I sit here getting very emotional reading Devarim. The words, this year, are just connecting. It's like Moshe is speaking to me right in front of me.
One thing I appreciate about the Torah, and about Judaism in general, is that it reaches far back, all the way back in time, before there was a Jew or a Torah, to describe our common heritage, and so succinctly tie it to our circumstances in the present day.
As the Torah writes in Devarim 4:32, this includes all the way back to the beginning of creation:
"For ask now, regarding the first days that were before you, from the day when G-d created man upon the earth, and from one end of heaven to the other end of heaven, has there been anything like this great thing or has there been heard anything like it?"
This is in reference to not only the presence and existence of H' but also G-d's relationship to Bnei Yisrael which, although will become extremely challenging and downright brutal, will also be held by the fact that "G-d will not let go of you and G-d will not destroy you and G-d will not forget the covenant of your forefathers that H' swore to them."
We commonly think of our merit being in the name of Avraham, Yitzhak, Yaakov, Sarah, Rivka, Rachel, and Leah. And that well may be true. But what the Torah wants us to consider is the general human history, a history which ties us all together - a history which, even if you looked from one end of heaven to the other, would not compare to the current day in which H' is present with us, right here and right now, speaking to us (but not appearing to us, or at least not visibly appearing to us), and how that is the greatest gift of all.
There is absolutely no replacement - no greater "thing" as the Torah says - than to know that H' is always present, available "When in destress . . . you will find G-d when you search for G-d with all your heart and with all your soul."
The greatest gift of all is right now, when if we use our entire being, we will find G-d standing right here, never forgetting and always available to heed the Voice.
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