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

Divrei Menachem

Parshat Ki Teitzei contains a plethora of mitzvot designed to maintain the integrity of our society. The instructions cover a wide range of practices from the treatment of female captives, second wives and rebellious children to the return of lost property and the treatment of suffering animals (including those of one’s nemesis).
The sheer number and variety of situations dealt with in the parsha underscore how pertinent are Torah values in the most mundane situations and in the most bizarre of circumstances.  If you just happen upon a bird’s nest with a roosting mother bird… if you desire to plow with an ox and a donkey together… if you were thinking about accepting an Edomite into your community…
Behind some of these commands are great moral lessons. We are to pay the destitute hired person on time, “because his life depends on it”. And “you shall not pervert the judgment of a proselyte or orphan…[for] you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt” - ‘At risk’, as we say in our times. (And, just think, tomorrow you too could be vulnerable)...
Of particular interest is the prohibition: “You shall not bring a harlot’s hire… to the House of Hashem”, from which the Ramban deduced that ill-gotten gains cannot be used for holy ends. This is definitely food for thought today for some Jewish public service organizations.

Shabbat Shalom, Menachem Persoff

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The Best Arguments

The psychologist Dr. Sara Barris, speaking at the recent joint Puah and OU Conference on Intimacy, discussed the subject of arguments in a close relationship. She said that the good news is that everyone argues and this is not considered an unusual occurrence nor need it be detrimental to a successful marriage. Arguments are important and marriages in which the couple do not argue are frightening and are sometimes are called Silent Divorces. Such couples may not argue because they simply do not face the issues that they disagree on and ignore the differences between them.

Refugees from Sudan - Are we obligated to welcome them into Israel?

Since 2006, more than 17,000 migrants have claimed asylum in Israel, most of them Eritrean or Sudanese nationals arriving clandestinely through the southern border with Egypt. The absorption of so many foreigners into Israel has created a debate in the country as to what is our moral obligation as a just democratic nation. As a country made up of Jewish refugees from oppression around the world, we feel guilty about neglecting others who seek asylum. But maybe we are being naive, and are letting opportunists seeking the best “deal” for asylum, into our country. Maybe they are just taking advantage of our Jewish tendency to mercy to seek out higher wages than they would receive as refugees in Egypt, while they are changing the Jewish identity of our State and possibly threatening our security?

Parsha Points to Ponder

1) Why does the Torah say the seeming extra word FOR YOU when it describes the soldier taking the Y’FAT TO’AR as a wife (21:11)? Of course if he marries her it will be FOR HIM!
2) Why, when choosing an example of a non-animal in the command to return loss objects does the Torah choose a shirt (SIMLA) (22:3)?
3) Why does the Torah call the person who deserves lashes BIN HAKOT instead of BEN which is usually used to describe a person (25:2)?

CHIZUK and IDUD for Olim not yet Olim respectively

The 74 Mitzvot contained in this week’s Sedra are book-ended by themes of war. “When you go out to war against your enemies” opens the Sedra and “Blot out the memory of Amalek” closes the Sedra. War has been the lot of the Jewish people from the time of our father Avraham who rescued Lot in battle to our modern day young men and women who risk their lives daily in order to protect nation and homeland.

Word of the Month

A weekly feature of Torah Tidbits to help clarify practical and conceptual aspects of the Jewish Calendar, thereby better fulfilling the mitzva of haChodesh HaZeh Lachem…

Parsha Pix

No explanation this week