PARSHA-PIX - Matot-Mas'ei
Parsha Pix
You have some real good stuff to work with together with your children
and/or Shabbat guests. PP is a fun way to go over the sedra and a
springboard to many discussions and Divrei Torah.
Upper-right. Father and daughter;
husband and wife. The two pairs involved in HAFARAT NEDARIM.
Five crown plus one with a sword under
it refers to the five kings and Bil’am who saw their end during the battle
against Midyan.
The face-to-face sheep, cows, and
donkeys represent to even split of the spoils of war from Midyan, divided
between the army and the rest of the people.
The pot of gold (in the middle, sort
of) refers to the contribution of the officers of the battle in thanks to
G-d for the zero casualty rate.
The Pyramids, the many arrows, and the
outline of Israel, of course, stand for the travels of the people from
Exodus to Eretz Yisrael.
The quill (to the left of the donkeys)
refers to the Torah’s statement that Moshe wrote down the travelog of Bnei
Yisrael.
The map above the Pyramids with a big 3
on each side of the Jordan River refers to the Cities of Refuge to be
designated in Eretz Yisrael.
The scales of justice are for the
careful attention that the courts must pay in cases of homicide (the
example from this week’s sedra) in determining culpability of the guilty
party.
The road sign to Hebron is one of the
requirements for Cities of Refuge. Roads to them must be well-marked to
facilitate the escape to them of one who committed a homicide, regardless
of the out- come of his trial.
By my count, that leaves three items in the ParshaPix unexplained.
Purposely so. They are PPP, ParshaPixPuzzles for you to solve. B’hatzlacha.
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 (PINCHAS) TTriddle:
[1] He came in third
That’s it. There was only one TTriddle last week. It happens sometimes.
Plus...there was a PPP in the ParshaPix, specifically, two bowling pins
and a C.
And the envelope please...
[1] Several interesting attempts at this one, including the correct
solution. Pinchas was the third Kohen Gadol. Maybe so, but not the
solution to the TTriddle. Here’s a wild try: Win, place, show are the
names for first, second, and third in a horse race. Coming in third, then,
means SHOW. Who, mentioned in the sedra, is associated with a show? Why,
Cosby, of course. Really, now. DM finally came up with the correct answer.
First, se3cond, and third is also Gold, Silver, and Bronze, medal-wise. So
who came in third? ARAD is bronze in Hebrew. Binyamin’s son (among others)
BELA had a son (among others) named ARD. He’s the one that came in third,
not- withstanding the fact that he seems to have been BELA’s first son,
and BELA seems to have been Binyamin’s first. But thus is the nature of
TTriddles. RHM also got this one.
The PPP in the ParshaPix was at the
top-middle of the PP on page 3. The bowling pins formed a split (known as
7-10, but that is irrelevant). The C as a mark in school is known as a
HOOK. In Hebrew, VAV. So we have the famous split VAV in the word SHALOM.
H(S)M got the split, and then got the
VAV in a different way. C is the chemical symbol for carbon. Carbon is
element number 6. The 6th letter in the ALEF-BET, the letter with a
G’MATRIYA of 6, is VAV. Split VAV. I like it.
Prizes for this week to DM, RHM, and H(S)M for their solutions of the
TTriddle and the PPP respectively. Guys, please be in touch. Honorable
mention to the son-in-law of MM/Bklyn for his imaginative attempt at the
PPP.
This week's TTriddles:
[1] They went to Australia to visit grandfather
[2] Ashkenazis pronounciation relates the two
[3] 7 of 10 of 12 share 2 special letters
[4] The first is a window-fogger
[5] Although it worked ok in the sedra, this kind of thing is usually not
a good idea. Hebrew & Aramaic indicate this semantically.
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