This week's parsha finishes off with Moshe Rabbeinu ascending to the heavens, where he was to remain for forty days and forty nights to receive the Torah. But surely Hashem, with His infinite capabilities, could have taught the entire Torah to Moshe in just one day! Why did Hashem feel it necessary to teach him the Torah over a period of forty days?
The answer is that Hashem was hinting to Moshe exactly what the nature of the Torah is. The Torah is not merely a set of laws, a set of guidelines to update an existing lifestyle; rather, it is a new lifestyle unto itself. By accepting the Torah, the Jewish nation was actually reborn as a more enhanced nation, not merely an upgraded version of the old one. And that is why Hashem taught Moshe the Torah over a period of forty days: just as the period of yetziras havlad (the gestation of a newborn) is forty days, so too Klal Yisroel's rebirth as the nation of the Torah took forty days.
We should learn from this how to live our lives as true Torah Jews. We are not simply BETTER than the other nations of the world - we are DIFFERENT. We cannot live like they do, just in a somewhat better fashion; rather we must live a completely different life, the life of someone who is part of the Chosen Nation. We should never forget who we are: the greatest nation to walk the face of the earth - Hashem's eternal people.
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