PARSHA-PIX Sho-f'tim

Click on image for enlargement

Parsha Pix
Upper-left are the symbols of SHO-F’TIM (gavel) and SHO-T’RIM (sheriff’s star).
Negation circle over the planting of a sappling = prohibition of planting trees in the Mikdash or Mizbei’ach area.
Tilted scales = perversion of justice - a recurring theme in the sedra.
Crown is for the mitzva of appointing a king. • He must write a special Torah (quill & parchment). • He may not own an excessive number of horses (3 chess knights is too many).
Gift-wrapped present represents MATANOT, the gifts to a kohein, specifically the parts of an slaughtered animal.
Negation of veering to the right or left times 2 because all are commanded so, and the king is additionally commanded the same thing.
Rabbit in hat stands for magic (but is not the same kind that the Torah forbids - That's why it is not in a negation circle.)
Ax handle detached from head (kills someone) - classic SHOGEG situation.
Bulldozer (earth mover, as it is called today) (below gavel and above crown) is to prepare the roads to IR MIKLAT for better access to the cities of refuge.
Bottom, from left. Three military deferments: Building new house, engagement to marry, and vineyard.
Lower-right is KI HA’ADAM EITZ HASADEH, for man is like the tree of the field.
Home Sweet Home picture with the pyramids is negated because we are not allowed to return to Egypt to live there.
There is an eye with the letter I in it, which is a play on AYIN B'AYIN. The phrase appears only three times in all of Tanach. Two of those times are Parshat Sho-f’tim and the haftara for Parshat Sho-f’tim!
The dice are double-4, which is for the 4 double words in the haftara - check them out.
The peace symbol in a speech bubble stands for the mitzva to offer peace to an enemy before engaging it in battle.
The recycling symbol reminds us to avoid the prohibition of BAL TASHCHIT.
The negation of the snake is for the prohibition of NICHUSH (play on words). The snake is a KING cobra, so it also refers to the prohibition of choosing a king from another nation (Cobra isn’t a Jewish name.)
The king of hearts is lying down since the kings heart must not be raised above his brothers.

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 (R'EI) TTriddles:
[1] 2 Sh'mot, 18 D'varim, 43 rest of Tanach - stay away from them all
The term ELOHIM ACHEIRIM occurs 63 times in Tanach. Specifically, it occurs twice in Sh'mot, 18 times in D'varim (including 4 times in R'ei - the most of any sedra). Yirmiyahu ties D'varim for the books with the most occurrences. Stay away from them all.
The phrase ELOHIM ACHEIRIM is a curious one. Why did G-d lend His name to idolatry? (The four letter name of G-d, YUD-KEI-VAV-KEI, is exclusive to Him; ELO-HIM is not.) Rabbi Z. Leff explained that it comes to teach us that in the core of all idolatry, pagan worship, other religions, Avoda Zara, is a belief in something superior to humans. Those beliefs, no matter how distorted, obscured, perverted, corrupted, they are all essentially belief in HaShem. That doesn't take away the universal prohibition of Avoda Zara, but it is in there someplace.
[2] Mix the sea and the wind and get?
YAM = sea and RU'ACH = wind. Mix them together, including rearranging the letters, you get YACHMUR, one of the seven types of CHYOT T'HOROT, kosher "wild" animals, that the Torah lists in Parshat R'ei. R' Aryeh Kaplan z"l in The Living Torah translates YACHMUR as antelope in general and the white rumped antelope in particular.He writes that some identify the YACHMUR as a large white goat or a buffalo, or a roe deer or fallow deer. Whatever it is, the YACHMUR is kosher. YACHMUR, by the way, is mentioned only once more in Tanach - in Melachim Alef.
[3] Curse & mall places are also sons of whom?
The curse place is Har EIVAL. The mall place is Malcha, known in Hebrew as MANACHAT. EIVAL and MANACHAT are also the sons of SHOVAL, one of BNEI SE'IR HACHORI.
[4] For 5 in Boro Park, not Bnei Braq
This is a reference to the end of Parshat R'ei which is the Torah reading of the 8th day of Pesach, the 2nd day of Shavuot, and Sh'mini Atzeret. These readings are for Chutz LaAretz only - we don't have an 8th day of Pesach or a 2nd day of Shavuot, and our Sh'mini Atzeret is the same day as Simchat Torah, so we read V'zot HaBracha and the beginning of B'reishit. This portion at the end of R'ei, then, is for the 5 people called to the Torah on Yom Tov in Boro Park, but not in Bnei Braq.
[5] Once each in the two firsts, twice in Eikev, once in R'ei
The two firsts refer to the first pasuk (or commandment) of the Aseret HaDibrot, from Yitro and Va'etchanan. The phrase of being taken out MEI-ERETZ MITZRAYIM MIBEIT AVADIM, from Egypt, from the house of bondage, occurs three other times in Chumash besides the two times in the first DIBUR. Once more in Va'etchanan, once in Eikev, and once in R'ei. The wording of the TTriddle is in error, it does not appear twice in Eikev, only once.
[6] Two-word phrase that can imply an equation between one prohibition in R'ei to all mitzvot
"Only be strong that you eat not the blood; for the blood is the life; and you may not eat the life with the flesh." This pasuk (D'varim 12:23) prohibits EIVER MIN HACHAI, limb from a living animal. This prohibition is not just our mitzva number 452 (Sefer HaChinuch's count), but it is one of the "Universal Laws", one of the 7 Noahide Mitzvot. The command is introduced by the words RAK CHAZAK, Just be strong... This is a rare phrase and an unusual introduction to a command. The phrase occurs only twice more in Tanach, in the first chapter of the book of Yehoshua. There, it is not mitzva-specific, as it is with EIVER MIN HACHAI, but is an encouragement to keeping all the mitzvot. In Yehoshua, the full phrase is RAK CHAZAK VE'EMATZ M'OD, Only be VERY strong and courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the Torah, which Moshe My servant commanded you; turn not from it to the right nor to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. EIVERMIN HACHAI is the only mitzva to carry part of that introduction.
[7] See when you come how happy you can be
Ed. note: As I remember, this was a fairly easy TTriddle, disguised in TT with a fancy font to make it look like some kind of maxim. That's what I remember (from last week!). What I don't (yet) rmember is the solution.It happens once in a while. My wife asked me why I don't write down the solutions immediately upon composing the TTriddles in the first place. Good question. A combination of overconfidence in my memory and the desire to be able to actually solve some TTriddles, not just make them up. As I said, this one was easy-ish. See (R'ei, I think), coming to Eretz Yisrael (KI TAVO or something like that), a SIMCHA word, and some form of YIHYEH. Each occurs with the common phrase that is the solution to the TTriddle. I'll still work on it, but if any TTreaders can figure it out, please let me know. --PC

This week's TTriddles:
[1] One of 6 ending on a high
[2] No'ach, Avraham, korbanot, we, and?
[3] Yitzchak, the potential soldier, seeks life and wisdom

NachKwestion of the Week
Alef-Bets in Tanach and near Alef-Bets

[The Parshat Sho-f'tim Homepage]
[The TORAH tidbits Homepage] [How to use TORAH tidbits]
[About The OU/NCSY Israel Center] [About TORAH tidbits]
 [www.ou.org]