PARSHA-PIX - Parshat Ki Tisa

Parsha Pix
Graphic elements for ParshaPix come from Task Force Image Gallery by NVTech, Davka Judaica Clipart, and occasionally from the internet. Top Draw is used to edit some of the clips and to put the whole ParshaPix together. Our favorite clipart format is .wmf, and there are a sprinkling of .jpg, .gif, and even an occasionally .bmp. But mostly .wmf.
The sedra begins with the command to count the people. The abacus is for keeping tally, and the half-NIS coin represents the half-silver-shekel that was used for the count.
The faucet stands for the washing basin and the kohein’s requirement to wash hands and feet before doing service in the Mikdash.
The thing to the right of the faucet is a pepper mill, used to grind the spices for the incense (K’TORET) and the special anointing oil.
And in the upper-right is a bottle of olive oil for that same purpose.
Then we see the two artisans checking the blueprints - they represent Betzalel and Aholiav, the two chief craftsmen in charge of the construction of the Mishkan.
Finally, to complete the topics of the first Aliya in Ki Tisa, we have Shabbat candles, representing to command to keep the Shabbat.
Lower-right is an edited version of Davka’s Golden Calf graphic, and to its left is another Davka graphic of Moshe holding the Luchot high (perhaps just before he smashed them).
The hatchet can be that which Moshe used to destroy the Eigel, or the tool used to fulfill the commands at the end of the sedra to destroy the Avoda Zara in the Land of Israel upon our entry and conquest.
The dairy products and slab of meat are bracketed together, representing the prohibition of eating milk and meat mixtures. (It should be noted and even discussed with you children and guests, that this depiction of BASAR B’CHALAV is not so good, because the Torah forbade only mixtures produced by cooking. The graphic might more accurately stand for the rabbinic prohibitions in this area of mitzva.
The object close to the center of the POP is hard to make out in the black & white of the hard copy, and probably difficult to identify in the color format of TT on the OU’s website. It is a welder’s mask, which might be the most appropriate method of shielding the people from Moshe’s radiance.
The quill and feature remind us of the command of G-d to Moshe to write the Written Torah down for the people.
Matza is matza, as we sometimes say in Torah Tidbits. Here it can represent not just Pesach, but all three Regalim, as mentioned in this week’s sedra.
This leaves us with an old PPP which we will now make part of the explained ParshaPix. It is two children playing on a teeter-totter. Notice that the fulcrum is a key, making the grphic stand for KEY-SEESAW (pardon ouyr Ashkenazi pronunciation.
As we mention every so often, ParshaPix are a wonderful way to begin a session of Parshat HaShavua with your family and or Shabbat guests. Here’s one “game” you can play. Start with the younger children and show them one of the pictures. After they give the obvious explanations, you can challenge the older kids and guests to come upo with another explanation for the same picture. If you do anything interesting and out of the ordinary with ParshaPix, let us know and we’ll share it.

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 (T’TZAVEH) TTriddles:
[1] Three or two, rather than four
[2] 1 of 13 (or 14) 3-W P (Motza"Sh)
[3] 28 initial and 4 others last week; 13 initial and 3 others this week
[4] What color is woven miracle-bread?
[5] From Yechezkeil to Shimon HaTzadik
[6] The haftara's counterpart to the ultimate tzizit pasuk
[7] Non-kohein, but he wore one
[8] The closest to its real color
plus... three items in the ParshaPix (the ones that weren’t explained on page 9)

And the envelope please...
[1] The answer to this TTriddle is P’TIL T’CHEILET, a thread of T’chelet wool. The four refers to Tzitzit. The three or two refers to the different opinions about how the TZITZ of the Kohein Gadol was tied to his head. Some say with three ribbons of T’cheilet and some say two.
[2] Some Siddurim, after V’YITEIN L’CHA and the Z’MIROT for Motza’ei Shabbat, have a series of collections o f p’sukim from Tanach that were (are) read as various types of SEGULA. Among the sets of P’sukim are all the 3-word p’sukim in the Torah. There are 13 such p’sukim, a 14th as well, if you count the three words until the parsha-break in the middle of a pasuk. One of the three-word p’sukim is from T’tzaveh. Believe it or not, ace TTriddle-solver YYW got this one perfectly.
[3] The word that predominates in T’rumah and T’tzaveh is V’A’SITA, and you shall make... The word starts 28 p’sukim in T’rumah and 13 in T’tzaveh. There are 7 additional occurrences of the word, not at the beginning of a pasuk.
[4] This one was kind of an easy version of the cryptic crossword style clue. Woven is OREG, ALEF- REISH-GIMMEL. The term is used for the ME’IL and the KUTONET. Heavenly bread is MAHN, MEM-NUN. Put the two words together and you get the answer: the color is ARGAMAN, purple.
[5] Yes, RHM, we’ve used this one before. Thanks for remembering. If one goes north on Rechov Yechzkel and crosses Rechov Shmuel HaNavi, the street veers to the right and becomes Rechov Shimon HaTzadik. The short piece of that street at the beginning, where it curves, is called Rechov Pituchei Chotam. That is the Torah’s term for the engraving of names on the stones of the CHOSHEN and the sholder-stones of the EIFOD.
[6] Several solvers thought that the reference was to Shmot 30:46 in the sedra, which really does sound like the last (ultimate) pasuk of the third passage of the Sh’ma, the Tzitzit portion. The TTriddle asked for something in the haftara, and that was not a typo. Actually, this pasuk from the sedra should have been part of this TTriddle, but it wasn’t. The correct solution is based on a riddle about a pasuk (probably the only one) in the Torah that begins and ends with the same three words (not counting 3-word p’sukim). The answer is the last pasuk in Sh’ma - ANI HASHEM ELOKEICHEM... In the haftara of T’tzaveh there is another pasuk (from Yechezkel) with that feature. ZOT TORAT HABAYIT...
[7] This TTriddle had a few different legitimate solutions. Some solvers went with Yosef, a non-kohein, who war a KUTONET, as in multi- colored, striped coat. Some went with King Shaul, who is mentioned as wearing a ME’IL. Good answers. And so is Shmuel HaNavi, which was the intended solution to this TTriddle. Yonatan, son of Sha’ul also is recorded as wearing a ME’IL, which he took off and gave to David HaMelech.
[8] There were some nice tries with this one, but no one hit the intended solution. The RIMONIM on the bottom of the ME’IL was made from different colored dyed wool, three different colors, to be specific. The color closest to the real color of a pomegranate (RIMON) is red, “TOLA’AT SHANI”. One good other solution was the stone on the CHOSHEN called ODEM. Similar to ADOM, red, and that’s what its color was. Someone else added that in Targum Onkeles, the PITDA is rendered YARKAN, like YAROK, and was probably green. (Rav Aryeh Kaplan z”l identifies the PITDA as an emerald, which fits with the green color. He gives severall other opinions about the stone, most of which are, in fact, green.)
The salt shaker is from the haftara, which mentions the salting of korbanot. The sedra mentions korbanot, but salt is not mentioned in the Torah until Parshat Vayikra.
The item in the lower-right of the ParshaPix is a house made by adding steps, a door, window and roof to a graphic of a Sefer Torah, making the above-mentioned (from the haftara) Torat HaBayit.
This brings us to the domino. The 6-2 domino. Some of the solutions were better than the original intended solution, but this time they add to that solution to make a stronger TTriddle. 6 and 2 refers to the garments of the Kohein Gadol. Six are mentioned in the beginning of the sedra, with the command to make the garments. Two others are mentioned later in the sedra. (This was commented on in last week’s TT.) But the shape of the donimo is also significant. it is a rectangle which was a double square. That is the shape of the CHOSHEN, before the fold that makes it a “pinky square”. Some solvers saw the 6-2 as a reference to SHEISH (linen) and SHANI (similar to the term for the red dyed wool).
Sharing the honors this week are RHM, MM/Bklyn, YYW, and the GG. All had strong solution sets with interesting alternate answers on occasion. (Your prizes await you. Call.)

This week's TTriddles:
[1] 28.6% of Ne'ila
[2] Skip 44 to make it fast
[3] Who offered half of what was commanded twice in this week's sedra?
[4] 24, 25 days later, many more than just him
[5] Thrice; twice for Minhag Yerushalayim
[6] In the parsha, NO and in the haftara, YES

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