Riddles of the Week

Riddles of the Week

(For answers see inside)

1. There is a very difficult Targum Yonason in this week’s parsha. The Targum Yonason writes that the porah adumah was checked for the 18 treifos (see Mishnah, Chullin 42a). The Gemara in Chullin (11a) learns from a pasuk that the porah adumah was burnt whole. The Gemara asks: If it was burnt whole, how did they know that it didn’t have any of the 18 treifos? The Gemara answers, that we follow rov, we go after the majority, and most animals don’t have the 18 treifos. It’s clear from the Gemara that it wasn’t possible to check the porah adumah for the 18 treifos, as it was burnt whole. If so, what is peshat in the Targum Yonosan who says that it was checked?
2. Is a porah adumah that was created via miraculous means kosher?
3. In this week’s parsha we have the pasuk: זאת התורה אדם כי ימות באהל – “These are the laws of a man who dies in a tent” (19:14). The Gemara in Shabbos (83b) teaches: “R’ Yonason said: A person should never refrain from entering a beis hamedrash and from learning Torah, even when he is dying. As it says, “This is the Torah, a person should die in his tent”, even when dying a person should busy himself with Torah”. There is another Gemara in Shabbos (30a) which relates how Hakodosh Boruch Hu told Dovid HaMelech that he was going to die on Shabbos, and how Dovid made sure to spend the entire Shabbos learning Torah to allow no room for the maloch hamoves [angel of death] to enter. According to R’ Yonason, a person must be learning even when he dies, if so, surely the Torah will protect him, and it will come out that people will never die?
4. The Gemara in Berachos (63b) darshens from the pasuk זאת התורה אדם כי ימות באה, that: “Torah only remains by those who kill themselves over it”. The Beis Yosef (Orach Chaim 317) quotes the Sefer HaTerumah (243) who describes the shoes of a talmid chocham. The Sefer HaTerumah says: Talmiday chachomim tie their shoes very tight and learn Torah through the night - they don’t remove their shoes from Shabbos to Shabbos (i.e. the only time they remove their shoes is on Shabbos). The question is, what is the heter for talmiday chachomim to sleep with their shoes on, the Gemara in Yoma (78b) teaches in the name of Shmuel: “If one wants to taste death, he should sleep wearing his shoes”. It would seem from this Gemara that there is an issur to sleep with shoes, if so, what is the heter for talmiday chachomim to do so? (See Reshash in Yoma 78b who asks this question).
5. Rashi writes (21:1) that when the Amalekites came to attack the Jewish people, they were afraid that the Jews would daven to Hashem to defeat them. In an attempt to thwart the efficacy of their tefillos, the Amalekites spoke in the Canaanite language, hoping that the Jews would be tricked into davening for victory over their Canaanite foes. Because they were still wearing the clothing of Amalekites, the Jews were confused regarding their true identity and simply davened to Hashem for help in defeating “this nation” – whichever it may be – and they prevailed. Why didn’t the Amalekites also change their garments to those of the Canaanites to ensure that their ruse would be successful?