Verses and their Teachings

I thought of this image today while teaching at Drisha, to describe (part of) the rabbinic approach to deriving meanings from verses and attributing verses to teachings:

Every verse is like a package.  You open it up and there's a teaching inside!  And the teaching comes right out (נפקא) to you!  If at times there's an empty package, that's ok as long as there's a good reason for that. 

Then I thought of this image:

The verses are like very needy friends.  They really need to be needed (מבעי ליה).  

Then I thought of this image:

The verses and their teachings are like monogamous relationships.  If one verse is already teaching one teaching, it can't just go off and teach something else at the same time!  And if one teaching is already attached to one verse, it can't just go off and attach itself to another verse as well!  

Then I made a barely intelligible flow chart, which my students graciously obliged, and the sugya all worked out in the end.  

An afternoon well spent.