandoned his parents and went to Haran for 22 years. And even though Yaakov was compelled to flee his brother, who wanted to kill him, and did this because his parents commanded him to; due to the fact that nevertheless he did not honor his parents during that many years, and also due to the fact that he did not return quickly when he was able to, he was punished. Despite all this, for the needs of studying Torah a person can leave their parents: we find that Yaakov our Father went to the house of study of Shem and Ever, and learned there for 14 years, and was not punished for that (see Megilah 17a).

The Gemara, Ta'anit 10a, declares that in Erez Yisra'el bounty flows directly from God Himself, whereas in other lands it is channeled through a "messenger." Avnei Nezer, Yoreh De'ah, II, no. 454, sec. 14, amplifies this comment by stating that in other lands divine beneficence is transmitted through angels while the Land of Israel is subject to the immediate and direct concern of God.¹⁴Cf., R. Moses Sofer, Teshuvot Ḥatam Sofer, Yoreh De‘ah, no. 234, who develops a similar thesis but speaks of other lands as being “nurtured” by, and as deriving their “vitality” through, the intermediacy of the Land of Israel which by virtue of its sanctity is the source of such beneficence. Even though subsequent to the destruction of the Temple Jerusalem has lost its special status insofar as fulfillment of miẓvot uniquely associated with the holy city is concerned, Jerusalem is to be preferred over other cities in Israel because of its enhanced holiness. Similarly, Avnei Nezer, sec. 33, asserts that Jerusalem enjoys special status by virtue of the presence of the divine shekhinah. In this vein may be understood the Sages' comment, "One who dwells in Erez Yisra'el is comparable to one who has a God, but one who dwells outside the Land is comparable to one who has no God" (Ketubot 110b).¹⁵See also the statement found in Arakhin 32b regarding enhanced efficacy of prayer in Ereẓ Yisra’el due to the zekhut of the Land. The comments of the Zohar on Genesis 12:1 make it clear that God's special relationship with Erez Yisra'el predates sanctification of the land and that it was in order to enjoy this unique form of Providence that God commanded Abraham to journey to the Promised Land.