The ParshaPix Puzzle from Two Weeks Ago
TT328 (Va'etchanan)

TT328PPP Va'etchanan

[1] The benzene ring (at least the way we used to draw it) shows atoms bonding, or V'ATEM HA'D'VEI KIM (D'varim 4:4). Bonus points for CHAYIM KUL'CHEM HAYOM... since an organic compound is depicted.

[2] The only textual component of the PPP. Sunday and Rosh Chodesh are both first days, in the form of a question, hence KI SH'AL NA L'YA MIM RISHONIM (4:32), actually referring to the days of old, but in this picture-word-play it refers to first days.

[3] The face of a clock in the face of a bear is PANIM B'FANIM DE-BEAR (5:4).

[4] The British guard of the door with the Alef on it is from 7:9 - SHOMER HABRIT... L'ELEF DOR.

[5] The telescope was borrowed from last year's regular ParshaPix and refers to the final pasuk in the Haftara of Nachamu - S'U MAROM EINEICHEM... lift your eyes heaven ward and see Who has created all that (you see).

[6] is made up of three parts, with the lines between them a bit fuzzy. The grape harvest is known as BATZIR, related to BETZER, the city of refuge designated for the territory of Reuven. The floppy Y is the symbol of the Zodiac sign of Aries or the RAM. Join the (hockey) stick or MOT, in Hebrew and you get RAMOT, the IR MIKLAT for the territory of Gad. The hockey stick should have made it easier to identify the next picture to its right, namely a GOAL. Add the light switch which is ON (otherwise the switch would not cast a shadow on the switchplate). That gives GOLAN, the third East Bank city of refuge, in the territory of Menashe. [6] is based on D'varim 4:43.

As of this moment, two solutions (from website people) have been received (for TT328ppp). As often happens, some of the solutions are okayish, but not what was intended. If the alternate suggestions are as faithful to the picture puzzle as mine (or better), okay. But if they fall short, well...

PCSI gang - good partial; Bklyn MM - very nice partial.

The rest of the solutions will be reported for both puzzles together.

The Radio Riddle for Nachmu was:

My son is stery vrong, but he needs a cairhut. Oops, I mixed up the letters.

Obviously, he meant to say that his son was very strong and that he needed a haircut. Except he mixed up some of the letters. We will do the same to solve the riddle. The most famous person who was very strong and grew his hair long was Shimshon. This is his father talking - namely, MANO'ACH. Rearranging the letters of his name spells
NACHAMU. (Or Nachum, a frequent first time caller.)

Last Week's ParshaPix Puzzle
TT329 (Eikev)

TT329PPP Eikev

[1] A daisy whose stem is made up of golf tees, four of them. There's a V in the center of the flower, and there are two chess pieces flanking the daisy. What you have then, is a FOUR-TEE DAIS-Y (Spanish for and) KNIGHTS. The V refers to the five (Roman numeral) time that Moshe mentions the 40 days and nights he spent on Mt. Sinai (at different times).

[2] The chart with the arrow indicating successful growth and prosperity. This refers to Moshe's warning about being arrogant and forgetting that it was G-d who took us out of Egypt, in times of pros perity. The symbol of Aries, the ram in the heart stands for V'RAM L'VAV'CHA.

[4] In the same passage we have Moshe's warning that one will say in his heart, KOCHI, my strength... (the raised fist in the speak bubble which is in the heart).

And, pardon it being out of number order, my personal favorite this week...

[3] The Big Dipper made up of seven Xs, representing D'varim 10:22, "With 70 souls (X=10 x 7 = 70) your fathers went down to Egypt, and now G-d has made you a multitude like the stars of the heavens (represented by the Big Dipper).

The Radio Riddle (which are going to have to get easier so that we'll have some solvers) for Eikev was:

The second (word) is a father; the third (word) is his uncle; the fourth (word) is his older brother.

The riddle was given on Torah Tidbits Audio, on Thursday night on Arutz-7 (98.7FM). No one solved it correctly; it is presented here for your challenge. The answer can be found at the end of this PPP report.

Partial from the Havdala Haratis (welcome back). Excellent solutions from DYANEC for 329 only. Good 329 solutions from Bklyn MM with an upgrade of his 328. Good job from Rehovot Ks for 329. Solid partials from Zvi Roth for 328 & 329. Good job from ES on both weeks. Similarly, a fine job from the Steinhart Gang. But no perfect or near perfect solutions yet.

Here's the answer to the Radio Riddle. The second word of the sedra is EIKEV, same root as YAAKOV, a father. The third word of the sedra is TISH'M'UN, same root as YISHMA'EL, Yaakov's uncle. The fourth word is ET. Commentaries on KABEID ET AVICHA V'EY IMECHA, commandment #5, say that the ET comes to add others that also must be honored. Specifically, one's older brother is mentioned.

Hold the presses! Final entry, just under the wire, not perfect, but the only one who got the meaning of the Big Dipper made up of the 7 Xs. DM submitted a pretty good
partial, including the most famous asterism in the sky.

What's an asterism, you ask. I'm glad you did, because it gives me a chance to revive an old feature of the early days of TT. Once upon a time, we had a from-time-to-time piece in Torah Tidbits called MARMI K'VA MAHAK. As I remember, only Chaim Eisen correctly identified the acronym as being the initial letters of the words of T'hilim 104:24 - MA RABU MA'ASECHA HASHEM...

The entire sky is divided into 88 regions known as constellations. By international agreement. Every star belongs to a constellation, even if it doesn't fit in with the "picture" of its constellation, and even if it is too small to be seen with the naked eye. In addition to these official constellations, there are well-known groups of stars that have their own identities. Some are parts of con stellations and others are made up of stars from more than one constellation. The Big Dipper is an asterism made up of seven promi nent stars that has become more famous than Ursa Major, the Great Bear, the constellation that it is only part of. Other examples of asterisms are the Summer Triangle (a large almost right triangle made up of Vega from the Lyre, Deneb from Cygnus the Swan, and Altair from Aquila the Eagle) and the Great Square (made up of stars from Pegasus and Andromeda).

This week's PPP R'ei

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