PARSHA-PIX - Vayigash

ParshaPix

Across the top is the TRUP of the opening words in the sedra. They are the basis of a Vilna Gaon comment. See Sedra Summary.

The Lion and the Bull represent the confrontation between Yehuda and Yosef. The two Zodiac symbols to the right of the bull are the same - the upper one is Leo and the lower one is Taurus. 

The square knot between the lion and the bull stands for Yehuda's powerful words describing the connection between Yaakov and Binyamin - V'NAFSO K'SHURA V'NAFSHO.  

The wagons were sent by Yosef to bring his father down to Egypt. They were also a signal to Yaakov from Yosef to assure Yaakov that Yosef had not abandoned his heritage. 

The five shirts represent the 5 changes of garments that Yosef gave Binyamin.  The donkey 10+10 are those that carried the gifts that Yaakov sent to this leader in Egypt.  

The shepherd's crook stands for the main occupation of Yaakov and family - shepherds.  

The filled-in pie wedge is a fifth of the whole. That was the tax that Yosef took from the Egyptian people on Par'o's behalf.  

70 "souls" went down (the arrow). The asterisk indicates that some of the 70 were already in Egypt (Yosef and his sons) and one was born on the border (according to one opinion).

The dreidel is... You tell us. 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 presented for call-in solution on Torah Tidbits Audio (Arutz-7, Thursday night). The best solution set submitted each week (there isn't 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 (MIKEITZ & CHANUKA) TTriddles:

[1] Tally the animals we read about this Shabbat

[2] Who had mandatory Thursday night learning?

[3] Yosef accused; Moshe, Yehoshua, David, Avshalom sent

[4] Fifth is first, second, & third, but never eighth

[5] Who his face? Who whom? Who the innards? Who himself?

[6] gimmel-lamed-bet-chet-alef - that's 6 in a row!?

[7] A good morning reply source

[8] veggie, carnivore, cannibal - not really

[9] two of his noms de plume in the sedra

[10] Some people say Hallel on Yom HaAtzma'ut and some say
Tachanun. On what day do we all sometimes say Hallel and
sometimes say Tachanun?

And the envelope please...

[1] This is not a true TTriddle, but it was a nice challenge for those who took it up. Let's do it. 7 good looking cows and 7 scrawny ones. (One solver pointed out that they were repeated by Par'o, but he did not count them again. On the other hand, you can say that these 14 cows were only part of a dream and not real, so we shouldn't count them. But we will.) 14 cows, so far. How many horses pulled the royal chariot that Yosef rode in? Okay, we won't count any animals from there because they aren't mentioned. Of course, the brothers didn't walk to Egypt, but we won't count any animals from their entourage either. Oh, the donkeys are mentioned, but not by number.

That will be a problem in totaling the animals.

Implication is that each brother had one. That's 10. Let's say they brought Shimon's back with them and used it for Binyamin on the return trip. Still 10. Maybe. Let's leave them for now. That's it for the sedra. The Rosh Chodesh reading (SH'VI'I - second Torah) mentions the two lambs for Shabbat Musaf, 2 bulls, 1 ram, 7 lambs, 1 goat for Rosh Chodesh Musaf. The daily sacrifices are mentioned, so maybe we'll add two more lambs. We'll add the 2 bulls to the 14 cows, that's 16 so far. 1 ram and 11 lambs, and 1 goat. Now to the Maftir for Chanuka. 1 bull, 1 ram, 1 lamb, 1 goat, another 2 bulls, 5 rams, 5 male goats, 5 lambs. No animals in the Haftara. Totals: 19 from the cow family, 24 sheep (younger and older), and 7 goats. That's 50 animals (kosher). Let's add 10 donkeys to make 60 animals.

[2] Thursday night learning is known as MISHMAR. Whether a school requires it or leaves it optional, the mandatory MISHMAR in the TTriddle is jail. The brothers were locked up, as were the Wine Steward and the Baker previously. So were the son of the Israelite woman and the Egyptian man, and the wood-gatherer.

[3] Yosef accused his brothers of being MERAGLIM (spies). The others all sent spies.

[4] The Tribal Leader of Shimon, Shlumiel b. Tzuri shadai, brought his korbanot to the dedication of the Mishkan on the 5th day. That is the one day of Chanuka that cannot fall on Shabbat. Therefore, the fifth (NASI) is mentioned in the first, second, and third Aliya of the Torah reading of the fifth day of Chanuka, but never as the 8th Aliya (a.k.a. Maftir). [Dr. Avshalom Kor actually suggests that this might be the origin of the term SHLUMIEL.]

[5] As one of the solvers put it, the missing verb is WASHED. Yosef washed his face (when he cried because of what he was putting his brothers through). Moshe washed Aharon and his sons. Aharon washed the innards of the korbanot he was offering in the Mishkan. David HaMelech washed himself. 

[6] Two solvers got this one. I was glad to see it. The 6 in a row refers to words that begin with ALEF, in 42:21. (vayomer) ISH EL ACHIV AVAL ASHEIMIM ANACHNU... The Targum of this 6-word sequence is a 5 word  sequence whose initials are GIMMEL-LAMED- BET-CHET-ALEF. 

[7] BOKER TOV is Good Morning. The traditional response in Hebrew is BOKER OR. B'reishit 44:3 is a possible source of that reply.

[8] Most solvers who submitted a solution for this TTriddle, suggested that the scrawny sheafs of grain were veggies because they ate the fat sheaves. The cows were carnivores because they ate other cows. And for the cannibals, they went to 43:32 which says, if you read it funny (and that's the not really), that the Egyptians couldn't eat the Jews. Not bad. I like the originally intended answer better. Cows are generally veggies. In fact, the 7 fat cows in Par'o's dream are grazing before the other cows rose from the river and ate them. So they are the carnivores. But that makes the scrawny set of cows also cannibals, because any animal that eats others of its own species is a cannibal. Not really, because it was only in a dream. 

[9] It was nice to see a few solvers get this one too. Noms de plume are pen names. R' Yosef Karo is known as the Kesef Mishne and the Beit Yosef. Both of these phrases appear in Mikeitz.  

[10] Many solvers got this one. It's a much better riddle at a different time of the year. The answer is the 3rd of Tevet, which is sometimes the last day of Chanuka (when Kislev has only 29 days), and sometimes it is the day after Chanuka (when, like this year, Kislev had 30 days. 

Now to the ParshaPix for the PPP-like visual puzzles. These were the pictorial elemets in the ParshAPix that were left unexplained. The ones a bit out of the ordinary.  

The Shofar and the shaver (yes, that's a shaver) represent Yosef being taken from the dungeon on Rosh HaShana (that is our Tradition). In honor of royalty, be shaved for the occasion.  

The three items that the arrows are pointing to are related to Chanuka or Rosh Chodesh. (But that's not the solution.) The Menora is obviously connected to Chanuka (as well as being featured in the Haftara) and the thin crescent moon is the Rosh Chodesh item. The coin is also related to Chanuka as GELT. But the real solution is that these are the three items that G-d shown to Moshe Rabeinu, in a fiery image, when Moshe had difficulty understanding or conceptualizing (or something like that). The Menora, the Shekel for the Half-Shekel Mitzva, and the Moon in its Newness. The arrows are part of the PPP, since they are POINTING to each of the items.  

And that leaves us with the strange looking musical instrument of the lute family, called an OUD. This is a word in the Haftara, but the connection goes deeper than just the word-play. The words have the same origin, related to WOOD.  

And there you have the report of the Chanuka TTriddles set. RHM did a nice job on many of them. MM/Bklyn did a fine job as well. [Mazal Tov to Donny & Tamar Miller - and the proud grandparents and the rest of the families - on the birth of Yael Miriam.] YYW did a great job on the TTriddles, which would have won him the prizes, except that Td/Yh did an outstanding job and are this week's winners.

This week's TTriddles"

[1] A linen roof over the bear's den. And? (Yosef said it)

[2] Like father, like son - but without the former's fight

[3] G-d, many times; Moshe a few; Yehoshua & Avshalom once
or so. In this week's sedra - Par'o. What?

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