Life Is Like a Downward Escalator

There are stretches in life when we want to stop climbing and hold our ground. Parshas Masei lists every stop of forty years in the midbar. Why so many, asks the Malbim, and why does the pasuk name where they left and never where they were going? The Vilna Gaon warns, on a pasuk in Mishlei, about standing still. A thirteen year old boy freezing on a shul floor in Europe is ready to take his uncle's job offer, until a late night knock at the door. Decades later he stands in the rain at a cemetery while his grandson wonders why. It changes how you see your own road.This week has been kindly sponsored in memory of זאב ישראל בן אברהם.