Parashat Shlach
PARSHA-PIX Main theme of Parshat Shlach is/are the MERAGLIM. Lower-left is one of the many woodcuts and engravings from the past depicting two of the spies carrying a large cluster of grapes. The choice of grapes for the art pieces on the Meraglim is the Torah's statement that the days during which the Meraglim did their tour of the Land was the "time of the ripening of the grapes". Upper-left is a different pair of spies, of Mad Magazine fame. They are carrying a bomb, which is sort of like a granade, which in Hebrew is RIMON, which is also pomegranate, which was another of the fruits that Meraglim brought back to show the people. The compass in the upper-right could have been used by the Meraglim in carrying out their instructions from Moshe Rabeinu. The grapes below the compass not only represents the times of their tour and one of the samples they brought back with them, but also the source of the wine of libation mentioned in the sedra. The tree with the eye was one of the things Moshe told them to find - HAYESH BAH EITZ IM AYIN. Literally, it means does the Land have many trees or not. But if we change the two ALEFs of IM AYIN to AYINs, we arrive at the play on words used here. The three mitzvot in Shlach are depicted in this ParshaPix. The challah represents the mitzva of CHALLA. There is a graphic of TZITZIT and in the lower-right is the shell of the snail Murex Trunculus, the supposed (probable) source of T'CHEILET. And finally, there are eyes on the heart to remind us of the prohibition of following the evil inclination of our hearts and eyes. [Heart usually represents emotions and the head or brain represents thought, emotion and thought being "jointly responsible" for human behavior, both good and bad. So where do eyes fit in? The eyes send data to the brain, where it is evaluated and decisions are made by the brain based on the input of the eyes (and other sensory organs). As an interesting indicator of this idea, let's look at the positioning of T'filin. The SHEL YAD is worn near the heart, and the SHEL ROSH is near the brain. But what phrase does the Torah use for the SHEL ROSH? BEIN EINECHA, between your eyes. Not on the bridge of your nose. That would be between the two cameras that send the messages to the brain. But rather, between your eyes means between the two hemispheres of the brain, each having different functions in interpreting the data sent to it by the eyes. The SHEL ROSH is positioned in the more significant BEIN EINECHA. The bridge of the nose would be missing the point of the significance of the eyes. Rabbi Gershon Binet told me a perfect MASHAL to illustrate this last point. Bring a person to a computer workstation and ask him to point to the computer. The average person will point to the video monitor, rather than the inconspicuous metal box located under the monitor, or next to it, or under the computer table. That box is the computer. The monitor is the common device through which the computer communicates with us. V'LO TATURU...]
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