To explain this, I would like to tell over a different Dvar Torah. Due to a famine in the land of Canaan, Avrohom and Sorah decided to travel to Egypt. As they approached the border between the two countries, Avrohom became aware of Sorah’s beauty and began to fear that the Egyptians would want to marry her and would kill him in order to do so. Why did he suddenly become aware of her beauty at this time?
Rashi explains that due to their tremendous modesty, Avrohom had never looked at her and was unaware of her attractive appearance. Avrohom was on such a high level in spirituality and modesty that he felt it appropriate to be married solely for the sake of Heaven and not to even look at his wife, a practice which he successfully upheld for decades.
The Rambam writes (Hilchos De’os 6:1) that a person is naturally influenced by his surroundings. The Egyptians were a nation more immoral and depraved than any other, excelling in their passion for illicit relationships (Rashi Vayikra 18:3). Rav Moshe Wolfson explains that as Avrohom approached the Egyptian border – even before he crossed it – he was negatively influenced by the immorality which permeated the very air of Egypt, which caused him to fall from his great heights of personal modesty, and for the first time he glanced at his wife’s beauty. The recognition of the effect one’s surroundings can have on even the greatest of men should serve as a lesson for us.
Since surroundings can have such a special impact on a person, the first mitzvah given to Avraham Avinu is to move to Eretz Yisroel. In The Kuzari, Judah Halevi says that different environments have different ecologies. Just as there are some countries, climates and soils particularly suited to growing vines, so there is a country, Israel, particularly suited to growing prophets – indeed a whole Divinely-inspired people. “No other place shares the distinction of the Divine influence, just as no other mountain produces such good wine” (Kuzari, II: 9-12).
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