Parshat Lech Lecha marks a turning point in the Torah. The focus is now completely on Avraham and  his family, who will become the Jewish people. We follow Avraham as he goes, at God's bidding, to the Land of  Canaan, which he is told will be given to his descendants, who will bring a blessing to all the  families of the world. Soon after his arrival in Canaan, a famine then grips the land, forcing Avraham to seek sustenance in Egypt. He does well there, and returns to Canaan a wealthy man.

Parshat Noach is pretty depressing. After a short run, God decides to cancel creation and start all over again, with the one person who behaved himself - Noach, and his family. What terrible things could mankind have been guilty of to elicit such a strong response from God? What was our crime?

וזאת הברכה (V'zot Ha'Bracha - And This is the Blessing) is the parsha which closes the Five Books of Moses - the Torah - and is read on Simchat Torah. It consists of  somewhat cryptic poetic blessings which Moshe bestows on the tribes of Israel as he is about to die and they are about to enter the Land of Israel under the leadership of Yehoshua, Moshe's student. The end of the parsha describes Moshe's death and burial,  and ends with a short eulogy, which describes Moshe's unique role as prophet, teacher, and leader.  

Ha'azinu is one of the most poetic of parshas. Moshe, on the last day of his life, turns to verse to express his message of hope and fear for the Jewish future; his desire that the Jewish people live up to their covenant with God, and his pessimism about whether they actually will.

This week, we begin the final section of the Torah; in a few parshas it will be over. It is the last day of Moshe's life. His leadership of the Jewish people is at an end,  Joshua has been chosen to succeed him, and Moshe is now close to desperate in his concern for the future of the Jewish people once he is gone. As he has done throughout the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), he again and again warns them against failing to live up to their covenant with God, outlining for them the punishments they will suffer if, as he suspects  will happen, they are unfaithful to God and His Torah.

Parshat Ki Tavo  contains some very difficult material. As Moshe comes to the conclusion of his book-long final speech to the people of Israel - the entire book of Devarim - he continues to give them mitzvot  which will be particularly relevant כי תבוא אל הארץ - "when you come into the land" - hence the parsha's name - as well as other, more general ones. The bulk of the parsha, however, contains two in a series of blessings and curses, for those who do or do not keep the covenant with God, respectively.

Parshat Ki Teitze contains more mitzvot than any other parsha in the Torah - 27 positive ones (things you must do) and 47 negative ones (things forbidden to do), for a grand total of 74. Some of them relate to the fighting that will take place soon, when the Israelites enter and conquer the land of Israel, as well as other aspects of life in Israel, but most are applicable anywhere and at any time. One of those mitzvot - actually it's two, as we'll see in a moment -  concerns the responsibility we have for other people's property.

In 1960, something occurred which is widely understood to have changed the world. I am referring to the first televised presidential debate, between Nixon and JFK. Kennedy, younger and much better looking to begin with, looked cool and collected on TV, whereas Nixon, who had recently been ill,  was pale, sweaty, unshaven, and looked nervous and much less presidential. I emphasise "looked' because, although TV viewers thought Kennedy had done much better, those who listened to the debate on the radio actually thought Nixon had won!