Last Week's PPP (Ki Tisa)

TT356PPP - KI TISA
A short, single PPP this week. Reading from left to right, we find a wolf (with glasses - no significance; even a collection 100,000 pieces of clipart doesn't have everything) who is BAYing at the Moon. This is followed by a knee, then a weather vane, and the letter A (Irrelevant that it is an A; here it is just a letter,an OT). So we have the Torah's description of Shabbat - BEINI U'VEIN (Bnei Yisrael) OT... - It is a perpetual sign of the covenant between G-d and the People of Israel. That's it.

And then, straight from Arutz-7's Torah Tidbits Audio (Thursdays 10:08-11:00pm), there are the

Radio Riddles

[A] It's like multiplying by -1.

[B] They make gefilte fish, kneidle soup, and dozens of other products - what are they involved with in this week's sedra?

[C] The big letters give us the measure of what?

As it turned out, [A] was based on the special Maftir; [B] and [C] on Parshat HaShavua. Answers after the report.

The TT356PPP Report...

Well, people either got the PPP exactly the way I intended, or they were close enough. And a few were a bit sloppy with all the pictures. The week began as it should, with the Havdala Haratis calling in a close enough answer. Steinhart too was close enough. Zvi Roth, however, hit it exactly. MA Brownsteins were close too.I liked their interpretation of the knee-hammer as having to do with Occupational Therapy, or O.T. - as in OT HEE... Lots of variations fit. Benjietc was close, so was YT of KE. The Miller bros. also were almosts. And Shmuel S. And others. Let's leave it at that for now. Zvi Roth wins the Album of the week. I'm still workingon back prizes. Patience, Iago, patience. This Torathon week has been unbelievably busy, so many TT features are being neglected. Hopefully, we'll get back in the groove. Always remember that features like PPP are mostly for fun.

Answers to the Radio Riddles

[A] When you multiply a number by minus one, a positive number will become negative and a negative number will become positive. The Para Aduma potion has a similar effect on the state of ritual purity. It will make someone who is TAMEI TAHOR, and in certain cases, it will make someone who was TAHOR, TAMEI. If we say thatbeing TAMEI is NEGATIVE and being TAHOR is POSITIVE, then it is very much like multiplying by -1.

[B] This riddle referred to the food company ROKEACH, famous for their gefilte fish and many other products for Pesach and the year round. Whether you pronounce it in the English way - as rhyming with YO-TEACH or in the proper way - RO-KEI-ACH, the word appears in two parshiyot in KI TISA, namely the part dealing with thespecial anointing oil - the SHEMEN HAMISHCHA, and the KETORET, the Incense. A ROKEI'ACH is a chemist or apothecary who is skilled in the art and science of preparing the special compounds.Both riddles [A] and [B] were pretty straightforward. Both were solved by Abba Dahti of Flatbush (Brooklyn) on the air last Thursdaynight.

[C] This was a bit trickier. The big letters refers to the two letters in Ki Tisa that a Sofer writes extra large - namely, the NUN of NOTZER CHESED LA'ALAFIM and the REISH of EIL ACHEIR. The two letters are numerically equivalent to 50+200 = 250, which is the measure given in the sedra for the KINMAN BESEM, the fragrantcinnamon bark, and the K'NEI BOSEM, translated as CALAMUS, the aromatic root of a certain plant. Both these KETORET ingredients are given the measure of 250. In fact, the commentaries explain that the measure of the cinnamon was 500, but the Torah requires it to be used in two portions of 250 each. Only the K'NEI BOSEMwas actually measured in 250.

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