PARSHA-PIX - Parshat Chukat
ParshaPix We have in the upper-left, of course, the Red Cow, an archaic play on words with the symbol of (RED) Communism, to give the correct color to a black and white picture. (On the website, the cow itself is colored red.) Although Moshe was commanded to speak to the Rock, he struck it with the MATEH twice and water gushed forth from the rock(s). The ear indicates the original command to speak to the rock. The Kohen Gadol is pictured, with the garments that were transferred from Aharon to Elazar. Following Aharon's death, the people panicked and a plague of serpents attacked the people. G-d told Moshe to put the form of a snake on a rod (which he did, making the snake from copper) and anyone bitten by a poisonous snake who looks at the snake-on-the-stick would live. See sedra summary for more. The sedra mentions SEFER MILCHAMOT HASHEM, some kind of written record of the battles. It is represented by the open book with a tank on one page and the HEI-shmichik on the other page. The DO NOT ENTER sign has a double-double meaning. Edom and Emori both responded to Israel's request for safe passage through their territory with DO NOT ENTER. Moshe and Aharon, as a result of the Hitting the rock rather than talking to it episode, were given DO NOT ENTER orders for Eretz Yisrael. The bottle of water with the dollars signs represents the offer Bnei Yisrael made to pay for the water they would use while passing through Edom's land. The well with the musical notes stands for the Song of the Well. Think about the prominent role played by water (and its lack) from the moment Bnei Yisrael left Mitzrayim (you can even go back to the first plague in Egypt - BLOOD) until they arrived at the threshold of Eretz Yisrael. TTriddles 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 (KORACH) TTriddles: And the envelope please... [2] VAYIPOL AL PANAV, And he fell on his face. This expression is used in Tanach (with different connotations) with this list of individuals. For Golyat, the meaning is literal. Note that with Avraham, the Torah uses the expression twice, once for Avram and once for Avraham. [3] Reference here is to the opening pasuk in the sedra, which (I speculated) could be a record-setting pasuk with ten names: Korach, Yitzhar, K’hat, Levi, Datan, Aviram, Eliav, On, Pelet, and Reuven. When Moshe Caplan of RBS submitted that solution, he told me that his brother Yisroel found a pasuk with more names, Bamidbar 27:1 - Tz’lafchad, Cheifer, Gil’ad, Machir, Menashe (mentioned twice in the pasuk), Yosef, Machla, No’a, Chogla, Milka, and Tirtza. That’s 11 names. The Caplan boys, 12 and 10, win a Reva L’Sheva CD from Noam Productions for their efforts. [4] This was a combination G’matriya, Targum, and cryptic crossword puzzle -style TTriddle. The answer is SH’KEIDIM, almonds (as on the staff of Aharon). If you use a GIMMEL (3) instead of the KUF (100) and switch the final MEM (40) with a NUN (50), you get the Targum for Sh’keidim — SHIGDIN. And one thing you can certainly say about almonds — That’s nuts! [5] This TTriddle was a (double) trivia type TTriddle. Emanuel Goldenberg was the real life name of actor Edward G. Robinson (EGR). The stereotypical gangster and all-around bad guy (and Jew) was the perfect actor to play the role of Datan in the 1956 movie, The Ten Commandments. (Youseg Shiloah played Datan in the 1975 Moses the Lawgiver, with Burt Lancaster taking the Moshe role from Charton Heston. The IMDB site shows that this was Youseg’s only role of his acting career. Lawson Butt had played Datan in the 1923 version of the Ten Commandments. And why do I mention the last two actors? So that you should be thankful that the TTriddles used Edwards G. Robinson, thereby making solution possible. It’s early in the week. We will yet see if anyone comes up with a correct solution.) [The Chukat Homepage]
|
