Rabbi Staub explores the challenge of the “black and white” nature of the text – “I set before you a blessing and a curse.” He observes that the text also states that our ancestors were given the land to possess conditionally, along with the commandment to destroy all places of worship of the people whom we would dispossess.
Rabbi Gold writes about the blessing of vision. Instead of saying, “I’ll believe it when I see it,”, she writes that as a child she understood the phrase differently: If I open my eyes and see it, then it is believable. Every moment when our eyes are wide open, we can choose between the blessing and the curse.
The parashah writes about the cancellation of debts in the seventh year. However, the text is understood to cover the laws of charity, or “distributive justice, equity.” However, as Rabbi Sacks observes, the laws also incorporate the restoration of self-respect. In other words, anonymity in the giving is essential.