The ParshaPix Puzzle
for Parshat Pinchas

Last Week's PPP - TT324 (Balak)

The response to the previous week's PPP was so overwhelming, that I had a tough time with last week's - and it shows. PPP for Balak was no where near as satisfying as the one for Chukat. Oh, well. I thank both the readers who send in solutions, as well as the many readers who appreciate the PPP reports, even though they are non- participatory PPP spectators.

In TT324PPP there are three, not four, parts. That through a lot of would-be solvers. But not all, as you will see. [1] is a mixer AND a com puter cable. What kind of cable was irrelevant – the key was cable, in its Hebrew form  KAF-BET-LAMED. When you mix those letters up (with the mixer, of course), you get BALAK.  [2] is based on Bamidbar 23:10 where Bil'am poetically describes the multitude of Bnei Yisrael — Who can count the dusk of Yaakov, and (even) a quarter of the number of Israel... Taking the phrase ROVA YISRAEL in its G'matriya-literal sense, we find that Yisra'el equals 10+300+200+1+30 = 541. Divide that by 4 and you get 135.25. And [3] in 23:13, Balak asks Bil'am to go with him somewhere else, to look down upon the people... Come please, ITI EL MAKOM ACHEIR... That's E.T.L. "not here", another place. The word "partial" was to indicate that there was going to be more PPP somewhere else in Torah Tidbits last week. As it turns  out, there was no other part. When that happened, I was debating whether to "solve" PARTIAL as part of the PPP. The best I came up with was PAR for the korbanot that Bil'am kept asking Balak to prepare, the T upside down is an Israeli plus sign, and the IAL rearrange, sort of, to A'IL, as in AYIL, this other animal Bil'am asked for. But I decided not to do it.

Aside from the PPP in the printed issue, there was a good riddle on Torah Tidbits Audio on Arutz-7 last Thursday night. If you hadn't heard it then, you might want to try it for fun now. I'll give the answer later. Here's the question:  On Pesach, I go on a field trip; on Shavuot, I go to the Kotel; on Sukkot, I just sit down and stay put. Who am I?

The Hoffmans (Toronto?) got [2] and submitted two fanciful attempts for the two parts of [1]. Nice try. The Ofra Shelnitzes also got only [2] with some stretches for the parts of [1]. Chaim Elbaum hit [3]. Okay. David Miller also split [1] and tried to solve it. Almost got [2]. Got [3]. Tet Bar-Ilan had a perfect solution. Kol HaKavod.

Benjie n Esti get partial credit for [1,2] and full marks for [3]. The Podolaks hit [2,3], but split [1]. Several solvers matched the cable with KABO EL as a sound-alike. Tanya also hit [2,3]. The Steinhart Gang also split [1] and found something for the mixer in the Haftara. They did KAVA-LI for the cable. Their [3] earns a smile and a "nice try, but... "Yehuda & Rebecca Poch also came up with a weird attempt for each half of [1], but settled down to a pair of hits with [2,3]. An anonymous solution faxed in with a correct [2]. (We don't get many anonymous solutions.)

That brings us to the Ramot Lerners, who also split [1] and gave weird tries for each half; they also got [2,3]; but what makes them different is the fact that they hit my meaning of PARTIAL as men tioned above. I find that on the spooky side.

And here is the answer to last week's riddle as asked on Arutz-7's Torah Tidbits Audio last Thursday night: BIL'AM's DONKEY. The donkey complains to Bil'am about his hitting her three times. She uses the phrase SHALOSH REGALIM, mean ing three times but hinting to the cycle of three festivals that we, the Jewish People, observe, and which earn us the merit to be spared from the plot of Balak and Bil'am. Carrying that idea further, we can match each Chag with one of the times that the donkey saw the angel, but Bil'am did not. The Torah tells us that the donkey veered off the path, the first time, and went into the field - Pesach field trip. The second time, Shavuot, their was a wall on each side of the road, the donkey tried to squeeze past the angel, but pressed Bil'am's leg into the wall causing him to strike out in anger. Shavuot - Kotel (kir). The third time, the path was so narrow that the donkey had nowhere to go and just collapsed under Bil'am. Sukkot - sitting down (in the Sukka)  and not going anywhere.

The Havdala Haratis had submitted a partial solution, but I lost my notation of it. Sorry. Apologies too to Miryam Blum for not mentioning her submission to last week's PPP, even though my email program was not able to read her solutions. 

Speaking of PPP... I almost forgot to mention the first solver of this week's PPPs - Teitelbaum Talkers were in my shul this past Shabbat and orally submitted a perfect set of solutions. Kol HaKavod. & prize.

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