ParshaPix

This week's ParshaPix has some of the old stuff and some new stuff. Some straightforward stuff and some tricky stuff. If you use the PPs with your children, you might have to guide them through some of the items, depending upon their ages.

Upper left is from one of the first ParshaPixPuzzles. There is a BLOCK (close enough to BALAK) in a nest, which makes it BEN TZIPOR.

The messengers from Moav came to Bil'am with K'SAMIM B'YADAM, represented by the magic trick in the hand, upper-right.

The letters in the upper-middle are three of the words in Bamidbar 23:13. The words hit me when I read the pasuk. Try it. There is an ITI, an EL, and an EFES. ET,L,FS. Your kids can have fun with this. Its an extension of English words, such as empty, and teepee. See how many Hebrew words you can find that are pronounced with the names of English letters only. Something like that.

Bil'am's donkey saw the sword drawn in the angel's hand; Bil'am did not see it at first (or second or third).

When the donkey talks to Bil'am, she asks him why he has hit her these three REGALIM, times. Using the word that refers to our cycle of holidays and to the People who observe them. The angel repeats the reference to SHALOSH REGALIM. The speech-bubble for the donkey contains the question (mark) about the three festivals, represented by the Lulav, Matza, and Torah.

The lion cub was one of the ways that Bil'am described the Jewish People. The Xed out snake is also from Bil'am's words, that there is no NACHASH in Yaakov. His meaning is that we do not rely on omens. In the PP it is a snake with an X.

The bull and sheep represent the sacrifices that Balak offered at Bil'am's behest.

The smiling wolrd is wearing a global eyepatch, which represents Bnei Yisrael as seen by Balak — we were so numerous that we covered EIN HAARETZ, the eye of the Earth.

The Davka graphics clipart of a shul in the lower left represents the pasuk that came from Bil'am's mouth: MA TOVU OHALECHA YAAKOV, MISHKENOTECHA YISRAEL. It is the pasuk we associate with shuls. It is recited by some upon entering a shul.

Which leaves us with the ROMACH at the bottom of the ParshaPix. That is the spear that Pinchas took into his hand to act in protection of G-d's honor.
As many riddles and TTriddles, PPPs and catch questions that I've come up with, I acknowledge Zev Frank as the master Torah riddler. Zev is the host of SHEVA MI YODEI'A, a radio show on Arutz-Sheva in Hebrew, which is broadcast at the same time Torah Tidbits Audio is aired in English. His show consists of 7 riddles on Parshat HaShavua, plus a few bonus questions. There's a little music thrown in, to give time for the callers to light up Arutz-Sheva's switchboard. That the show is emmensely popular and that callers are restricted to calling once a moth is a tribute to Zev's mastery of the Troah Chida.

But I digress... a couple of years ago, in search of a riddle in Parshat Balak, Zev stumbled upon a truly noteworthy discovery. It starts with ROMACH, spelled in the Torah REISH-MEM-CHET (no VAV). The numeric value is 248, which immediately brings to mind the number of positive mitzvot in the Torah. Pinchas armed himself with the RAMACH (248) mitzvot in his righteous defense of G-d's honor. That's the easy one. Don't know who said it first, but I'm sure someone does. But Zev did not stop there. Too easy.

What about the prohibitions in the Torah? There are 365 of them. Do we just forget about them? No. If we count just the prohibitions, starting from GID HANASHE and follow the count of the Sefer HaChinuch through the sedras, we come to an amazing discovery. The 248th prohibition in the Torah is at the end of Va'etchanan, and it is the prohibition of intermarriage and of taking a women from the other nations. Exactly the sin that Zimri was guilty of. So Pinchas not only armed himself with a physical weapon, and not only did he have the 248 mitzvot guiding him, but he also had a numeric match to the one major prohibition in question. Zev Frank. Thanks for that one. And all the others.

TTriddles
TTriddles are Torah Tidbits-style riddles on Parshat HaShavua (sometimes on the calendar events of the week). The best solution set submitted each week (there isn’t always a best) wins a double prize — a CD from...Noam Productions 8 Malchei Yisrael, Geula & the Rav Shefa mall CDs, tapes, equipment - broad selection, good prices, personal attention and a gift (game, puzzle, book, etc.) from...Big Deal•15 Malchei Yisrael in Geula• Rechov Lunz right off the Ben Yehuda Midrachov in the center of town• Rabbi Akiva Street in Bnei Braq. You never really know what you’ll find there A fun place to shop.

Even if you can’t solve any, they are fun (and sometimes informative) to read about in the weekly TTriddles report (which is what you’re reading now).

Last week's (CHUKAT) TTriddles:
[1] Taken literally, they're the two Mizmors
[2] The tall open and the round closed followed by the dotted and the undotted head of the Torah
[3] What's black and white and re(a)d all over?
A very modest collection of TTriddles for Chukat... but that’s the way it is sometimes.

And the envelope please...
[1] This is a reference to the schedule of purification with the Para Aduma Potion. One receives a sprinkling on the third day and on the seventh day. Taken literally, Yom HaShlishi is Tuesday and Yom HaShvi’i is Shabbat. The Psalms of the Day for these two days both begin with the word MIZMOR. None of the other five daily Psalms begin that way.
[2] This was a kind of silly TTriddle that began with a word that caught my eye. Actually, my ear. LISBOV. To circle around. After Edom rejected our request to pass through their land, after Aharon’s death, after the attack by the K’na’ani Melech Arad (and their taking one captive), and after our victory over them, we traveled from Hor HaHar via Yam Suf to circumvent the territory of Edom. The word appears only this once in all of Tanach. The word is spelled with the tall open letter (LAMED), the round closed letter (SAMACH), then come the head of the Torah, namely, the first letter of the Torah, i.e. the letter BET, in its dotted and undotted form. LISBOV.
[3] This TTriddle was meant to be a little open-ended. It started with the Para Aduma being red all over, which reminded me of the old riddle, What’s black and white and read all over? (Obviously, this is an auditory riddle, since you do not want to give away the fact that read is not the color red. The old answer is a newspaper. It’s black and white (that is until color photos and sometimes headlines came into vogue) and it is read all over. So I decided to focus the same riddle on Parshat HaShavua. This TTriddle was also asked on Arutz-7’s Torah Tidbits Audio, last Thursday night. One answer from a caller was PARA ADUMA, the cow being red and the laws of Tum’a and Tahara being black and white. Not the answer I had in mind, but a good one, nonetheless. This is what was meant by the term open-ended TTriddle. The two answers I had in mind were [1] a cow NOT eligible as a Para Aduma, because it was black and white and red all over; and [2] Parshat Para (or Parshat Chukat) which are black and white (ink on parchment) and read all over the world wherever Jews live. There are probably other good answers, A NEWSPAPER not being one of them.

This week's Ttriddles:
[1] He received doubtful applause
[2] Villians in contrasting colors
[3] With the key, there are 1 in Breishit, none in Shmot, 2 in Vayikra, 5 in Bamidbar (4 in a row), 2 in D'vari,. Without the key there are 3 more
[4] Three who said our cursers will be cursed
[5] Former guardians of Moav
[6] Bil'am's Afghanistan
[7] The hook went from 3rd to 2nd place from the Parsha to the Haftara
[8] TTriddle (not on the parsha): Its branches are Hebrew literary figures and U.S. presidents. What's the trunk?

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