We are all familiar with the anecdotal traveller who argues vehemently with the gate steward to allow him onto the plane though he has arrived too late, but to no avail  – and then that very plane crashes. This is the theme of this week’s Parsha, Va-etchanan, where Moses pleads with G-d to allow him into the Land of Israel, his life-long goal, only to be refused ‘at the gate’.