ParshaPix

Parsha Pix
Been a while since we had room for this feature. Hope that the ParshaPix have been relatively easy to interpret. We did get a call asking about the ALEF & TAV in last week's Pix. G-d gives Moshe (at first) two signs to "impress" the people into believing that G-d actually sent Moshe to them – the rod becoming a snake and his hand becoming alternately m'tzora and healed. In explaining to Moshe why he was getting more than one sign, G-d says, "And if they won't believe and listen to the *sound* of the first sign (OT, which also means letter, the first one being ALEF) then they will believe the last sign (hence the checkmark for the TAV). 

As to the ParshaPix of Va'eira...

The four cups at the top (like the four cups of wine at the Seder) represent the Four Terms of Redemption. 

The wizard at the top-right is one of CHARTUMEI MITZRAYIM who were able to match SOME of Moshe's signs and plagues. SOME, but not all, and none on the same level of supernatural.

Down the left side is a Davka Graphic depicting the seven of the Ten Plagues that are recorded in this week's sedra. The "plus BO" has a double meaning - add the three plagues (BET+ALEF=2+1=3) from Parshat BO, and that makes all ten..

Prominently in the middle of the Pix is the staff representing The Staff, HaMateh, of Moshe. 

The stove/oven at the middle of the right side of the Pix is a reminder of one of the locations of the frogs during Plague #2. Commentaries point out the significance of the Torah's reference to frogs being in the ovens of the Egyptians being that they acted unnaturally. All the plagues involved "defiance" of the laws of nature (which is a major part of the message of the Plagues to us). 

Finally, we come to the heart in the lower-right which is holding the barbells to show us its strength. Par'o made his heart hard and strong to withstand the plagues and refuse to let the people of Israel go. After a while, G-d strengthened Par'o's heart when Par'o might not have been able to do so on his own. This is subject to a fuller comment elsewhere.

TTriddles
This page is the first attempt at using DavkaWriter for preparing Torah Tidbits for publication. We’ll see how many more of this week’s pages end up being done with DavkaWriter. So far, so good – as they say.
Last week’s (Sh’mot) TTriddles:

[1] If a man has two wives, he can have two fathers-in-law. Who had an extra father-in-law with only one wife?
[2] Yehuda, Naftali, Asher, Yosef, & Binyamin
[3] Topaz, Battle Cry, The Angry Hills... and
[4] How would you draw a quadrangle with Logo?
[5] Rashi describes the proliferation of the Jews in Egypt as SHISHA B'KERES ECHAD. What is the homonymic counterpart of that phrase?
[6] __-letter word for lethal weapon
[7] As the Nation did vis-a-vis HaShem, who did vis-a-vis David?

First of all, apologies for the unusual number of typos in the TTriddles. Typos are not nice anywhere, but in TTriddles, they can impair solution capability. The above set of TTriddles has been corrected.

[1] The key word in this TTriddle is “extra”, as opposed to “two”, which it does not say. The “extra father-in-law” is Moshe’s, as in YETER CHOTNO.
[2] Here the key is the ampersand (that’s the fancy name for the “and” symbol). In the opening p’sukim of the sedra, each of the named sons of Yaakov are prefixed with a VAV. (Yehuda has a VI; Naftali, Asher, and Yosef have a V’; and Binyamin as an U’.)
[3] Topaz, Battle Cry, and Angry Hills, as well as Mila 18, Armageddon, QB VII, Trinity, The Haj, Mitla Pass, Redemption, and A God in Ruins, not to mention EXODUS (which is the solution to the TTriddle, having just begun reading the Book of Sh’mot, a.k.a. Exodus) are all books by Leon Uris (except for the Book of Sh’mot).
[4] This turned out to be a better TTriddle than it started out as. A quadrangle is a 4-sided figure in plane geometry, a.k.a. a quadrilateral. (Squares, rectangles, rhombuses [or rhombi, rhombbuses, rhombbi], trapezoids, trapeziums, and kites are all “special” quadrilaterals, but the word includes any 4-sided figure.) The question was how to draw a 4-sided figure using the computer language called Logo. As it turns out, the TTriddle would have been good even without mentioning Logo. A computer program would draw a quadrangle with 4 commands to draw 4 lines, as it says in the Haftara, TZAV LATZAV TZAV LATZAV KAV LAKAV KAV LAKAV. The extra TTriddliness of mentioning Logo gives another meaning to TZAV, not with a VAV but with a VET. TZADI-BET means TURTLE, which is what the main element of Logo is. 
[5] This TTriddle was plagued by typos more than usual. KERES in the Rashi is KAF-REISH-SAMACH, meaning WOMB. KERES with a KUF means HOOK, which is also VAV which is 6. That is the homonymic counterpart in question.
[6] When Moshe tries to prevent Datan and Aviram from fighting, one of them said, “Do you intent to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” In the pasuk, the words are, “To kill me do you SAY?” Rashi’s comment on the wording is that we learn that Moshe killed the Egyptian by uttering the SHEIM HA’M’FORASH. Tradition tells us that it is a 72-letter word, here used as a lethal weapon. 
[7] There were other good attempted solutions, but the focus of this TTriddle was the word VA’YA’A’MEIN - (the People) believed in G-d (when Moshe and Aharon spoke to them of what G-d had said to them). The word appears in Shmuel Alef (27:12) saying that ACHASH believed in DAVID.
Several solvers combined to get most of the TTriddles (including some valid alternative solutions). Kol HaKavod to RHM, DM, MM/Bklyn, ZviR, and the Guys from C.C. And, a new solution set submitter, DS (infected by MM; probably also of Bklyn). 
Once again, we invite more people to get into TTriddles. They are fun. If you can’t solve then, you still might enjoy the TTriddle reports which often contain Divrei Torah, bits of trivia, and various & sundry fun things. 

This Week's Triddles
1.Gefangener, Yishuv, Berechyahu
2. Who could be a Rentniv?
3. There would be 15 others like this one if the B'reishit rule applied
4. After he sang, the kikker went to the piojo
5. Put a snow cone in a microwave
6. Definite zio, possible geese
7. Japan is the world's largest exporter but Egypt would have beaten them this once.
8. If I had only had a Herbo franchise!
9. Remove the L from Vasco Nunez de and you have a representation of one of the plagues

[The Va'eira Homepage]
[The TORAH tidbits Homepage] [How to use TORAH tidbits]
[About The OU/NCSY Israel Center] [About TORAH tidbits]