Ki thezei: passion and control

Medieval art depicts 7 deadly sins, temptations: lust, greed, sloth, etc., that lead a person to a bad end.  The parsha deals with these temptations, not as forbidden, not to be denied, but as issues to be dealt with and handled. The parsha allows for submission to these temptations.  It offers correctives and controls for the consequences of frailty.

The " pretty woman," the captive of battle, must be given time to mourn her losses;  and her captive is given time to consider the consequences of his conquest.  She cannot be treated as a slave, she cannot be sold to another.

The Torah does not tolerate (the deadly sin of) sloth.  Lost objects must be returned to their owner.  The overburdened beast deserves attention, it cannot be ignored.  The new home buyer is instructed to place a safety barrier around the high, dangerous places.

The end of the parsha deals with the poor: the laborer,  the borrower, the beggar.  These are the people who are easy to cheat, these are the situations that we hope to avoid.  The Torah instructs us to treat them fairly, to recognize their difficulties.

The parsha has an important coda.  We are instructed to erase the memory of Amalek.  What is relevance of this eternal enmity to a parsha dealing, mostly, with the tempering of temptation with justice?

Amalek is introduced as a nation that attacked the weakened Israel  from the rear.  Is this not analogous to the exploitation of the poor for profit?  Doesn't the slumlord see herself in this description? In our Yizkor service, another use of the concept of zachor (remember), we invoke the memory of our ancestors as a stimulus to do good by giving tzadaka.  The other side of that is the erasure of the memory of domination and cruelty.

Even in conquest there is room for kindness.