“Terah died in Haran.”
Interestingly, Terah, Abraham’s father, begins this sojourn away from Ur toward Canaan. But like Moses and the generation of the Exodus, he is not permitted to enter into the Promised Land. We are told that Abraham “took…all their possessions which they had gathered, and the persons that they had gotten in Haran.” [12: 5-6] This happens so that nothing tainted by Ur will accompany Abraham. Terah was appointed to bring the family into this place of transition. But there the things of Ur were forgotten, and new possessions were acquired. This mystically represents the uprooting of vice and the acquisition of virtue before we can properly enter upon the vision of God in His dwelling place.