Amazing how many modern aphorisms and marketing principles find their origin in Torah.. On this occasion: You never get a second chance to make a good first impression!
The Chief Rabbi's comment is insightful, but can one isolate one sentence in the Torah and say it is the most important? I think there are many, many extremely important sentences and why just sentences? The Torah is full of long most important passages. Just to take two or three short pieces: "Do not mistreat or opress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt." is of crucial importance in a world full of suspicion and hatred of the other. "If you see the donkey of someone you hate lying under its load, you might want to refrain from helping him, but you must make every effort to help him." is so important because it is so very right and yet so very difficult. "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" might suggest that we get a second chance, even a third or fourth to get it right, for how many of us do get it right first time? Isn't this why God allows for teshuvah? The completely righteous person is not a very common being. Thank God we can say sorry, provided it is genuine and from the bottom of our hearts, and try again.
