והשיבך ד' מצרים באניות בדרך אשר אמרתי לך לא תוסיף עוד לראותה
With this curse, Moshe Rabbeinu concludes the dread Tochachah, Admonition. Ramban explains why the tragic Egyptian experience serves as the climax of the Admonition. A slave dreads the idea of being forced to return to the very land where he had originally been subjugated and humiliated, and from which he was overjoyed to be liberated. Accordingly, we derive from here that returning to one’s past, descending a notch in his spiritual journey, is devastating. Horav Chaim Zaitchik, zl, expounds on the tragedy of one who had achieved spiritual eminence and then fell backwards, descending to a point which he had…
