Charan חרן
The city on the road between Mesopotamia and Canaan: from here Avraham left at the call «lech lecha», and here Yaakov's sons were born.
Charan is the waystation of the whole book of Bereshit. Terach brings the family this far and stays; in Charan Avraham receives the first call — «go out from your land, your birthplace and your father's house» — and leaves at seventy-five with Sarah, Lot and «the souls they had made in Charan», his first students.
Two generations later the road runs backward: Eliezer travels to Charan to find a wife for Yitzchak and returns with Rivka, and Yaakov flees there from Esav and spends twenty years with Lavan — seven and seven for Leah and Rachel, six for the flocks. Eleven of the twelve tribes are born there, in a deceiver's household. The sages note the pattern: a nation is formed under pressure, not in comfort.
Historical Charan sat on the caravan road of upper Mesopotamia and, like Ur, was a centre of moon worship.