deuteronomy

Blessings and Curses?

making sense of loaded theology

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

Dec 4, 2025 • 9 min read

“Now Moshe and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying: Keep all this commandment that I command you today! And it shall be: at the time that you cross the Jordan into the land that God gives you, you are to set up for yourself great stones and are to plaster them with plaster; you are to write on them all the words of this Torah/Instruction, when you cross over…. “(Deuteronomy 27:2-3) Ugo Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains. (Image of seven pillars of unhewn stone, each with 3-6 stones per pillar, each stone painted a different color to contrast with its neighbors--highlighter yellow, bright orange, red, pink, green, blue, silver, black, grey).

On Monday we looked at the crux of the divine covenant– our side of the deal, which comes down to choosing life.

I didn't unpack the specific blessings and curses there, but thought that perhaps we might look at them– and their theological complexity– here, together.

Let's start with the logistics: The covenanting really begins in Deuteronomy 27, on the edge of entering the Promised Land. God-via-Moses tells everybody that when they finally get there, they'll need to get some of the people to stand on Mt. Gezirim, and recite blessings, and some on Mt. Ebal, and recite curses– as well as, per the caption in the photo above, to write the Torah. (The mountains in question are near the biblical city of Shechem and the contemporary Palestinian city of Nablus, in the West Bank.)

I'll quote the Torah at length, and then we'll look at some of the ways various smart people have made sense of this over the centuries:

And all the Levites are to speak up and say to every person of Israel,
[with] voice raised:
Cursed be the one who makes a carved-image or molten-thing and sets [it] up in secret! And all the people say: Amen! [This refrain appears after each of the cursed-bes, but I'm cutting for space– assume all the people say Amen! after each line.]
Cursed be one who insults their parent!
Cursed be one who moves the territory-marker of their neighbor!
Cursed be one leading-astray a blind-person in the way!
Cursed be one casting aside the case of a sojourner, an orphan, or a widow!
Cursed be one lying with the wife of their father...!
Cursed be one lying with any animal!
Cursed be one lying with their sister!
Cursed be one lying with their mother-in-law!
Cursed be one who strikes down their neighbor in secret!
Cursed be one taking a bribe, [thus] striking down a life [through] innocent blood!
Cursed be one who does not fulfill the words of this Torah, to observe them! And all the people say: Amen!

Now it shall be: if you hearken, to the voice of God, taking care to observe all God's commandments, then ...then there will come upon you all these blessings, and overtake you:
blessed be you, in the town,
blessed be you, in the [open] field;
blessed be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your land, and the fruit of your animals, the offspring of your cattle and the fecundity of your sheep.
Blessed be your basket and your kneading-bowl.
Blessed be you, in your coming in,
blessed be you, in your going out.
May God make your enemies, those that rise against you, be defeated before you;
by one road they will go out against you, but by seven roads they will flee before you.
God will ordain for you the blessing in your storehouses, in all the enterprises of your hand, and God will bless you in the land.
God will open for you God's heavens, by giving the rain of your land in its set-time,
and by blessing all the doings of your hand;
God will make you the head and not the tail, you will only be up, you will not be down... (Deuteronomy 27:13-28:13, condensed slightly)