(For riddles see back page)
1) The Netziv (Hemek Dovar 13:16) answers: Although the eyes see first, the initial seeing is sometimes unavoidable. However, after this accidental seeing, the heart starts to desire and wants to look again. Therefore, what the pasuk means:שלא יהא הלב חומד ויוסיף להביט – “Don’t let your heart desire and want to look again, be in control and stop your eyes looking again”. For this reason, the pasuk mentions straying after the heart first.
The Gaon (Siddur HaGra) cryptically writes: “Because of a story that happened”. The Meforshim explain, the Gaon is referring to the Gemara in Menachos (44a). The Gemara relates, that there was once a person who heard about the opportunity to commit an aveirah in a certain place, and his heart very much desired to sin. He then travelled there to commit the sin. We see from here, that sometimes the heart desires to do an aveirah even before seeing. Consequently, the Torah warns about “straying after the heart”, before it warns about “straying after the eyes”.
There is another answer given, based on a story that happened on the day of the Belzer Rebbe’s (R’ Aharon zt”l) chasunah. When he got married, the town poritz and his wife wanted to come and wish the chosan and kallah “mazel tov” on occasion. The chosan complained to his father, that on such a holy day he had to meet with such a woman. His father R’ Yissocher Dov then asked him the above question (about the pasukim seemingly being out of order), and he answered: Normally the heart desires what the eyes see, however, by some tzadikim what they see has no effect as their heart is different to normal people. (Cited in Tal HaShomayim, from R’ Tzvi Ostraicher)
2)The Ramban explains that “bin Nun” was like a nickname, hinting at the fact that Hoshea was particularly wise and sharp intellectually. He was, thus, given the title “bin Nun” (from the root `binah’ — understanding), meaning “the wise one”.
The Talelei Oiros quotes a fascinating Medrash (Bereishis Rabbah, Lech Lecha 47) which relates that when Hashem changed Sarai’s name to Sarah, the displaced yud complained that it was being removed from the name of one of our Imohos [Matriarchs]. Hashem replied and comforted the yud by telling it that previously it had been the last letter of Sarai, but that it would now be the first letter of a future leader of Klal Yisroel, Yehoshua, whose name was changed from Hoshea by the addition of this yud.
The Steipler notes, that when the yud occupied the last letter position of Sarai’s name, it had no vowels. When it moved to the front of Yehoshua’s name, it now had a shva or two dots beneath it. The Steipler suggests that these two dots came from the segol or three dots under the beis of ben and therefore what was left under the beis of ben was just one dot or a chirik. Hence the pronunciation of the word as bin.
I saw an interesting alternate interpretation from the sefer HaMedrash v’Hamaseh. Normally, Chazal tell us, there are three partners in man – his father, his mother, and Hashem. In truth, however, there can be another
