… the eyes of the Lord your God are always upon [the land], from the beginning of the year until the end of year. (Deut. 11:12)
In this week’s Torah portion, Moses describes God watching over the Holy Land “from the beginning of the year until the end of year.” Why does it say “beginning of THE year” but then say simply “end of year” rather than “end of THE year?”
The Satmar Rav explains that at the beginning of each year, we tell ourselves that this is going to be THE year. The year I become a better person, the year I stop procrastinating, the year I achieve my dreams. But by the end of the year, it’s just another year. You didn’t achieve the greatness you envisioned twelve months earlier. The Rav said that we should pray that the end of the year should be like the beginning of the year, so we can look back and say, this really was THE great year I imagined!
Image: “Eye of God” Helix Nebula