PARSHA-PIX Parshat R'ei

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Parsha Pix
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.
To its left is the negation circle on a plus or minus, 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.
The stalk of wheat is a reminder of the mitzvot of Maaser Sheni and Maaser Ani as well as the prohibition of eating MaaserSheni (and several other sacred foods) outside Yerushalayim (or their specific venues).
The wheat standing straight up looks like the numeral 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 stand 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 giraffe, on the other hand, gets two thumbs up - one for cud-chewing and one for split hooves.
The steak on the plate ready to be eaten 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. This was forbidden during the years of wandering, but will be permitted in Eretz Yisrael.
In the lower left is a representation of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, the topic of the last portion of the sedra.
The milk carton and wine bottle are from the haftara, where we are told that they will be acquired free of charge (or something like that).
The smiley is for the mitzva to be joyous on the Chagim.
The Omer box is for the mitzva in R'ei to count the weeks. Some opinions actually consider this an independent mitzva; most combine it with counting days.
C I is R’ei (see) Anochi (I) - so too 101 (CI in Roman numerals).
Bird watcher is for the mitzva of checking if a bird is kosher.
Alpha-bet is without A, B, O - i.e. without blood.
Two new visual TTriddles.

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 (EIKEV) 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
[6] plus 2 parenthetical footer places

And the envelope, please...
[t] 2 (the second passage of Sh’ma is taken) from (pasuk) 13 of (perek) 11 of (book) 5 (of the Chumash, D’varim.)
[2] The word VAV-ALEF-TAV-PEI-LAMED-LAMED, either VA’ETPALEIL (and I davened) or V’ETPALEIL (and I will daven) is said by four people in Tanach. Twice by Moshe (once on behalf of ASharon and once on behalf of the People - of course Moshe prayed many times for the People, but we’re dealing with the specific word VA’ETPALEIL), and once each for Sh’mu’el, Yirmiyahu, and Nechemya. EB correctly pointed out the slight vowel difference: Sh’muel’s word has a SH’VA under the VAV and the others have a KAMATZ under the VAV. As indicated above, this is no slight difference - the tense is different. In Shmuel’s case, the VAV is conjunctive only (VAV HACHIBUR) - the verb ETPALEIL remains in the future tense. For the others, the VAV of VA’ETPALEIL is a VAV HAM’HAPEICH (VAV HAHIPUCH), the VAV that flips the tense from future to past. For this kind of a VAV, the SH’VA switches to a PATACH or a KAMATZ, as in this case.
[3 One of the things G-d said He would send into Canaan to help rid the country of its temporary occupiers was the TZIR’A, hornet of wasp. Had it been the USA that the WASP was sent into, there would have been humorous irony - don’t you think?
[4 The phrase BA’EIT HAHI, at that time, appears 19 times in Tanach (18 of which are in the Chumash, 15 of which are in D’varim); only three of the times is the phrase at the beginning of a pasuk. Eikev has two of them: At that time, G-d told me to hew another pair of Luchot, and at that time, G-d separated the tribe of Levi (seems to refer more to the Kohanim, a subset of Leviyim)... The other pasuk that begins with BA’EIT HAHI is the only one of the 19 that’s not in Chumash. It is in Yeshayahu 39:1, At that time, M’rodach-Bal’adan, king of Bavel, sent “get well” gifts to Chikiyahu HaMelech...
[5] In the set of p’sukim that describe the Land of Israel, we find the word ERETZ mentioned 6 times and the seventh time, it is HA’ARETZ. This is a word- wise matchup to the 6 days of the week and THE DAY, Shabbat.
[6] The footer of the pages of Torah Tidbits is at the bottom of each page where it says OU Israel Center TT number whatever, page number, what issue. Occasionally (very often in the past for many months), there is a word or phrase in parentheses at the end of the footer on a page or two. Last week, for TT#682 there was Ft. Worth (Texas), whose area code is 682. And there was ASHDOD (Israel) whose g’matriya is 1+300+4+6+4=315. What’s the connection? There is none. Let’s try AT-BASH G’matriya where ALEF is 400, SHIN is 2, DALET is 100, VAV is 80, and anther 100 for the last DALET, for a total of 682.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] E.T., cane, cane, sort of all blue
[2] strong like a stone
[3] false prophets and witnesses
[4] Don't try Friday night's suggestion this Shabbat morning
[5] Shabbat and spring with, all the mitzvot without
[6] plus two elements from the Parsha Pix

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