Here's an example from the Merriam-Webster dictionary of a typical use of the word whereas:
Whereas you chose to participate in this stupid prank, you will be held responsible as well.
(this is one of the two different meanings of the word.)
In the preambles of contracts, however, I often see two additions to such sentences. The first is the use of therefore:
Whereas you chose to participate in this stupid prank, therefore you will be held responsible as well.
This seems redundant to me, although perhaps not entirely wrong. Is it grammatically incorrect? Obviously, it's not used in that kind of sentence exactly, but rather in longer, run-on sentences with multiple whereas clauses, i.e.:
WHEREAS the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog; and WHEREAS the lazy dog jumps over the cunning cat; and WHEREAS the cunning cat has been chasing the sneaky mouse; THEREFORE some thing or the other is to be undertaken etc. etc.
Can the addition of therefore be justified grammatically as a mechanism for re-asserting the sentence's intended meaning? as a kind of a shorthand to "WHEREAS all of the above,"?
The second word is now:
WHEREAS foo; and WHEREAS bar; and WHEREAS baz; NOW, THEREFORE quux.
This puzzles me. What's the use of the now? And why is it any help, if therefore has already been added?
Note: The overall meaning of such sentences is clear enough with or without these two additions, I'm asking about the grammar here, and about whether their addition adds a certain, shall we say, shade of meaning or interpretation which I'm not fully grasping.