WHAT’S THE difference between “Shlach Lecha,” which God told the Jews in the desert in Moshe’s time, and “Lech-Lecha,” which God told Avraham in these weeks parsha? When you send something you stay where you are. When you deliver it yourself, you go to the destination as well.
I CAN’T recall if I noticed this last year or the year before. I also don’t remember if I heard it from anyone else, though I find it very hard to believe that no one else would have noticed it until now. So, I’ll mention it anyhow.
WE SAY Kol Nidrei on Yom Kippur night three times in a row, except that each time the Chazzan increases his tone. This emphasizes that this is not just repetition for repetition’s sake. Rather, something else is supposed to be increasing each time we say it.
V’ZOS HABROCHAH IS Moshe Rabbeinu’s parting speech. He’s about to pass over, but not from the desert to Eretz Yisroel but from this world to the next one. The people knew they were losing a great leader, but not how great a leader. Familiarity breeds contempt, which means different things on different levels.
EVER GENERATION HAS its own tests. I would have liked to believe that having actual prophets of God to tell us what God was thinking and planning to do would be enough to straighten out the crookedness of any generation. But then I read the Prophets and found out that many nevi’im had been largely ignored by the people, and that the people even invented false ones to contradict them. If prophets didn’t work, then how will looking at the calamities of past generations, as this week’s parsha tells us to do, make a difference, especially today?
