Last Week's TTriddles (EIKEV) TTriddles: [1] What's a lucrative business? [2] They could have been doisdool or nitwee [3] Like the eighth of the eighth of the eighth is doubly blessed [4] Colorless Britt Reid [5] One short of 440 gift animals [6] The mitzva of Sh'chita is in next week's sedra; its implementer is this week's [7] What's the Yekutiel Diet? [8] HaShem, et, ata, atem, hayom [9] Two ways for 45 to become 100 (not counting adding 55 or multiplying by 2 and 2 ninths) And the answers, please... [1] Dvarim 8:13 is part of Moshe's warning against "forgetting" G-d in times of plenty. And when your cattle and flocks will multiply and your silver and gold will increase... Baal HaTurim says that the juxtaposition of animals and precious metals tells us that raising flocks is a lucrative business. "One who wants to become wealthy should deal in sheep and goats." (There is no indication as to why he mentions the smaller animals and not cattle.) Further, the Baal HaTurim points to the missing VAV in "multiply" as a warning against allowing animals to graze on land belonging to someone else. This, he says, will be counterproductive and cause a decline in profits. [2] Dois is 2 in Portuguese and dool is 2 in some language which I found on the net last week, forgot to write down, and cannot find now; ni is 2 in Japanese and twee is 2 in Dutch. Each compound-word refers to TOTAFOT, the Torah's word for the T'filin of the head. Rashi says that the word tells us how many parshiyot in the T'filin, since TAT is 2 in Kapti and PAT is 2 in Afriki. Mbilica would be another name (Swahili, Mayan). [3] The 8th word of the 8th pasuk of the 8th perek in D'varim is ZAYIT (really ZEIT). Like it is KAZAYIT, which is the minimum amount of food that would be doubly blessed, since we must make a Bracha Rishona (before-bracha) and a Bracha Acharona (after-bracha). [4] Britt Reid is/was the secret identity and alter ego of the Green Hornet. Colorless, he would just be HORNET, which refers to the TZIR'A, that G-d would bring upon our enemies. [5] 440 gift animals from Yakov to Eisav are mentioned in a noteworthy pasuk in Vayishlach. B'reishit 32:15 counts out 200 nanny-goats, 20 billy-goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams. There are 8 words in the pasuk, each ending in a MEM (sofit). The Baal HaTurim points out that there is a sequence of 7 words (one short of the 440 gift animals) each ending in a MEM in D'varim 11:16 (in the Sh'ma). The Baal HaTurim matches them to a sequence of 7 words in Shir HaShirim, each ending in YUD, the AT-BASH partner of MEM, and makes a statement about idol-worshippers denying the 10 Dibrot... q.v. Don't look for a connection to Yaakov's animals; there is none. It was just the sequence of like-ending words. [6] The implementer of Sh'chita is the knife, known as the CHALIF. Onkeles renders EIKEV as CHALAF, hence the implementer of Sh'chita is this week's sedra. [7] Yekutiel is Moshe Rabeinu. His diet, mentioned more than once in Eikev, is 40 days, not eating (bread) nor drinking (water). [8] The phrase SH'MA YISRA'EL occurs five times in the book of D'varim (once in Eikev). The words of this TTriddle each follow one of the SH'MA YISRAELs. (One of them is U'SH'MA YISRAEL.) [9] And now, Yisra'el (says D'varim 10:12), WHAT does HaShem your G-d ask of you? MA, MEM-HEI = 45. By homiletically inserting an ALEF between the MEM and the HEI, the word reads MEI'A, 100. It is taken as a REMEZ (hint) to the requirement of saying 100 brachot daily. So too, points out the Baal HaTurim, the AT-BASH of MEM-HEI is YUD-TZADI, which is 100. First on the board with solutions this week was Zvi Roth, with email solutions right after Havdala. And what solutions! He's going to be hard to beat. And here's the call from RHM. Not bad, but Zvi is still in the lead. I like RHM's try at [3]. She got to ZAYIT and said it's doubly blessed because in addition to being one of Shiv'at HaMinim, it is the first fruit after the word ERETZ, giving it top priority among the BOREI PRI HA'ETZ five of seven. DK/BE had a nice try (stretched is right) on [3], but hit [9] right on the head. Even tried to include raising 45 to the power of (log 100 / log 45). It works, but Rashi and Tosefot had better ideas. MM/Bklyn had a beautiful [1,4,6,7] sol'n subset. [The ParshaPix Index] [The
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