PARSHA-PIX Parshat Eikev
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Parsha Pix
Dvarim 8:8 describes E. Yisrael and presents us with the famous list of the
Seven Species. Wheat in the upper left; barley between grenade and elephant.
Grapes. Pomegranate is the hand grenade, known as a RIMON in Hebrew. The
olive is in the martini glass, and there is a date (the 31st) on the
calendar. No fig.
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. Penny on
the hill.
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. Pair of
stone tablets and Davka Judaica Clip Art's scene of the Golden Calf.
The second passage of the Sh'ma is in Eikev. It contains the mitzva of
Mezuza 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...
Elephant is a reminder of the many times (in this sedra and elsewhere) that
the Torah commands us to remember and warns us never to forget.
Yellow jacket (wasp) is the TZIR'A that G-d says he will send against our
enemies.
Loaf of bread and a key below it. The key is not on the loaf, KI LO AL
HALECHEM...
Baby and tomatoes. PRI VITN'CHA (the fruit of your womb)
UF-RI ADMATECHA, the fruit of your ground.
XL is Roman numerals for 40. ARBA'IM appears 136 times in Tanach, referring
to days and nights or to years. 12 times in Parshat Eikev.
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
Kol HaKavod to Big Deal - Lunz and Geula stores for their donation of toys
that were distributed by us to children from Gush Katif who are staying at
several Jerusalem hotels and in Kfar Pines
Last issue’s (VA'ETCHANAN) TTriddles:
[1] A Litvak-Galitziana bovine misspelled reconciliation
[2] given, seen, called, begun, taught
[3] R' Yehuda HaLevi's second connection to sedra & haftara
[4] that we were slaves (5), the whole way, and ?
[5] not between 4 & 5, used sometimes when 3 is violated
[6] Yisrael 147, Yosef 110, Moshe 120
[7] plus two unexplained items in the ParshaPix
And the envelope, please...
[1] One of those TTriddles that comes from a sequence of words in the sedra
that says: make us into a TTriddle. Cow in Galitziana pronunciation of
Yiddish is KI (like key). KO is closer to the way a Litvak would say cow. So
KI IM KO from the beginning of D'varim 7:5 indicates a bovine (cow)
reconciliation, except that the IM that would mean with is spelled with an
AYIN, not an ALEF. Get it?
[2] R'EI - see! Of 126 REISH-ALEF-HEIs in Tanach, 29 are in Chumash. Of
those, 8 are followed by a verb in first-person singular past form. Four of
them are R'EI NATATI, see, I have given... the others are RA-ITI, KARATI,
HACHILOTI, and LIMADTI, the last one being in Va'etchanan.
[3] Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi is the composer of the Shabbat day Z'mira - YOM
SHABBATON. His second stanza contains the line
CHAKUK BISHNEI LUCHOT AVANIM, MEIROV ONIM V'AMITZ KOACH
The first half refers to SHAMOR, preserve Shabbat, as being engraved on the
Luchot, as we read in the sedra of Va'etchanan. The second half of the line
is a straight quote from Yeshayahu 40:26, the last pasuk in the haftara of
Nachamu.
[4] V'ZACHARTA - And you shall remember... appears 9 times in Tanach, 7 of
which are in the Chumash. 5 of those 7 are either KI EVED HAYITA B'MITZRAYIM
or B'ERETZ MITZRAYIM, that you (we) were slaves in Egypt. One time, the
phrase is And you shall remember KOL HADERECH, the whole way, the journey
from Egypt to the Jordan River... And the other one is V'ZACHARTA ET HASHEM...
remember G-d... Who gave you strength...
[5] BARUCH SHEIM K'VOD MALCHUTO L'OLAM VA'ED is not between p'sukim 4 and 5
of D'varim 6 (SH'MA YISRAEL...). But it is used after a B'RACHA L'VATALA,
which is a violation (opinions differ if it is actually a violation of LO
TISA, or something else) of Commandment #3. Sometimes, because there are
other violations of LO TISA, such as an oath in vain, which are not
associated with BARUCH SHEIM...
[6] It is not enough to say that these are the ages at which each of the
individuals died. What's TTriddly about that? The correct solution is ANOCHI
MEIT... Yaakov (as Yisrael), Yosef, and Moshe each said those words. No one
else did.
[7] One of the unexplained elements of the ParshaPix is a PEN. There are 5
PENs in the sedra and another two U'FENs. Not so remarkable, but they are
associated with the remember - don't forget things that Moshe talks about.
Hence, the PEN near the reminder string on the finger image in the ParshaPix.
[8] Which leaves the grasshopper. The word K'CHA- GAVIM, like grasshoppers,
appears only twice in Tanach. Back in Parshat Shlach, the Meraglim told the
people about the giants in the land, "we felt like grasshoppers (compared
with them) and so were we in their eyes". Commentaries point critically to
this statement. The other place the word appears is Yeshayahu 40 - the
haftara of Va'etchanan- Nachamu. In that context, the inhabitants of Earth
are called grasshoppers in perspective of the "One Who sits above the circle
of the earth".
This week's TTriddles:
[1] 2 from 13 of 11 of 5
[2] Moshe, Yirmiyahu, Shmuel, Nechemya
[3] Had it been the US instead of Canaan, then one thing that was sent in
would be humorous irony
[4] G-d told Moshe to take another two, G-d set aside Levi, and one other
who & what?
[5] wordwise matchup of the Land and the week
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