PARSHA-PIX - R'ei

Parsha Pix
A classic ParshaPix. There's Har Grizim in the upper left blessed with full green foliage. Next to it is Har Eival with a dead tree representing its curse-role.

At the upper right is an eraser with the negation circle. It is forbidden to erase the seven special names of G-d.

Top-center is the negation circle on a plus or minus, standing for the two prohibitions of adding or diminishing from the Torah.

The Tzedaka box is for the mitzva of giving Tzedaka, which is counted from this sedra. Lending to a fellow Jew is an important mitzva (that’s the hands and the wallet), especially as the Shmita year approaches and then draws to a close. After Shmita, personal loans are canceled; it would be very tempting simply not to lend, in order to protect oneself.Comes the Torah and gives us a special mitzva not to be afraid to lend close to the Shmita year.

The stalk of wheat is a reminder of the mitzvot of Maaser Sheni and Maaser Ani as well as the prohibition of eating Maaser Sheni (and several other sacred foods) outside Yerushalayim (or their specific venue). The wheat standing straight up looks like the number 1. The dot to its left is the decimal point that turns the wheat into 1/10 - Maaser.

The burning trees in the lower right stands for the destruction of AVODA ZARA from Eretz Yisrael.

The sword is the method of dealing with a bona fide IR HANIDACHAT.
The third negation circle is on the camel, a non-kosher animal. The mountain goat, on the other hand, gets two thumbs up - one for cud-chewing and one for split hooves.
The steak on the plate ready to eat points out that even though sacred meat was a topic of several mitzvot in the sedra, so is BASAR TA'AVA, meat that we may eat.
And in the lower left is a representation of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, the topic of the last portion of the sedra. Busy sedra. Enjoy it.

TTRIDDLES...
are Torah Tidbits-style riddles on Parshat HaShavua (sometimes on the calendar). They are found in the hard-copy of TT scattered throughout, usually at the bottom of different columns. In the electronic versions of TT, they are found all together at the end of the ParshaPix-TTriddles section. Some TTriddles are alsopresentedfor call-in solution on Torah Tidbits Audio (Arutz-7, Thursday night). The best solution set submitted each week (there isnt always a best) wins a double prize a CD from Noam Productions and/or a gift (game, puzzle, book, etc.) from Big Deal
Last week’s (EIKEV) TTriddles:
[1] 45+1=? • What AZBYed • letters (almost)
[2] Residue from 10 days earlier
plus one element from the ParshaPix

And the envelope please...
[1] These are three different TTriddlets on the same pasuk and the same concept. The pasuk is D’varim 10:12 - And now, Israel, what does HaShem your G-d ask of you? The concept is the making of 100 brachot a day (minimum). MA (MEM+HEI = 45), what does G-d ask? “Don’t read it MA (MEM-HEI) but MEI’A (MEM-ALEF-HEI), meaning 100 (referring to brachot per day). The addition of the ALEF changed WHAT to 100. So 45+1=100.
What AZBYed means the Hebrew word MA (MEM-HEI) in AT-BASH, that means exchanging the first and last letters of the Alef-Bet, the second and second to last, etc. ALEF becomes TAV, BET becomes SHIN (that’s where the term AT-BASH comes from - in English, AT-BASH becomes AZBY). MEM becomes YUD and HEI switches with TZADI. YUD+TZADI=10+90=100. Again, concerning the 100 Brachot.
And the Baal HaTurim points out that the number of letters in the pasuk (10:12) is 100, another allusion to the concept of 100 brachot a day. Slight problem is that the pasuk seems to have only 99 letters. It seems, however, that the Baal HaTurim is not bothered by being off by one. So we have three cryptic allusions to the concept of 100 brachot a day.
[2] Ten days earlier than Shabbat Parshat Eikev was Leil Tish’a b’Av, when the main WORD, if there is such a thing, was EICHA. The word appears in Parshat D’varim, where we read it and the pasuk it begins, in the tune of Eicha. The next occurrence of the word is in Parshat Eikev. That was what the TTriddle was referring to as a remnant from 10 days earlier. Another Eicha happens to be in this week’s sedra, and is the topic of MP’s From the Desk of the Director - page 11. Then it appears in the following sedra of Sho’f’tim. And then once more in Haazinu. That’s it for the Torah Eicha-wise. Five times, all in the Book of D’varim.
In last week’s ParshaPix, there were representations of the Seven Species. Six of them were explained in the ParshaPix column (the one with the Pink Panther as mascot of ParshaPix, because of the initials they share). We asked you to FIGure out the reference to FIGS, the one of the species not pointed out by us. In looking for an off-beat way to represent figs, I came upon an acronym for the major languages of Europe - namely, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. They are referred to as FIGS. In the PP were the words for tree in those four languages.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] From treif to kosher by adding opard
[2] Mamrei, Moreh, Bashan - what & who

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