PARSHA-PIX Parshat Eikev

Click on image for enlargement

Parsha Pix
Dvarim 8:8 beautifully describes Eretz Yisra'el and presents us with the famous list of the Seven Species. Wheat is the one at the upper left. Barley is between the grenade and the elephant. You can't miss the grapes. Pomegranate is represented by the hand grenade, known as a RIMON in Hebrew. Rimon is a pomegranate. (Interesting that a granade is nicknamed pineapple in English.) The olive is in the martini glass, and there is a date (the 31st) on the calendar in the upper right corner.

The Land is also described as being a land whose rocks are iron (Fe on the piece of rock), and from whose mountains you can extract copper. That's the penny on the hill. (Did not come out clear in the hard copy - we're having Gestetner machine problems, for a change. However, on the webpage and in the .pdf version, the ParshaPix is in full color and perfectly clear.

Suggestion to people who use the ParshaPix at their Shabbat table, with family and/or guests: you might want to get a copy of the color ParshaPix and print it out. It is much better working from it than the black-and-white, fuzzy hard copy version. Even if you regularly get Torah Tidbits, you might want to "subscribe" for the email version and you can request the .gif file of ParshaPix only. Or get any of the other options.)

It is in Parshat Eikev that Moshe recounts for the people the story of the Golden Calf, the breaking of the Luchot, and the second Luchot. A little below the center of the PP is a pair of stone tablets and in the lower left is Davka Judaica ClipArt's scene of the Golden Calf.

The second passage of the Sh'ma is in Eikev. It contains the mitzva of Mezuza (and is written on the Mezuza parchment) and a reminder of the "deal" we have with G-d. If we listen to the Mitzvot (preserve them, keep them, practice them), then we will receive rainfall in its proper time. That's the cloud with drops of rain.But if we don't observe and preserve the mitzvot, then G-d will "lock" the heavens and there will not (G-d forbid) be rainfall, and the ground will not give up its bounty, and we will be lost...

The elephant is a reminder (because elephants never forget) of the many times (in this sedra and elsewhere) that the Torah commands us to remember and warns us never to forget.

Next to the martini is a yellow jacket, as in the TZIR'A that G-d says he will send against our enemies.
Below the martini and yellow jacket is a loaf of bread and a key below it. The key is not on the loaf, rather it is below it. So you can say, in TTriddle talk, KI LO AL HALECHEM...

There is a picture of a baby and tomatoes. They go together, as in PRI VITN'CHA (the fruit of your womb) UF-RI ADMATECHA, the fruit of your ground. These being blessed as a result of our following G-d's mitzvot.

Then we have XL, which can mean Extra-Large, but here is Roman numerals for 40. Here are some numbers about 40. ARBA'IM appears 136 times in Tanach, often referring to days and nights and often to years. The number appears 12 times in Parshat Eikev, hence its place on the ParshaPix this week.
That's about it... almost.

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. 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 (VA'ETCHANAN) TTriddles:
[1 ] Could be a description of Sully's factory
[2] Cover your eyes for the span of Bayit Rishon
[3] Tish'a b'Av TTriddle: Double Reverse
[4] As G-d has commanded you... twice... and his fields
[5] First's question - universal answer
[6] Then it was only in 3; now it's in 3 and 9
[7] Holy pair spelling variants count: Torah (NACH) 4 (289); 21 (16)

And the envelope, please...
[1] L'ELEF DOR, for a thousand generations, appears in the sedra (and only two other places in Tanach). Hebrew-English wordplay - 1000 DOORs. Sully (of Monsters Inc.) works in a factory with thousands of doors.
[2] Cover your eyes is an obvious reference to SH'MA. Baal HaTurim points out that the numeric value of the word SH'MA is 410, the number of years that the first Beit HaMikdash stood.
[3] This play on words refers to the penultimate pasuk of Eicha, HASHIVEINU HASHEM... it speaks of renewing our days as of old, which is sort of like going in REVERSE. It is read twice, which is the plain meaning of DOUBLE REVERSE. But there is an additional pun in that we can say that the repeating of the pasuk is a REVERSE.
[4] These are some of the items that are "added" in Va'etchanan's version of the Aseret HaDibrot, compared to the Yitro version. In the Shabbat commandment and in the Honor Parents commandment, the phrase KAASHER TZIVCHA HASHEM ELOKECHA stands out as being in the latter and not in the former. So too, in the Coveting commandment, SADEIHU, his fields, is added to list of that which we may not covet.
[5] Va'etchanan contains the CHACHAM's question (he's the FIRST of the Four CHildren in the Hagada). The answer to him, though, is the universal answer to all questions at the Seder - AVADIM HAYINU.
[6] This is another TTriddle on the contrasts between the two versions of the Aseret HaDibrot. The word SHAV, in vain, is only in commandment no. 3, as in taking G-d's name LASHAV, in vain, in the Yitro version. In Va'etchanan, in addition to commandment no. 3, it is also in commandment no. 9, the prohibition of bearing false witness, where SHAV replaces SHAKER (that's SHAH-KER, as in SHEKER at the end of a pasuk).
[7] (KEI and K stand for the letter HEI.) The holy pair refers to the phrase HASHEM ELOKIM, which appears in the second pasuk of the sedra. Sometimes, HASHEM is spelled YUD/KEI/VAV/KEI, and sometimes it is ALEF/DALET/NUN/YUD. When spelled the first way, it is followed by ELOKIM spelled ALEF-LAMED-KEI-YUD-MEM; when the latter,ELOKIM is spelled YUD/KEI/VAV/KEI. This sparked a computer search of Tanach, which reveals "surprising" statistics. In the Torah, Y/K/V/K E/L/K/Y/M appears 21 times, to only 4 in the form of A/D/N/Y Y/K/V/K. But in NACH, there are only 16 occurrences of the former spelling, and 289 of the latter. In addition, there are 7 occurrences of Elokim HaShem: 2 spelled E/L/K/Y/M Y/K/V/K, 1 spelled E/L/K/Y/M A/D/N/Y, and 4 spelled Y/K/V/K A/D/N/Y. Confusing, no? One wonders if there are connotative differences.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] The Yaakov- & Yehoshua-like Sh'ma words
[2] It's just like a volume of Gemara
[3] 7-10: 5 X 1 X 7 X 5 X 3 X 10 X 13 Ha-X 4; X=?
[4] 475 yrs. 5 months... and then some
[5] More than what Amalek did to you...
[6] One element in the ParshaPi

[The Parshat Eikev Homepage]
[The TORAH tidbits Homepage] [How to use TORAH tidbits]
[About The OU/NCSY Israel Center] [About TORAH tidbits]
 [www.ou.org]