PARSHA-PIX Parshat Ki-Tavo

Click on image for enlargement

Parsha Pix
Much less busy than the last few ParshaPix.
Upper- right is the Bikurim story. Basket of first fruits placed at the side of the Mizbei’ach.
The bringer is smiling the ultimate smile, as the Torah commands us to rejoice in all that G-d has given us.
And smilie is reciting (speech bubble) about going down to Egypt and about being brought out of Egypt and taken to Eretz Yisrael.
Upper-left is HASHKIFA... G-d, look down upon us from on high...
One of the blessings mentioned in the sedra is that if we keep the Torah, then we will be “heads” not “tails. See the two shekel coin images.
Below the coins are the 12 stones upon which were engraved the Torah (or parts of it).
Lower-right is the opened treasure, as we ask of G-d. That treasure is in the form of beneficial and timely rains, and the bumper crops that result from good and plentiful rain.
Which leaves us with three TTriddles to add to the ones you find at the bottom (or elsewhere) of some pages.

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 also presented for call-in solution on Torah Tidbits Audio (Arutz-7, Thursday night). The best solution set submitted each week (there isn't always a best) wins a double prize a CD from Noam Productions and/or a gift (game, puzzle, book, etc.) from Big Deal

Last issue’s (KI TEITZEI) TTriddles:
[1] Proper and helpful for the soldier,but fatal for whom, by whose hand?
[2] In the first order in Hebrew;in the second in Aramaic
[3] How does the kohein open the sedra this week?
[4] Be straight & good...and send the mother bird away
[5] Not Adomi or Mitzri, but what yes

Plus a few unexplained elements in the ParshaPixThis was problematic, since none of the ParshaPix pieces were explained (due to lack of space in last week’s issue). But we’ll manage...

And the envelope please...
[1] Several solvers got this one. The answer is YATEID. In the context of a soldier, it is a mitzva - and therefore proper - and helpful for him to have a digging tool among his equipment, so that he can take care of his physical needs without “dirtying” the army camp. The word YATEID also refers to a tent peg, which proved fatal for Sisra at the hand of Yael.
[2] The TTriddle was also solved by several solvers, though not as many as solved [1]. The word KIL-AYIM means mixture and is used in the Torah for several mixture prohibitions including cross-breeding of animals, mixing seeds in a field, growing grain and grapes together, and Shaatnez. KIL-AYIM is also the name of a tractate of Mishna in Zera’im, the first order of Mishnayot. Targum Onkeles renders the word EIRUVIN, which means mixture in Aramaic. EIRUVIN is also the name of a tractate in MOED, the second order of Mishnayot.
[3] No one got this one, and I was surprised. There were a few attempts, which were much more serious than the intended solution - so, nice try guys (and gals). I’m almost afraid to give the answer, because I can here the groans already. But... The kohein opens the sedra (with the first Aliya, as usual) with KEYS. Open. Keys. Get it? That’s all there is to it. The kohein’s Aliya not only begins (opens) with KI TEITZEI, but there are three parshiyot in that first Aliya, each starts with KI and there are 5 KIs total in the kohein’s portion. There are 50 KIs altogether in Ki Teitzei. That’s a lot. And that’s why this TTriddle was made, and that is why there is a KEY in the ParshaPix. And that is why the OU’s email publication, SHABBAT SHALOM, had the question: Why is Ki Teitzei like more than half a piano? A piano has 88 keys, and the sedra has more than half that number...
[4] This was a relatively straightforward TTriddle which some people solved nicely. The phrase L’MAAN YITAV LACH, so that it will be good for you, appears four times in the Torah. One of the times is with the mitzva of Shilu’ach HaKen, from Ki Teitzei. Two of the other times, the phrase appears with “Be straight and good...” (The other time is related to the prohibition of eating (drinking) blood - not part of this TTriddle.) Know that most TTriddles are meant to point out things, SDT-style, not just as riddles. As such, the TTriddles report in each week’s TT (which you are reading right now) on the previous week’s TTriddles, is meant for all Torah Tidbits readers, not just those who enjoy riddles and word-play. Specifically, here the observation is that the Torah most often does NOT give reasons or rewards for observance of mitzvot. When it does, we should sit up and take notice. To tell us to be straight and honest and good is a broad way of saying follow the Torah and keep the mitzvot. So it does not surprise us to see the encouraging follow through of the Torah’s words L’MAAN YITAV LACH. But then to see the phrase used for a specific mitzva - Shilu’ach HaKen, becomes particularly noteworthy. Rashi’s comment is: If on such a light, easy, simple, cost-free mitzva, the Torah promises such great reward, how much more so for mitzvot that require great effort and dedication on our part.
[5] Here too there were several solvers who had decent, fine, respectable answers, but not exactly the one I was looking for. The command for our treat- ment of the Adomi and Mitzri people is LO T’TA-EIV, do not detest, abhor the ADOMI, because he’s your brother, nor the MITZRI because of experience that we had in their country. (Rashi says that it refers to the earlier days when Yaakov and family were treated well.) The intended solution of this TTriddle related to the word T’TA-EIV (and not any variation of the word, as was used by several suggested solvers). T’TA-EIV appears only one other time in Tanach. T’hilim 107:18, where the ‘what?’ is KOL OCHEL, all food.
As mentioned earlier, the regular ParshaPix was not explained at all in last week’s TT, so EB (among others) decided to play it safe and consider the whole PP as part of the TTriddles. Thanks for your effort. Much of the ParshaPix elements were easy to match content from the sedra. But some was not. In the lower-right corner was a Purim grogger. That was an obvious reference to the Amalek parsha at the end of the sedra. The command to wipe out Amalek directly translated into obliterating the sound of Haman’s name by making noise when it is read in the Megila. There was a second, subtle connection between KI TEITZEI and Megilat Esther. And that would have been TTriddle-level. KACHA YEI’ASEH LA’ISH... So shall be done to a man... Haman’s suggestion to show honor to a person whom the king wanted to honor included marching him through the streets... and proclaiming: Thus shall be done to a person whom the king wishes to favor. In the parsha of YIBUM, when a man’s brother refuses to take his brother’s widow... part of the Chalitza ceremony includes the proclamation: KACHA... So shall be done to a man who does not build his brother’s “house”.
The aardvark and giraffe tied together is a Torah violation of “Do not plow with an ox and a donkey together”. Not just in the spirit of the prohibition. Not just rabbinic extension of the prohibition. Torah violation. So explains our Oral Law.
One more element, hard to make out in the printed TT. Not very much more easily indentifiable in the web-version of the ParshaPix. Last year’s ParshaPix for Ki Teitzei had Pyramids, which represented the repeated commands to remember the Egyptian experience. We wanted to replace the Pyramids with something else that would serve equally well as a representation of Egypt. What comes to mind? Hieroglyphics, of course. Next step: web search. The search resulted in over 85,000 sites, one of which is www.quizland.com/hiero.htm, which allows you to enter words or names and the output is in hieroglyphics. For whatever its worth (as the expression goes), here is hieroglyphics for the word TIDBITS. It was supposed to stand for the abovementioned references in the sedra to our experiences in Egypt.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] Under but not on
[2] SHOW
WIN
[3] Hey, we didn't either!
[4] 2/6 + 2/2 + 2/2; 4/6 + 2/2
[5] Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot, Chanuka
[6] Give & take, why & say
[7] The ultimate of line makes an even dozen
[8] Bikurim & Pesach Anagram
[9] 14 in Tanach, including 11 in Torah, including 5 in D'varim including 3 in Ki Tavo

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