How could the newly liberated Jew know what his or her real self was? How could a recently freed slave understand his or her potential, much less how to actualize it?
What are the implications of the Torah’s cautionary remark about sensitivity towards a blind man? Personal liability is a topic that’s already been laid out in the Torah in graphic detail, so what’s the new mitzvah that G‑d is teaching us here?
Once I was hooked on raw food, the awful restrictions seemed like a privileged progress towards a higher plane of sensitivity and consciousness—precisely the Jewish view of G-d’s restrictions.