PARSHA-PIX - Tazria-M'tzora

Parsha Pix

Top row, left to right: baby boy in carriage, 7+33 days for the mother. Knife for Brit Mila. Then the baby carriage with the girl, marked 14+60 days.

Then come the dove and lamb, which are two parts of the Korban Yoledet, the offerings of the woman who has given birth.

On the next row is a hand afflicted by a NEGA and a shirt, representing those garments and materials that are able to be afflicted with NIG'EI HABEGED. They are followed by a CHAMELION, noted for changing colors - a significant factor in the determination of NEGA'IM.

Next row has a razor, used by a M'TZORA on the day of his purification. The pair of eyes is missing one of its eyebrows, mentioned in the parsha. The two birds, the hyssop and the cedar tree are all part of the purification process of the M'TZORA.

Lower-left is a house afflicted by a NEGA. Lower right are the three parts of the body dabbed with the blood of the korban. As far as the earlobe is concerned, T'NUCH might mean the top or middle of the outer ear. Depends on whom you ask.

The 2+1 lambs are part of the korbanot of NEGA'IM

The Hebrew words are this week's PPP.

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 (SH’MINI) TTriddles:

[1] Scolapacidae are and have them

[2] Parshat HaShavua for $200: Piano & Helsinki

Plus the two items from the ParshaPix.

And the envelope please...

[1] Here’s how this TTriddle came about. The answer is contained within the description of the generation of the question. Fins in Hebrew are S’NAPIR. Hebrew-English association: SNAPPER, a kind of fish, kosher, with (scales and) fins. How to turn SNAPIR-SNAPPER into a TTriddle? A little web- encyclopedia research. Snappers are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Osteichthyes, order Charadriiformes, family Scolapacidae. (Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Ed. 2001) Hence, the answer to the TTriddle: Scolapacidae are SNAPPER and have SNAPIR.

[2] This TTridddle is structured like a Jeopardy “answer”. The solution, then, must be in the form of a question: What has scales and fins? Ding. Shabbat for $300, Art. Ding, ding, ding. The daily double! (Sorry, I got carried away. Art Fleming was the host from ‘64 to ‘75. The show was revived in ‘84, with Alex Trebek as host. It’s still going strong.)

And the two elements in the ParshaPix that were unexplained (in the electronic versions of TT - none of last week’s PP was explained in the printed version, due to lack of space). 

[3] The chassidishe type fellow with the crown, dancing, represents David HaMelech, who dances before the ARON, as reported in the Haftara. His wife, Michal, daughter of Shaul haMelech, criticized him. She felt it was undignified for a king to behave so. The NAVI implies that she was punished for speaking to David HaMelech like that, by not having any more children. 

Which leads us to the next PPP.

[4] T’filin from the upper-left of the Parsha-Pix represent Michal, daughter of Shaul, wife of David HaMelech. The Gemara tells us that she wore T’filin. Very unusual. A remarkable observation was made many years ago by Rav Noam Gordon. He speculated that there might be a connection between Michal’s wearing of T’filin and the Kabalistic “explanation” of the form of T’filin. Something about the BAYIT representing the womb and the strap being like the umbilical cord. The context of this explanation was an article explaining why girls/women don’t wear T’filin. Or don’t need T’filin. But, perhaps, Michal, deprived of the ability to have children, compensated in some subconscious way, by wearing T’filin. Interesting idea. It needs work. But there it is.

This week's TTriddles:

[1] Sounds like "drinking in the evening"

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

[3] Call it this will be

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

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