PARSHA-PIX Ki Tavo

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Parsha Pix
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 - he is SMILE personified, as the Torah commands us to rejoice in all that G-d has given us. And the smiley 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... (of course, he does not need a telescope...)
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.
Lower-left 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.
The skate is for the word HASKEIT. It is a unique word in Torah and Na"Ch. Words that appear only once are often difficult to translate, since they provide only one context with nothing to compare it with. HASKEIT is rendered as "pay attention" or "be silent" or "form groups". It is followed by USHMA, and listen, hence the different possibilities for HASKEIT.
The successful basketball shot is for BARUCH TAN-ACHA, blessed is your basket (i.e. fruit, Rashi).
Thumbs up pointing to a city scape and a field is BARUCH ATA BA'IR UVARUCH ATA BASADEH.
Pepper with YES & NO. Is pepper a PRI HAADAMA. Well, as far as Ki Tavo is concerned, the answer is YES and NO. The command to take of the first fruits of the land, PRI HAADAMA does NOT include pepper. Only the Seven Species. On the other hand, later in the sedra when the PRI HAADAMA is to be blessed (if, and not so if not), pepper is assumedly included in that term.
At the top of the ParshaPix is a (spice) rack, representing another promise for our faithful behavior, that will will be RACK L'MAALA, just at the top. (Please forgive bad Hebrew-English puns.)
The opened lock is for the prophecy in the haftara, that your gates will be open always, day and night they will not be closed...
The flower next to the 12 stones is a "forget-me-not", as in "... I did not violate any mitzvot, nor did I forget." Part of Vidui Maasrot.
The golf club (it's an IRON) is UNDER the STONES, as in the haftara: V'TACHAT HA-AVANIM BARZEL.

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 (KI TEITZEI) TTriddles:
[1] Caveat in Sedra for Bob Merrill '52 song
Bob Merrrill (1921-1998) was "one of popular music's most prolific and popular songwriters". Probably his two best known songs are Barbara Streisand's "People" and the '52 novelty smash hit, "How much is that doggie in the window?" It is that song that is the key to this TTriddle. The warning contained in the sedra that relates to the song is the prohibition of using M'CHIR KELEV, a kosher, Mizbei'ach-worthy animal that was the barter for a dog, as a korban in the Beit HaMikdash. So however much that doggie in the window costs (arf,arf) - you know, the one with the waggely tail - if someone buys it with one or more lambs, let's say, the lambs are invalid as korbanot (equivalent in a way to a BAAL MUM, a blemished, disqualified animal).
[2] R, A, E, non-Jew, non-human
Y'FAT TO'AR, one of the phrases describing a beautiful woman (note how unflattering the transliteration of the phrase is), occurs 5 times in Tanach. (There are other terms for beauty, and hence others who are described as beautiful, but this TTriddle is restricted to the specific phrase Y'FAT TO'AR.) The three women that are identified thusly are Rachel Imeinu, Avigayil, and Esteir (perhaps you know her as Esther or even Hadassa). Interesting to note that the phrase also describes the beautiful captive (from the beginning of Ki Teitzei), a non-Jew until her conversion (if). The term is also used to described the first set of cows in Par'o's dream, and they were non-human. This was not meant in any way to detract from the beauty of R, A, and E - it was just a TTriddle-style observation.
[3] Ammon, Moav, Amalek and [L] Miriam
The key phrase here is BADERECH B'TZEI-T'CHEM MIMITZRAYIM, on the way out of Egypt. The phrase occurs only three times in all of Tanach - all three times being in Parshat Ki Teitzei. In telling us why we shall not permit Amonites and Moavites to enter K'HAL HASHEM (converts to Judaism from those nations have restrictions on who they may marry), the Torah gives reasons: That they were not hospitable to us "on our way out of Egypt" and that they hired Bil'am to "bless" us. The Torah commands us to remember what Amalek did to us "on our way out of Egypt". So too, L'HAVDIL, are we to remember what happened to Miriam, again, "on our way out of Egypt".
[4] All of Israel, an ox, a donkey
LO TIR-EH... do not see, is a phrase that occurs only three times in the Torah (and only three other times in the rest of Tanach). In Ki Teitzei, we find the mitzva of returning a stray animal to its owner, and not to see your brother's ox or lamb roaming around. And the mitzva of helping your fellow unload his beast of burden, and not to see your brother's donkey or ox collapsed on the road and turn a blind eye to it. The other occurrence of the words is in Parshat Balak when Balak is showing the People of Israel to Bil'am, at one point, they are able to see only part of the people, but were not able to see all the people.
[5] plus 1 element from the ParshaPix
The unexplained element from the ParshaPix is a visual version of TTriddle [1] above. It is a drawing of a dog with a dollar sign on it, representing the prohibition of M'CHIR KELEV. See [1] for details.
[6] And "something else"
The "something else" referred to in the TTriddles challenge in the PDF version of Torah Tidbits (and the hard copy) was the choice of "bullet" for the list of explanations of the ParshaPix elements. The choice of Hamantashen was based on the presents of Parshat Zachor at the end of Ki Teitzei. It was sort of a hidden TTriddle.
By the way, the Grogger in the ParshaPix, as well as the Hamantasen, have another link in the sedra in addition to Zachor. Part of the Chalitza ceremony is to say about the brother, who refuses to uphold his brother's name in Israel, KACHA YEI'ASEH LA'ISH... so shall be done to the man... - a phrase that is well-known from Megilat Esther.

And one more ParshaPix item...
Follow up to the KEY in the ParshaPix of Ki Teitzei. As was explained in last week's TT, there are 48 "KEYS" in Ki Teitzei, including, of course the sedra's name and opening words. This makes KI TEITZEI at least one of the three KEY SEDRAS in the Torah, along with KI TISA and KI TAVO. However, it should be noted that if we define a KEY SEDRA, not by its first word, but be how many times the word KI occurs in the sedra, we need to identify a different sedra as the KI sedra in the Torah - namely, R'EI. To be specific (courtesy of the Office of the Torah Tidbits Chief Statistician), the word KI (KAF-YUD) occurs in its three forms 1038 times in the Torah. (981 KI, 7 CHI, 50 V'CHI.) Parshat R'EI has 55 KEYS to Ki Teitzei's 50. No other sedra has more than 40. T'ruma and Vayakhel are the two KI-less sedras. This has been a service to stat-heads of the Jewish world.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] Chester would qualify for both
[2] A day, A month, All Mitzvot
[3] Connected to all three legs
[4] Repeated several hours later

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