Vayelech: sharing failure

Moshe goes and  announces that he is now about  to die...and never enter the promised land.  The parsha is called vayelech: and he went.  It echoes the earlier parsha: Lech lecha, in which Gd tells Abraham to leave his ancestor's domain and follow a new path into a land that will, eventually, be granted to his descendants. Now Moshe has come up to the last mile and knows that he will not enter The Land

 He tells the people that they will enter the land...but they will eventually fail and be exiled. This land is too hot to handle. Moshe instructs the people to remember a poem The poem predicts the downfall and exile of the Israelites. Ultimately, Israel will be vindicated and restored to their land and glory.  

The message: defeat is inevitable; but persevere, survive, rise from the defeat.  The mission will ultimately succeed. 

The message: go! You may not be the one to arrive at the goal,  but go ahead and set the goal,  strive for the goal

Who would have thought that the singing voices of Jewish grooms and brides would actually be heard in the outskirts of Jerusalem  ( as I recently heard them myself) in the year 839 or 1639  or 1939?  Only those who could continue to go forth, knowing that they would probably  die before the goal is achieved. 

This is the journey of will, the expedition of faith. It is handed to us, we bequeath it to our descendants and students.