Our Sages taught: “Exile yourself to a place of Torah” (Avos 4:14). Now, although they also taught that it is a mitzvah to live in the place of one’s ancestors (see Bereishis Rabasi, Vayishlach, p. 159), nevertheless if a person is compelled to move away, then he should choose to move to a place of Torah. Then the person can be confident that his children will become Torah scholars, and he himself will learn the laws and statutes and will set himself on a good path. Rabbi Yose ben Kisma said it well: “Even if you were to give me all the silver and gold in the world, I would dwell nowhere but in a place of Torah” (Avos 6:9). If a person learns even one good thought there, it is worth it.
Included in this precept is that if someone wishes to merit the crown of Torah and there is no-one in his place to teach him, then his father should send him away, or he himself should go on his own to a city where there are scholars from whom he can learn Torah. He should not worry about the trouble of traveling or about taking leave of his family or about the expense of it — for it is all insignificant when compare to the great benefit of meriting the crown of Torah. Even when there is a Torah scholar in one’s city, there are times that one can learn more when he exiles to another city.
On the verse, The Torah] is not in the heavens… nor is it across the sea (Devarim 30:11-12), our Sages commented: “For if it were in the heavens you would have to go up after it” (Eruvin 55a). If parents were wise they would realize the great fortune of having children grow to become Torah scholars and they would sell their very shirts to pay for their education and send them away to a place of Torah — even if it is at the ends of the earth.
