Last Week's ParshaPix Puzzle
TT331 (Sho'f'tim)

TT331PPP SHO'F'TIM

[1] SHOMER V'SHUMA. Don't try to figure out what the words mean. What you have there is SHOR VaSEH, bull and sheep, with (the letters of) MUM (blemish) in them. Therefore, SHOMER V'SUMA is that which we may not sacrifice to G-d (see pasuk 17:1).

[2] YESHA, not here a reference to Yehuda, Shomron, and Aza (actually, there is discussion in the sedra about AREI MIKLAT and expansion of boundaries), but the letters AYIN, SHIN, and YUD. And the specific font used is part of the puzzle. There is an AYIN in an AYIN, same for SHIN, and YUD, giving pasuk 19:21, ...AYIN B'AYIN, SHEIN B'SHEIN, YAD B'YAD... We can add PESGAMACH to the puzzle if you are so inclined.

[3] H2 is the symbol for hydrogen, the first element and the first gas, making it REISHIT HA'GEZ (gas-gez, get it? Oh, well).

[4] The four alarm clocks refer to the Haftara, specifically to the two wake-up phrases: HITOR'RI, HITOR'RI and URI, URI. (BTW, the composers of L'cha Dodi borrowed them from Yeshayahu, not vice versa.

[5] Flowers may bow to the sun, but we may not. See pasuk 17:3.

[6] The two chess pieces (knight and queen) and the piles of coins are contained within the limits of the rectangle. This represents the limits on a king concerning wives, horses, and money, as in 17:16,17.

[7] To the left of the rectangle is a strange object made from two golf clubs. Specifically there is an iron coming from a wood, as in 19:5.

And that brings us to my favorite this week - the whole bottom row - [8] D'varim 17:8 - If something eludes you concerning MISHPAT - that's the scales of justice in the middle, BEIN (between) DAM L'DAM (blood and blood, that's A and B, two blood types), BEIN DIN L'DIN (Hebrew-English play on DIN meaning loud, continuous noise, as in the ringing bell or the whistling whistle), BEIN NEGA LA'NEGA (we generally call the plagues in Egypt MAKOT, but the Torah refers to them, at least once, as NEGA - here a frog and a locust represent 2 N'GA'IM).

That's it. A very busy set of PPP. It's Motza'ei Shabbat and some good - but not perfect - solutions are already in. HH were first, as usual, with [1,4,5,6,8]. Not bad. DYANEC called in [2,6,7,8] and a nice alternate [4]. MM-Bklyn very nice, but partial. Yehuda/Zefat part. Zvi - good partial. Very, very good set of solutions from Benjietc, and a near-perfect set from the Gad Meir Group starring Titch. Rehovot Ks had a respectable partial. Two last-minute (as of this writing)
solutions - DM - partial, and a solid partial plus from Steinhart Gang. That's it for now; if there are any late-arriving solutions, they will be acknowledged elsewhere, B"N.

The Radio Riddles for SHO'F'TIM (Torah Tidbits Audio, Arutz-7, 98.7FM) were musical, and cannot be committed to print. One was aired; the other was missent and did not make it to the show. The former was the theme music for the TV series LAW & ORDER, a perfect match for SHO'F'TIM V'SHO T'RIM. Hillel Gluch solved it and will receive the AWCD. The other was a musical clip of the Sorcerer's Apprentice, which was to be a reference to theprohibitions of sorcery and other occult practices.

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