
PARSHA-PIX Ki Teitzei
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Parsha Pix
Soldier in a tank, represents the many times "army" issues are mentioned in the sedra - The Beautiful Captive, the cleanliness of an army camp, exemption from service for a groom for the first year of marriage...
Warning lights are to prevent someone getting injured from a hazard in one's property. This is the flip side of the mitzva of MAAKEH.
Boot is for CHALITZA and the whole subject of YIBUM.
Nest with eggs is the scene immediately after someone has fulfilled the mitzva to send away the mother bird.
Couple under the CHUPA stands for several topics related to marriage.
Hands holding the wallet, taking out money is for the different monetary mitzvot in the sedra - not to borrow with interest. To pay a laborer on time. To fulfill one's pledges...
Cluster of grapes on top of a stalk of wheat to represent K'LAI KEREM.
Toilet is for requirement of having sanitary facilities outside an army base.
The string around the finger is for the various mitzvot to remember - what happened to Miriam, being in Mitzrayim, Amalek.
The grave-marker is for the mitzva to bury our dead, and reasonably quickly.
The donkey is for the many references to either donkey or other animal. The donkey gets lost, he is overburdened, he cannot pull a plow together with an ox...
The barbells with different weights on each end represents false weights and measures. Forbidden to use to defraud someone, and even forbidden to possess.
The aardvark and giraffe are tied together. That is a Torah violation.
There is a time clock representing paying the worker on time, and also the mitzvot related to workers' rights and employers' rights, as well.
There's a Purim grogger in the lower right corner. Stands for ZACHOR and especially wiping out Amalek. This is the origin of making noise when Haman's name is read.
KEY = KI, the word that starts the sedra off and appears 48 times in the sedra. That's a lot.
The apple tree can be for the rules of SHICH'CHA or the location of a nest, or for the rules to allow apple pickers to eat during their breaks.
Tzitzit is mentioned in the sedra, even though we count the mitzva back in Sh'lach.
That leaves one unexplained item
and something else...
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 (SHO-F'TIM) TTriddles:
[1] One of 6 ending on a high
Of the 54 sedras in the Torah, six of them end "on a high", i.e. end with G-d's name. They are: B'reishit, T'tzaveh, Acharei, B'har, Sh'lach, and Sho-f'tim. There are four sedras, by the way, that end in Moshe: Va'eira, Tzav, Emor, and Pinchas.
[2] No'ach, Avraham, korbanot, we, and? TAMIM tih-yeh im HaShem Elokecha. A significant pasuk in Shoftim that catches our attention. TAMIM. With whom is the word TAMIM associated. No'ach was a TZADIK TAMIM... G-d asked Avraham (before his name change) to become TAMIM (the symbols of which were Brit Mila and his name-change). The word TAMIM occurs 19 times in the Chumash. 15 of them are in the description of Korbanot, in which context, the word means free of invalidating blemishes. the "We" in the TTriddle is for the Jewish People, who are commanded TAMIM tih-yeh... That leaves one other, from Haazinu, which refers to G-d, as in HATZUR TAMIM P'AALO.
[3] Yitzchak, the potential soldier, seeks life and wisdom
MI HA-ISH, who is the person... Rivka asked Eliezer who the man she saw in the field was. In Parshat Shoftim, the SHO-T'RIM asked the potential soldiers (with the words MI HA-ISH) who recently betrothed a woman, build a house, planted a vineyard... and who was afraid to go into battle (because of insufficient merit of Mitzvot, perhaps)... David HaMelech, in T'hilim, asks MI HA-ISH HECHAFEITZ CHAYIM... who is the man who seeks Life... In Yirmiyahu, the words are MI HA-ISH HECHACHAM V'YAVEIN ET ZOT... Who is a wise person who understands this...
Before ELUL gets to much further... This is the third issue of Torah Tidbits with the "Torah Tidbits style Mazal (Zodiac) Symbol" for the month of ELUL. The Mazal of Elul is the B'TULA, Virgo, the Virgin. Our symbol is the flag of the U.S. Virgin Islands (not to be confused with the British Virgin Islands).
NachKwestion of the Week
Alef-Bets in Tanach and near Alef-Bets
We'll use EB's submission as our starting point. If anyone happens to know of any others, please let us know.
T'hilim 34 - which is part of the P'sukei D'zimra of Shabbat and Yom Tov, begins L'DAVID, B'SHANOTO ET TA'MO LIFNEI AVIMELECH... After the first pasuk, there are 21 p'sukim whose initial letters are in the order of the ALEF-BET, but there is no pasuk for the letter VAV. The 23rd and last pasuk in this chapter is PODEH HASHEMNEFESH AVADAV... Rate Ps. 34 as a near ALEF-BET.
T'hilim 25 is a less near ALEF-BET chapter. The first verse is an intro. Then you find p'sukim in ALEF-BET order, but no pasuk for BET or VAV, none for KUF but two for REISH. Then after TAV is a final pasuk, P'DEI ELOKIM...
T'hilim 111 starts with HALLELUYA, and then has phrases that follow the ALEF-BET all the way through. It's two letters to a pasuk until PEI, TZADI, and KUF in one pasuk, and REISH, SHIN, and TAV in the last pasuk. Since the NachKwestion never said anything about the letters being represented by a whole pasuk, we will count 111 as a complete ALEF-BET in Tanach.
T'hilim 112 is exactly the same as 111: HALLELUYA ALEF-BET. GIMMEL-DALET. HEI-VAV. ZAYIN-CHET. TET-YUD. KAF-LAMED. MEM-NUN. SAMACH-AYIN. PEI-TZADI-KUF. REISH-SHIN-TAV.
Then we come to T'hilim 119: The famous ALEF-BET chapter of 176 p'sukim, composed of eight each for each of the 22 letters of the ALEF-BET.
T'hilim 145, which makes up most of ASHREI from our davening, has 21 p'sukim, with the ALEF word following T'HILA L'DAVID in the first pasuk, followed by p'sukim whose first letters follow the ALEF-BET, with only NUN not represented.
Leaving T'hilim, we find that Mishlei (Proverbs) 31, p'sukim 10-31 are in perfect ALEF-BET order. We are familiar with these p'sukim from the well-known Leil Shabbat EISHET CHAYIL.
The first chapter of EICHA has 22 p'sukim in perfect ALEF-BET order. The 2nd and 4th chapters also have 22 p'sukim each, one for each letter of the ALEF-BET, but the PEI pasuk comes before the AYIN pasuk. Call them, "near ALEF-BET". So too, the 3rd perek of EICHA, with 66 p'sukim, three for each letter, but, again, with PEI before AYIN.
Different from all of the above, but of ALEF-BET interest, is TZEFANIYA 3:8 which you can see in the box to the right (in the hard copy of TT or in the Tanach of your choice). It is the only pasuk in Tanach that contains all the letters of the ALEF-BET including the five letters with different forms at the end of words - the Final-CHAF, MEM, NUN, FEI, and TZADI. (There are a few p'sukim in Tanach with all 22 letters, but only this one with all 27 letter forms, we shall say.
This week's TTriddles:
[1] Caveat in Sedra for Bob Merril l '52 song
[2] R, A, E, non-Jew, non-human
[3] Ammon, Moav, Amalek and [L] Miriam
[4] All of Israel, an ox, a donkey
[5] plus 1 element from the ParshaPix
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