The ParshaPix Puzzle for Parshat Balak

TT323PPP (Chukat)

Six piece PPP this week — three textual and three graphic.

Many good solutions (none perfect yet) have already come in — it looks like a good PPP week.

[1] Top line. Three sets of initials, all saying the same
thing. In the middle is PARA ADUMA T'MIMA. To its left is
Completely Red Cow. And on the right is the Aramaic Targum - Torta Simukta Sh'lemta.

[2] Second line. A favorite of mine. There is the algebraic
representa tion of the fact that if you multiply a negative
number by -1, the result will be positive. If you multiply a positive number by -1, the result will be negative. Similarly, the Para Aduma has the enigmatic quality of purifying someone who is ritually defiled, while it will defile those who prepare it who were (required to have been) in a state of TAHARA.

[3] Third text line. What you have is The Jewish People
without two Hs and an O. That would be H2O, the water that
was missing from the People following Miriam's death.

[4] This was a give-away, provided you recognized the
emblem as that of Chevrolet, or Chevy, as in VAYISHB' (hard word to pronounce) MIMENU CHEVY (21:1).

[5] The key in the ice cream cone:

Solution A (original intention) - a key WILL OPEN a lock =
YIFTACH; ice cream is G'LIDA, a jumbled sound- alike for
GIL'AD. G'lida'i, Gil'adi. This from the Haftara.

Solution B (submitted by some solvers) - KI GAVA AHARON, The KEY is KI. The cone is played on twice: G'VI'A = GAVA and the CONE = Aharon the KOHEN.

[6] And finally, the state of Kansas at the border of Jordan and its capital Amman, formerly RABBAT BNEI AMON. In spite of Dorothy's statement to Toto – We're not in Kansas anymore – they were. So another name for Kansas is OZ. Therefore, in 21:24 we find KI OZ G'VUL BNEI AMON, for OZ is the border of Bnei Amon, meaning that Kansas is the border of Jordan.

The two people that I happened to explain this one to, both
said "no way anyone's going to get that one". They were
wrong.

The answers that have been received until this writing
(Sunday afternoon) are very impressive. Some new people
too.

First on record was the Falk Family with a short email with
[2]. That was Friday afternoon. Soli Hollander hit [2] on
Friday night in shul about a minute after I handed him a TT.

Asher Arbit hit [1,3,4,5b,6] The correct [6] people really
bring a smile to my face. I like that one.

David Miller, one of the few phone solvers hit [3,4,5b] and
had a cute try at [6]. He saw the state as Pennsylvania, the Keystone State. Moshe Rabeinu was supposed to look for
the key stone to talk to, but because he struck the rock, he was not to cross the border. Or something like that. Eric Strauss, a first-timer (Be gentle? No way!), hit [1,3,5a,6]. Not bad for a first try!

The Ramot Lerners had a near perfect solution, missing only the ice cream part of Yiftach. The Frei Family had a [1-5] sweep and a nice try for [6]. J.A.L. had a partial for [1]
with a complex G'matriya to finish it off. They had a novel
sol'n for [2]; not the intended one, but a nice job. An almost for [3]. A much more complicated sol'n for Chevy. A hit for [5] and a not-quite for [6]. A for effort, as we used to say. J.A.L. also submitted a sol'n last week which went unacknowledged.

Tanya & David also aced [1-5] beautifully, but came up
short on [6]. Overall, high marks. Avi Mayer had a more
normal solution, with [2,3] correct and a nice try on [6].
DYANEC also had the first 5 solid and missed [6].

And the answers still roll in. The Rehovot Ks also hit
[1,2,3,4,5b] but were stumped with [6]. The Hoff manns got
[2,3,4,5] and tried [6]. The Falks add to their first shot with [1,4,5b]. Amnon Albeck hit [1] and [2], messed up [3] & [4] by combining them, got [5b], and saw Kansas as a cigarette lighter.The FRN got [2]. Remember that people
from abroad only had the three textual PPPs. A&G Atwood got [1,2,3,5b]. Fascinating the different combinations that
have come in.

MM from Brooklyn got all three text PPPs. Hey, Mike. Come
on Aliya and bring all your friends and we'll send you hard
copies of TT with the pictures, too. Good deal?

And this just in! Arbit sent in a completion of PPP solution with [2] making him the only one to have solved all 6 parts of TT323PPP. It looks like AA will be receiving the NOAM Productions - Torah Tidbits Album of the Week (see the new Album of the Week Column to find out what's going on.

Steinhart gang submitted [1,3,4,5]. PCSI Gang had a [2].
Teitelbaum Talkers had [1,3,4,5b]. Kal the Ilion ite had [2,3], text only.

Yehuda, Rebecca, and CL, new solvers from Rehovot: Nice job on [1,2,3], some nice wild guesses for [4,5,6]. Among other things, they write that Chevrolet's slogan is "like a rock", so they took [4] to be a reference to the rock from
which we got water. For [5] they got the cone=kohen and
said that the "keys of the kehuna" were being trans ferred
from Aharon to Elazar. The Havdala Haratis (whom I should
have mentioned earlier) had a solid set of solutions, but not all of them. And finally we come to Benjie, Esti, and (this time) Yehonatan. Good [2,3,4,5a]. Nice try but no cigar for [6]. That's it, I think. I hope I didn't leave anyone out. I also hope that readers (other than those named and their families) enjoy reading the results of the PPP each week.

I cannot remember a PPP that has generated more submissions than this one. It was truly fun to receive and read them.

Acknowledge two more people who submitted solutions last
week and were inadvertently left out of last week's TT: RHM
of Bayit Vegan and the MA Brownsteins. S.A.T.

And here is a late solution, as we go to press. Ariel Nir from Petach Tikvah hit [1,3,4,5a]. Nice try on [6] and went for the simple CHESHBON for [2]. Good job. Just made it.

Late entries for PPP

Amazing how many submissions TT323PPP generated. And many more than usual sent a follow-up submission. AA sent in correct [3,4]. The Rehovot Ks completed the sweep with [6]. Shmuel Spiegel aced the three textual PPPs. The Podolaks submitted a partial. PCSI Gang added a bit to their previous solution. The Ofra Shelnitzes got [2,3,5a], part
of [6], and had some great fun with [1].

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