This week's TTriddles Wait, don't turn away from this column yet. TTriddles are for two types of TT readers. They are for people who enjoy riddles and puns, plays-on-words, trivia, and general and Jewish knowledge questions. And they are for people who can't (or aren't interested) in the mental gymnastics required to solve TTriddles, but might enjoy reading the answers and picking up odds and ends of knowledge from them. And after you read the answers, you might want to pick a few TTriddles to try on your children or guests. You can even give them hints along the way and have fun watching their mental wheels turn. Last week's (Balak) TTriddles: [1] Neither a monkey nor a nation. [2] Oral lessons and the remnant of Bnei Yisrael. [3] In Hebrew, a king; in English, keen. [4] How many animals in Balak? Everything counts. [5] Bil'am & donkey, Yehoshua, David. [6] Its ZIP code would probably have been 97276 or 97277 or 97278, and it would have been a good idea to make it a one-way street with no parking. [7] Balak's error in place was Haman's error in time. [8] Is Gad in? [9] Par'o, Bil'am, Achan, Shaul, David, Shim'i, Chizkiya. [10] HaShem (so to speak) and... Yaakov, Moshe, Bil'am, Balak, Eliav, Shaul, David, Elihu. And the answers are... [1] It the question were Neither been seen nor be found, the answer would be BAL YEI RA'EH and BAL YIMATZEI. Neither a monkey is BAL-KOF, that's BET- LAMED-KUF, BALAK, and Nor a nation is BAL'AM. [2] In the beginning of HA'AZINU, Moshe's teachings and "saying" (oral lessons) are poetically compared to dew and to "showers" upon the grass. These same terms are used by the prophet Micha to describe the remnant of Yaakov. [3] This was hard. (So are others.) Just as the kings of Egypt were called Par'o and Avimelech is the generic name of the kings of Gerar, so too the kings of Amalek were called AGAG. So in Hebrew, AGAG means KING. In English, AGOG (very close pronunciation) means "Full of keen anticipation or excitement; eager, intensely desirous or interested, ardent, athirst, avid, bursting, eager, keen, thirsty; raring to go, champing at the bit, ready and willing. In English, KEEN. [4] Zvi Roth found Tzipor, Shor, Aton, Par, Ayil, Re'em, Nachash, Lavi, Ari, Se'ir. I'd say that was a very good answer, even though I was looking for quantity. For example, the 21 PARIM and EILIM that Balak sacrificed at Bil'am's instructions. But the variety of animals is more interesting - especially, the words that are not really animals in the context of the parsha. They make it a TTriddle rather than a question. [5] This question was asked on Arutz-7's Torah Tidbits Audio in an easier way,with a built-in hint: What did Bil'am & donkey, Yehoshua, and David each see (and no one else)? The answer is, an angel with sword drawn in hand. Others saw angels, but a computer search of Tanach for the phrase V'CHARBO SH'LUFA B'YADO, results in only these four. [6] There are several streets in Ramot Bet that carry the title MISH'OL, rather than Rechov or Sderot or Mevo. The Mish'ols are unique to Ramot Bet. Therefore, MISH'OL HA'K'RAMIM would also have been in Ramot Bet. And its ZIP code would probably have been 97276/7/8, like all the other MISH'OLS. And since the Torah describes this one as having a fence on both sides of the road, and as being so narrow that Bil'am's leg got pressed up against the wall, it would have to be a one- way street with no parking. [7] After Bil'am's first "failure" to curse the People, Balk took him to S'dei Tzofim to Rosh HaPisga, a place that Balak knew would have negative vibes for Israel, because Moshe was to die there. He was right about the place, but wrong about its affect. So too, Haman was happy and hopeful of success when the PUR (lot) chose Adar as the month to hatch his plot against the Jews. He wrongly thought that Adar would be bad for us. [8] Is Gad in? should be read as, what are ISGADIN? And the answer is they are messengers, as Onkeles translates the MAL'A'CHIM that Balak sent Bil'am (22:5). [9] Here again, this TTriddle was used on radio last Thursday night. It was presented in an easier to solve, built-in hint way. What did Par'o, Bil'am... say? And the answer is CHATATI - I have sinned. Par'o said it a few times. But kept going back on his promises to let the People go. With this mixed list, one can assume that motives and intentions were not the same across the list, but they all said CHATATI. [10] And this list has the common factor of ANGER, as in VAYICHAR AF... We speak of G-d's anger anthropomorphically, hence the "so to speak" in parentheses. Bil'am got angry at his donkey; Balak got angry at Bil'am. And so on. There were three main solvers this week, not counting solvers of single TTriddles. RHM did a nice job, getting some as intended and solving others with imaginative "nice tries". Please come by for your prize, or give me a call. Y&S G also gets a prize for a good partial set of solutions. Even though they put Mish'ol HaK'ramim in Hollywood, specifically near Vine Street (or Avenue). Best solver this week - double prize - CD from Noam Productions and a game from Big Deal, goes to Zvi Roth. Sill waiting for some more veteran solvers to wake up.
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