Riddles of the Week

(For answers see inside)

1. In this week’s parsha whilst listing the non-kosher animals, the Torah lists the ארנ בת – “the rabbit”. It’s interesting that the Torah refers to the rabbit as a ארנ בת using the feminine word and not as an ארנב, using the masculine term, why is this?
2. The Gemara in Megillah (9a) relates the story with Talmei HaMelech who gathered together seventy-two elders, and he placed them in seventy-two separate houses and told each one of them to write out the Torah. Hashem then put in the hearts of each and every one to change various parts of the Torah, and all seventy-two of them made the same changes. One such change was the pasuk in this week’s parsha of “ואת הארנבת”. The seventy-two elders didn’t want to write ארנבת as that was the name of Talmei’s wife, and they were worried that Talmei would say, “look these Jews are making fun of me, and they put my wife’s name amongst the non-kosher animals.” Therefore, they changed it to את צעירת הרגלים – “the animal with short feet”. Rashi explains: לפי שידיה קצרות וקטנות מרגליה – “Because the front legs of the rabbit are shorter than its hindlegs.” Rashi needs explaining, as if the arms (front legs) of the rabbit are short, why did they write: את צעירת הרגלים – the animal with short legs, they should have writtenאת צעירת הידים - the animal with short arms?
3. In this week’s parsha we learn that chazer [the swine] is a non-kosher animal, and it is forbidden to eat it. Many times in Chazal we find that they refer to this animal as דבר אחר - something else, what is the reason for this?
4. In this week’s parsha we have the pasuk: והתקדשתם והייתם קדושים (11:44). The Gemara in Berachos (53b) learns from this pasuk the obligation to wash mayim achronim. If one doesn’t have any water, may he wash mayim achronim using saliva?