PARSHA-PIX - Bamidbar
Parsha Pix
Upper-right is a desert scene, to set the tone for the sedra and book of
Bamidbar.
And by the way, to bring up an old topic... The word is B'MIDBAR because
it is connected to SINAI. As a stand alone word, it would be BAMIDBAR, as
most people say it. Bamidbar is the only sedra with this specific"problem",
but there are several sedras whose names have dropped the lead HEI.
HaMishpatim, HaShmini, HaMatot, HaD'varim. Also, two sedras have a dagesh
dropped from their name as it appears in the sedra, but we've returned the
dot in our use of the name: P'KUDEI and TAZRI'A (but you wouldn't know of
the latter one unless you pronounce Ashkenazically). To be fair to the
Bamidbar-B'midbar issue, with CHUKAT, we retained the word as it appears,
rather than changing it to the stand-alone form CHUKA. So why did we
change B'MIDBAR? Ver veist.
The major component of the PP is/are the flags - 12 of them - representing
the flags of the tribes, as they camped and as they marched. The flags
were not supposed to be facsimiles of the originals, just a representation
of 12 flags. However, a few of them might be reasonable guesses.
The compass stands for the different sides of the Mishkan the different
groups camped.
The parking meter represents the encampments, since the modern Hebrew word
for parking has the same root as to encamp.
The abacus is for the various countings.
The skull with the 5 on it comes from 3:47 in the portion of the exchange
between firstborns and Leviyim (who were not themselves firstborns). We
would say, 5 shekel a head.
In the lower-right there are three arrows. Not a hard one to get - if you
pay attention to the Haftara (Machar Chodesh). if and when you use the
ParshaPix to go over the sedra with your children and/or Shabbat guests,
you should ask, “does anyone know what these three arrows are for?”
TTRIDDLES... are Torah Tidbits-style riddles on Parshat HaShavua
(sometimes on the calendar). They are found in the hard-copy of TT
scattered throughout, usually at the bottom of different columns. In the
electronic versions of TT, they are found all together at the end of the
ParshaPix-TTriddles section. Some TTriddles are also presentedfor call-in
solution on Torah Tidbits Audio (Arutz-7, Thursday night). The best
solution set submitted each week (there isnt always a best) wins a double
prize a CD from Noam Productions and/or a gift (game, puzzle, book, etc.)
from Big Deal
Last week’s (B’HAR-B’CHUKOTAI) TTriddle:
[1] GAD and G’DI from the pen-penultimate have something in common.
That was the only real TTriddle. But in the solution to last week’s
TTriddle number [3], we posed some Jewish, but unrelated to the sedra,
questions of a specific style (borrowed from Games magazine).
3= A that V A.
8= G of the KG.
7 = H of HR and ST
And the envelope please...
[1] This one is kind of weird. (As if TTriddles usually aren’t weird!)
Penultimate means next to last, as ultimate refers to the last. So
pen-penultimate is the one before the next to last. P’SUKIM in Vayikra (or
in B’chukotai - same thing in this case). The pen-pen- ultimate pasuk is
27:32 and deals with MAASER B’HEIMA, the tithing of newborn animals. The
animals pass under the SHEIVET (rod), and the tenth one is sacred. If we
don’t pay attention to the proper pauses in the pasuk, we can extract a
phrase - TACHAT HASHEIVET HA’ASIRI, which could mean - under the tenth
tribe (another meaning of SHEIVET). If we look into the beginning of
Bamidbar (that’s where we’ll find the nearest list of the SHVATIM), we
find that GAD is the 11th listed tribe. He is therefore under the 10th
tribe, if we were to list them. So the G’DI (which is the generic term, by
the way, for the young of the kosher domesticated animals, and not
specifically a young goat) in the pasuk at hand is the 10th under the
SHEIVET and GAD is under the 10th SHEIVET, giving them something in
common.
365 = D of the Y. That is, days of the year.
10 = A in the B of R. That is, articles in the Bill of Rights. Those were
two examples of general knowledge. Here are the Jewish ones.
3 are the angels that visited Avraham.
8 are the garments of the Kohein Gadol.
7 are the Hakafot of Hoshana Raba and Simchat Torah.
We hope you enjoyed this type of riddle. We’ll work on some more for you.
This week's Ttriddles:
[1] Take away the first from the second and you are left too confused to
sing
[2] After the mount, desert law
[3] He is doubly initially first
[4] 51, 68, 79, 102, 116, 122, 125, 128, 135, 137, 147
[5] Part of Machane Yehuda's total can answer a FAQ about the Molad times
[The
Bamidbar Homepage]
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