ParshaPix Explanations

Parsha Pix - Ki Tavo

BIKURIM - basket of first fruits placed at the side of the Mizbei’ach…
The bringer is smiling the ultimate smile, as the Torah commands us to rejoice in all that G-d has given us…
And smiley is reciting (speech bubble) about going down to Egypt and about being brought out of Egypt and taken to Eretz Yisrael.
HASHKIFA - G-d, look down upon us from on high (tele- scope)...
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. Just for your information, heads and tails is American coin terminology. The formal numismatic terms are obverse and reverse. The colloquial terms for Israeli coins are PALI and EITZ. PALI is short for Palestine, the name of the country in pre-state days and the word that appeared in three languages on the obverse of coins. EITZ is for the palm tree that was common on the reverse side of the coins.
12 stones upon which were engraved the Torah (or parts of it).
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 (or understand), hence the different possibilities for HASKEIT.
The successful basketball shot is for BARUCH TANACHA, blessed is your basket (i.e. fruit, Rashi), or V’SAMTA VATENE - and put it in the basket.
Thumbs up pointing to a cityscape and a field is BARUCH ATA BA’IR UVARUCH ATA BASADEH.
The green pepper with yes and no on it represents the term in the Torah PRI ADAMA, fruit of the ground. YES, that’s the bracha it gets (double meaning - we say BOREI PRI HAADAMA and G-d sends His BRACHA (if we follow Him) to our PRI ADAMA. On the other hand - NO, pepper is not one of the PRI ADAMA referred to in the context of BIKURIM, since we are taught that for the mitzva of BIKURIM, PRI HAADAMA means only the Seven Species, which do not include pepper.
The golf club under the stones is an iron. The haftara says: “For bronze I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood bronze, and for stones iron…” (Yeshaya 60:17) In Hebrew: V’TACHAT HA’AVA- NIM BARZEL - and under the stones, iron.
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. (Hebrew-English groaner.)
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 cow and the bee in the lower-right represent CHALAV and D’VASH, as in ERETZ ZAVAT… A phrase that occurs more in Ki Tavo than anywhere else.
The little elephant at the bottom of the ParshaPix represents the mitzva that an elephant - assuming his reputation is deserved - cannot fulfill, the mitzva of SHICH’CHA, forgetting the bundles of produce (one or two of them) in the field. As elephants (supposedly) never forget, they would never do this mitzva. But they would be very good at the mitzvot that require us to remember Shabbat, Maamad Har Sinai, Amalek, what happened to Miriam, and others. This, assuming that an elephant is either born to a Jewish mother or converts according to halacha.
And then there is an AYIN with a SEGOL under it and a MEM (sofit) with a SEGOL under it. AYIN- MEM spells AM, nation. This then is an AM SEGULA, as in Chosen Nation, a phrase that occurs twice in Parshat R’ei and once in Ki Tavo.
On the right side of the ParshaPix are three Unexplaineds. (Hint: They all come from the haftara.)

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