Riddles of the Week

(For answers see inside)

1. Moshe exhorted the people (4:9) not to forget what they had seen or learned at Mount Sinai. Chazal list many things that can cause a person to forget his Torah learning. How many of them can you name?
2. If a person removes a mezuzah from his doorpost to have it checked by a sofer, should he leave the empty cover on the doorpost in its absence?
3. When would a person be obligated to repeat all three paragraphs of shema at night, even though he said all of them as part of Ma’ariv, did not specifically intend not to fulfill his obligation, and davened after nightfall and without any immodest sight or foul odor in his presence or vicinity?
4. When it comes to the mitzvah of tefillin we find that many people wear both Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam tefillin, in order to ensure that they fulfill the mitzvah in the correct manner. When it comes to the mitzvah of mezuzah, however, we don’t find that people are stringent and put up two mezuzos, one vertical and one horizontal, people simply put up one on a slant. Why the difference between the two mitzvos?
5. In this week’s parsha we have the prohibition of לא תחנם – “You shall not show them any favour” (7:2). The Gemara in Avodah Zorah (20a) learns from here, that it’s forbidden to give a present to a non-Jew. Is one allowed to give a non-Jew a matonah al menos lehachzir, a present which he is obligated to give back?
6. The Mishnah in Ta’anis (26b) teaches that Tu B’Av and Yom Kippur were the days on which Jewish maidens would go out in the field in order for the eligible males to select their matches. What was special about Tu B’Av, and in what way did this make it a day especially suited for the making of shidduchim [matches]?