In the short forth Aliyah of this week's parsha, the Torah discusses the procedure for crossing the Jordan river and the resulting ceremony of reaffirming the mitzvot of the Torah. We are commanded to create an altar with specific properties (more on that perhaps later) and inscribe it with the Torah written so that anyone, anywhere, at any time could understand it. Next, the nation brings sacrifices - olot and zevachim - and we are commanded to rejoice in this service in front of Hashem.
There is just one problem: the altar mentioned is that built upon Mount Eival, which, in distinction to Mount Gerizim, is associated in the next Aliyah as the seat of the curses that will befall Israel. How can we possibly be commanded to rejoice when we were pronouncing curses upon our own heads? What message is Hashem conveying through this complex contradiction?
The answer probably lies somewhere in the status of this parsha as one of the Shivah Dinechemtah, a principle I hope we can revisit to answer this question later.
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