 Parashat Eikev
This week's PP is an improved version of last year's, and contains straightforward pictures as well as pictorial riddles to challenge your children and Shabbat guests. The Seven Species that describe the produce of Eretz Yisrael are all there - some regular and some as a play on words. Upper-left is a wheat stalk, down a little bit and to the right is barley. Upper-middle is a cluster of grapes, to its right is a fig. The hand-granade between the barley and the grapes is a pineaplle inEnglish slang, but in Hebrew is called RIMON. There's an olive in the martini glass (stirred, not shaken), and in the upper-right is a date (the 31st, no special significance). Eretz Yisrael is also described as having rocks with iron (Fe is the symbol for iron) and from its hills, copper is mined (the penny on the mountain). All of the above description of the Land leads to the mitzva of Birkat HaMazon, hence the BENCH. The numbers 40, 70, 100 can be used to question family and guests. Moshe repeatedly mentions the 40 days and 40 nights he spent on Har Sinai (more than once). In describing the Nation of Israel, it was 70 souls that grew to a multitude. 100 is a reference to the 100 brachot a day we should say. This is hinted at in a fewways (see the Sedra Summary for details). In the lower-left is the revelry around the Golden Calf and the Luchot, tied together by the events of that fateful 17th of Tammuz. Which brings us to the second passage of Shma that ties in beneficial rain with our faithfulness in G-d and a locked sky that will not give rain with our betrayal of Him. Which leaves us with the Mezuza, mentioned in the first two portions of Shma, and which are contained within a Mezuza. That's this week's ParshaPix. Use it well. [The ParshaPix Index][The Eikev Homepage]
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