the beginning of the parsh speaks of aliyah - b'ha'aloscha....
the end of the parsha speaks of yeridah - baba basra 75a - when moshe gave over the spirit of nevuah to the 70 elders, they said pnei moshe k'chama pnei yehoshua kyerach, oy L'oso busah... pninim mishulchan gra asks What busha?
rosh hashana 25a says why the torah doesn't detail the names of the 70 zekainim? so that no one in future generations may say my rav is not like so & so so I don't have to listen... The 70 names are hidden so people may assume their rav to be like them who are unknown to them.
this was the busha of the zekainim. When they saw such a yeridah already in one dor, from moshe to yehoshua, & this would go on for so many more generations, what a bushah it would be for them to be compared to the gedolim of the later doros!
the middle of the parsha avoids nefilah. - Vayehi b'nsoa ha'aron is entirely a new sefer. Rashi explains that this was to break between one "puroniyos" & another. The Nuns here also represent nefilah - as we know ashrei does not have a pasuk starting with nun because if there is nun - nefilah - R"L, there's very little hope.
What's the difference between such a huge yeridah & the nefilah that we're so careful to avoid?
When one goes down, he still retains his own ability to STOP. However when one is falling, he stops only when he hits something. Something else stops him.
If the yeridah becomes a nefilah, where he have to be reliant on external entities to stop us, that is a terrible state.
We surely need to have filters on the internet, but if we're RELYING on the goyim to stop us from cheit, we're in huge trouble. We need to have something internal - not instead - but besides, for the filters. We need OUR OWN BRAKES! If we don't build our own capability to stop ourselves, - oy vey! What a sorry sight!
