7-Ki-Tavo-28-6 -- Always arriving

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Dueteronomy Chapter 28


ו בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה, בְּבֹאֶךָ; וּבָרוּךְ אַתָּה, בְּצֵאתֶךָ 

6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out

When the angels of Jacob's Ladder are described as 'ascending and descending', some commentators take the order of the verbs very seriously and ask, shouldn't they have descended first (from their headquarters 'on high'). We won't explore that question now. However, in this verse one might ask a similar question: Shouldn't they 'go out' (from home) before they 'come (back) in'?

There is a hint here of process, of impermanence, of flow. We are never really completely settled, stable, finished, but always in flux, always arriving at a new place. Our 'base of operations' is the dynamic flow of the G!d-force, of our actions / karma, and of the changes occurring in others and in the world. Thus the 'leaving' of where we had been is less primary, more of an after-effect, than is our continual arriving at The Present, The Now.