PARSHA-PIX - Emor

Parsha Pix

In case you didn't recognize him, that's the Kohen Gadol in the upper-right part of the ParshaPix. The whole first section of the sedra deals with the sanctity of the kohanim in general, and the Kohen Gadol in particular. 

The broken foot is representative of the invalidating defects of a Kohen. The lamb that is missing an ear represents the blemished animals that cannot be brought onto the Mizbei'ach.

In the lower-right are a mother sheep (ewe) and her newborn, which may not be taken from its mother to be used as a korban until it is at least 8 days old. Or, the sheep and lamb represent OTO V'ET B'NO, the prohibition of slaughtering an animal and its offspring on the same day. The former prohibition of this paragraph refers to korbanot; the latter to both sacrificial and profane slaughter of animals.

The remainder of the elements in this ParshaPix refer to different parts of the Portion of the Festivals. Upper-left is a negation circle, indicating the prohibitions of building, sewing, writing - representative of all forbidden Melacha for Shabbat, Yom Kippur, and Yom Tov.

The counting of the Omer is a mitzva from Parshat Emor. So too are the mitzvot of dwelling in a Sukka for the seven days of Sukkot, and the taking of the Four Species on Sukkot.

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 

A fortnight ago’s (Tazria-M’tzora) TTriddles:

[1] Sounds like "drinking in the evening"

[2] 2nd largest bird on the 23rd largest island

[3] Call it this will be

Sort of a sound-similar connection between the parsha and the date

Also, the “Hebrew” words in the ParshaPix

And last week’s (Acharei-K’doshim) TTriddles:

What? No drumming the fingers?

And the envelope please...

[1] This refers to the oft-repeated reference to the woof and warp threads in the weaving process, the former being the crosswise threads and the latter being the length-wise threads. In Hebrew, these are the SHTI and EIREV, found mostly at the end of Tazria. The words sound like some variation of LISHTOT, to drink, and EREV, evening.

[2] RHEA – Any of several flightless South American birds of the genus Rhea, resembling the ostrich but somewhat smaller and having three toes instead of two. In other words, the 2nd largest bird in the world. (Upon checking various websites, it seems that the EMU is larger than the RHEA and the TTriddle should have said 3rd largest bird. Nonethe- less, the TTriddle was solved by RHM and others.) The 23rd largest island in the world (Australia is NOT counted among islands, because it is a continent) is TASMANIA, southeast of the Australian mainland. If there were rheas on the isle of Tasmania, they might be called - in order to differentiate them from the South American variety - TAZ-RHEA, as in the sedra by the same name.

[3] This will be is ZOT T’H’YEH, as in the words before M’TZORA in the beginning of the sedra by that name. Because M’TZORA is a person afflicted with various N’GA’IM, some people considered it not such a nice name to call the sedra by, and instead used the phrase ZOT T’H’YEH.

[4] This one was a bit of a stretch (as if most of the TTriddles aren’t!). ZAV, ZAYIN BET, is from the parsha. ZIV, spelled ZYIN-VAV, is another name for IYAR, whose Rosh Chodesh fell on the Shabbat we read Tazria-M’tzora, giving us a sound-similar con- nection between the parsha and the date.

In the ParshaPix of Tazria-M’tzora was a grid of Hebrew letters that formed 4 sort-of words: ATA, KENES, SHACHAT, ATA. They don’t mean anything as words. What they are is the initial letters (mixed up) of the twelve months of the year: Tishrei, Cheshvan, etc. As such, they are ROSHEI CHODSHEICHEM, as in the opening words of the Rosh Chodesh part of the Maftir.

The one TTriddle from Acharei-K’doshim was a play on words. Rhythmic drumming with the fingers is called a tattoo, which also means “A permanent mark or design made on the skin by a process of pricking and ingraining an indelible pigment or by raising scars.” Which is forbidden (as taught to us in Parshat K’doshim). That’s all that it was. A play on the other definition of a word. However, it does lend itself to a serious note. Rhythmic tapping with fingers or hands, etc. on Shabbat is a problem. Here is not the place for a discussion of this issue, but maybe we will feature it in a future issue.

In addition to the TTriddle last week, there was a riddle with answer provided about reading at Mincha from the same sedra as in the morning (rather than the following week’s parsha. If you take the question to be restricted to Shabbat, then Shabbat Yom Kippur is one answer, but there is another one, as several TTriddles solvers made sure to point out. Namely, when Simchat Torah is Shabbat, we read the beginning of B’reishit at Mincha, having read it in the morning, as well, for the Chatan B’reishit. YYW pointed out two other would-have-been-answers, except for the fact that they don’t happen. But it’s fun coming up with other candidates to answer the riddle. If T’TZAVEH would be Parshat SHKALIM (which it never is), then we’d read from Ki Tisa in the morning and at mincha. Similarly, if BALAK would ever be Rosh Chodesh (Av), then that would answer the riddle as well. And, if we don’t keep to Shabbat, then on each of our fast days (except) for Tish’a b’Av, we read the same portion of Ki Tisa at Shacharit and at Mincha.

Remember, TTriddles are fun and sometimes educational as well. Enjoy them (even if you cannot solve them).

This week's TTriddles:

[1] Yosef's brothers, Aharon, Elazar, Kohanim, all of Bnei Yisrael, and 5 others. What & Who

[2] Separately for Yom Tov. Together for what, what, and what?

[3] 100 = the L of the M of the 7 D of S

[4] 61% done and NOW we hear it

[The Emor Homepage]
[The TORAH tidbits Homepage] [How to use TORAH tidbits]
[About The OU/NCSY Israel Center] [About TORAH tidbits]