Parashat Shoftim

Another "busy" ParshaPix, reflecting a mitzva-filled sedra. The gavel at the upper left is for SHO'F'TIM, judges. The sheriff's star is for SHO'T'RIM, police. The leaning scales of justice is a reminder not to pervert justice. The crown is for the king we are to appoint. He must write a special Sefer Torah for himself, that will be his constant guide and companion. The gift-wrapped box is for several gifts to the kohen which are mentioned in this parsha. Arrows to the right and left with a negation circle, times 2, are for the Torah's warning to us not to veer from the teachings and pronouncements of the Sages throughout the generations, neither to the right nor the left. So too, a king of Israel is commanded to follow the Torah, and not to veer from it. The rabbit in the hat represents magic. Several types of black magic and occult practices are prohibited in this sedra. Our relationship with G-d must be straightforward and honest; the various black arts take us away from our relationship with G-d. (Today's sleight of hand magic is not in the same category as the occult, but is not without its halachic problems. A magician may not give the impression that something supernatural is happening. He should clear to his audience the nature of today's magic. The ax-head has separated from the handle. This is a classic situation for SHOGEG manslaughter, one of the topics of the sedra. It seems that a new store is opening right nextdoor to the same kind of store. This could be a case of MASIG G'VUL. Bottom left and center are the three Torah-given reasons for military exemption (optional wars). Building a house. Being engaged to marry. Planting a vineyard. Which leaves (pun intended) the tree with the face (and attitude?) - for the man is the tree of the field.

TTriddles are T(orah) T(idbits) riddles. They can be solved with obscure trivia knowledge or a Rashi, Baal HaTurim, etc. or Targum Onkeles and a hefty amount of mental flexibility. Even if you can't solve them, they are fun and sometimes educational to read a week later when the solutions are included. Enjoy.

Here are last week's (R'EI) TTriddles:

[1] $5 bills and Head 'n Shoulders. Kosher?

[2] Remember it inside and out.

[3] As long as my bruther is happy

[4] About 40 km between rest and property

[5] What is the R'EI analog of Eicha's heart?

[6] It's the AH, not the NO

[7] Explain the equation +5 = -4

[8] ALEF-TZADI-YUD-ALEF-DALET-TAV-ZAYIN

[1] Two possibe answers, both rhight. A $5 dollar bill is/was called a FIN (probably from Yiddish for five - ZR). Head 'n Shoulders is a shampoo that gets rid of dandruff (scales, KASKESET). Fins, but no scales indicates that the animal is NON KOSHER. On the other hand, there WERE scales. Evenif Head 'n Shoulders got rid of them, they were there. So if a fish has fins and scales and you scrape off its scales, it becomes non-kosher? Of course not. So the other correct solution is KOSHER.

[2] This one was sort of a real question. Not a slippery riddle. The answer is Egyot. The Torah requires us to remember the day we came out of Mitzrayim all the days of our lives. But we are also commanded to remember being slaves in Egypt, and hopefully be more kindly disposed towards the stranger in our midst because of the memory.

[3] No typo here; the misspelling is intentional. And you shall rejoice on your holidays... and be ACH SAMEI'ACH. ACH is ALEF-CHAF, as in, BE ONLY HAPPY. ALEF-CHET, of course is BROTHER. Be a happy brother. Bruther, that is.

[4] For you have not YET arrived at the MENUCHA and NACHALA, the Rest and the Property. Rashi says that the "Rest" is Shilo, where the Mishkan stood for 369 years. And Nachala is Yerushalayim, the permanent place of the Mikdash. Shilo and Jerusalem are approx. 40 km apart.

[5] SHIFCHI KAMAYIM LIBEICH, pour your heart out light water, says Eicha. In Parshat R'ei, it is BLOOD that must be poured on the ground like water, rather than consumed.

[6] The Haftara of R'EI is the second part of the haftara of Parshat NO'AH. That would make it the AH, not the NO. The NO, by the way, is the haftara of KI TEITZEI. Watch out for a TTriddle then.

[7] The Torah speaks of MIKEITZ SHEVA SHANIM, at the end of seven years... in reference to SH'MITA. It also says, MI'K'TZEI SHALOSH SHANIM, at the end of three years... we must give MAASER ANI, the tithe to the poor. The addition of a HEI (+5) to MIKEITZ resulted in a drop from 7 to 3 years (-4).

[8] These are the initials of the seven kosher types of CHAYOT, non-domesticated animals. AYAL (gazelle, some say a type of deer), TZVI (deer), YACHMUR (antelope, some say a large white goat, a buffalo, the roe deer, or the fallow deer), AKO (ibex, a wild goat, a.k.a. YA'EL), DISHON (chamois - pronounced SHAMMY or SHAM-WA - a small goatlike antelope, some say the addax, a larger antelope with impressive, long, spiralling Shofars), T'O (bison, wild ox, oryx or aurochs - which has been extinct since 1627), ZEMER (giraffe, DITZA in Aramaic). The identifications of these seven animals here is from The Living Torah by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan z"l.

This time, Zvi Roth didn't wait until Motza'ei Shabbat to start submitting solutions. The first ones were received by email on Thursday, mere minutes after Torah Tibdits was released (both hard copy and electronic versions). He added solutions in subsequent emails and has correctly solved five of the eight TTriddles. RHM hit 4 correct solutions, but also had some nice tries for the others. The inside and outside of [2] she matched with the internal and external signs of a kosher animal. Nice for the inside outside, but no match for remember. She also had a nice solution for the AH but not the NO. The BRACHA comes "AHsher tishm'u..." The opposite is "im lo (NO) tishm'u..." And she had an imaginative attempt for +5=-4. I'd have top say that she beat out Zvi this week. Meanwhile, from Galut comes the solutions from MM/Bklyn had three correct, and two nice tries, including an obvious attempt at BAL TOSIF and BAL TIGRA for +5=-4. DK/BE sent one sol'n. That's okay. As long as you play the game. We still look forward to greater participation in TTriddle solving.

This week's (Sho'f'tim) TTriddles, scattered around the pages of the hard copy, are collected here for the benefit of the readers of the electronic versions of TT.

[1] Three Double-Headers

[2] Mr. Katz's favorite dish is sweet & sour tongue. Who gets the credit for it, besides Mrs. Katz?

[3] A zebra is a horse with stripes. What other horse has stripes associated with it?

[4] The mitzva like HYDROGEN

[5] Steven Hill is Adam Schiff

[6] Different antigens on the surface of the cells

[7] It's the 488-525 Song

[8] He can wear a CHAI, not a tie

[9] It REALLY is the thought that counts

From Hasidic Wisdom by Simcha Raz (Elkins/Elkins)

There are three different levels of people with secrets: The first: You can tell they have a secret, but they still do not reveal it. The second: You cannot even tell that they have a secret. The third: Even if you tell them their own secret, they still act as if they do not know a thing about it. - Rabbi Shmuel Schneerson

You need to be smart to know how to tell a story properly. But you need to be even smarter to know who to listen to a story properly. - Rabbi Shalom Dov Ber of Lubavitch

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