PARSHA-PIX Parshat Korach
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Parsha Pix
Upper left: split- ground earthquake scene. Next to fire. Korach and his
gang meet their end in one or the other (some say Korach got both).
Upper right is a guard at his post - Leviyim.
5 coins are for Pidyon HaBen.
In the center of the PIX are the barren staffs of the tribes surrounding
the flowering staff of Aharon (of the tribe of Levi).
Top-middle is a gift, representing the gifts of the Kohen and Levi as
found in the sedra.
Below the guard is an example of one of the MATNOT K'HUNA. It stands for
the tenth part of the tenth part that the Levi must give to a kohen from
the Maaser he receives (from Yisra'eilim).
Lower right: lamb in a baby carriage, B'CHOR B'HEIMA T'HORA.
Earth with a mouth - PI HA'ARETZ.
Cow and bee are for the Land flowing with milk & honey.
Lower-left is Shmuel’s storm.
Negated donkey is from Moshe’s statement and Shmuel’s statement.
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 issue’s (SH’LACH) TTriddles:
[1] Chatat & Asham like local & stranger. How?
[2] 12 (twice) and 12,001
[3] For the Book of Bamidbar: Korach, Balak, and Pinchas don't count.
Bamidbar is almost. Only Shlach is the same.
[4] Move them to more "appropriate" tribes. From Reuven, Shimon, Yissachar,
Zevulun, Menashe - to where?
[5] and [6] Two elements from the ParshaPix that were unexplained in last
week’s Torah Tidbits.
And the envelope please...
[1] The answer is TORAH ACHAT, one Torah. This two-word phrase appears
only four times in the Torah (and nowhere else in Tanach). Two of the four
times are in Parshat Sh’lach. In Parshat BO it refers to the rules of the
Korban Pesach applying equally to the born-Jew and the convert. ‘ach it
refers to the laws of Menachot and Nesachim (flour & oil offerings and
wine of libation). And again for the Guilt offerings - Korbat Chatat. One
set of laws for all Jews - those born of a Jewish mother and those
converted according to halacha. In Parshat Tzav, the term applies to the
CHATAT and ASHAM. Both of these sacrifices are for atonement. Both are
eaten by Kohanim. And other (but not all) identical rules.
[2] Here again, the solution to the TTriddle is an uncommon phrase. This
time it’s VAYISHLACH OTAM MOSHE, and Moshe sent them. The phrase occurs
only three times in Tanach, all in the book of Bamidbar. The first two
times are in Sh’lach, and refer to Moshe sending the 12 Meraglim. The
third time, Moshe Rabeinu is sending an army to fight against Midyan. He
sends 12,000 men, 1000 from each tribe. And he sends Pinchas with them (as
chaplain, sort of). So it’s 12 twice and 12,001 once.
[3] For this TTriddle, a comparison of the names of the sedras in Bamidbar
with their Aramaic trans- lations in Targum Onkeles was made. The three
sedras named with names of people “don’t count”. Because names in Onkeles
are the same as they appear in the Torah. Korach is Korach. Same for Balak
and Pinchas. Bamidbar (which is really B’midbar in the Torah) is
B’MAD-B’RA. We rated that an “almost”. Of the other sedras, only Sh’lach
is Sh’lach. The others in order are Kabeil, B’adlakutach, G’zeirat,
Shivtaya, and Matlanei. (Watch out for similar types of TTriddles in the
other books of the Chumash.)
[4] This TTriddle involves the names of the Meraglim for each tribe. From
Reuven, we have SHAMU’A b. Zakur. With his name, he might fit better in
SHIMON. From Shimon, we have SHAFAT b. Chori. He might fit better into the
tribe of DAN (both names have a root meaning of judge). Yissachar’s Yig’al
b. YOSEF, of course, might fit better in MENASHE, who is BEN YOSEF. (Yig’al
b. Yosef would not go well with Efrayim, though, because Efrayim is
“purposely” distanced from the reference to Yosef and Menashe.) Zevulun’s
GADiel b. Sodi would fit well in GAD. And Menashe’s GADi b. Susi would
also go well in GAD.
Which brings us to the two elements from the ParshaPix which were
purposely left unexplained so they could serve as mini-PPPs (ParshaPix
Puzzles).
[5] Beneath the black spy and above the challa is a window ith a ribbon
attached to the window sill. This, of course is from the haftara, which
tells us of Rachav who protected and hid the two Israelite spies (Kalev
and Pinchas) and exacted a promise from them for the safety of her family
and herself. The ribbon from the window was the pre-arranged sign that
marked her for protection when the attack on Yericho was made.
[6] To the right of the Tzitzit, above murex trunculus and to the left and
below the “seeing heart” is the Boy Scouts of America emblem for Jewish
Scouting. Which is what Sh’lach is all about. Scouts seems to be a better
name than spies, although spies seems to be the more commonly used term.
In fact, the word Meraglim appears six times in the Chumash - all in the
context of Yosef’s accusation of his brothers as Meraglim in Egypt. The
word next appears in the haftara of Sh’lach, from the beginning of
Yehoshua. And then in each part of Shmuel, Meraglim are sent - once by
David and once by Avshalom. Broadening the computer search of Tanach to
include K’Meraglim and HaMeraglim adds one more occurrence to Yosef’s
brothers and one more to Yehoshua’s pair. And that’s about it. The point
is: we speak of Cheit HaMeraglim, the Sin of the Spies (or Scouts), but
the term Meraglim is not used in Chumash for the 12 who scouted the Land.
The verb L’RAGEIL, to spy out or scout, is used when Moshe sends someone
to YA’ZEIR in Emori territory.
We received a number of partial solution sets by phone and email.
Exception to that is this week’s winner, YYW, who had a perfect solution
set for the four TTriddles. Since he hadn’t seen the ParshaPix, he did not
submit solutions for the two graphic elements. Other solvers did. But YYW
had the best overall solution set. His prizes await his next visit to the
Israel Center.
This week's TTriddles:
[1] Besides its namesake, who else did what he did (sort of) in this sedra?
[2] Swallow, Flower, Return
[3] Shoham, Copper, Gold
[4] 400sh, Manna, Land, Aharon, Mordechai
[5] Turban & staff - who & what?
[6] He comes from level Ashkenazi parentage
[7] Finish reading from mid-Wednesday
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