Va Etchanan – Be Careful What You Pray For

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’.