PARSHA-PIX Parshat Pinchas
Click on image for enlargement
Parsha Pix
Upper-right are contradictory symbol of war (the spear) and peace (the
dove with olive branch). Pinchas' act of "violence" was rewarded by the
Covenant of Peace. It works this way, sometimes. Pacifism does not
necessarily lead to peace and forceful offensive action can.
The Brit Shalom is the Kehuna, symbolized by the CHOSHEN in the upper-left
of the Pix.
The various numbers are a TTriddle. So is the “thing” between the dove &
spear and the bear.
Bill Cosby stands for his Midyanite namesake.
The calculator stands for the counting of the people.
The lambs represent the two daily T'MIDIM, or the Musaf of Shabbat - both
of which are mitzvot from this week's sedra.
Skip to the bottom. The binoculars are for Moshe Rabeinu to look out over
the Land...
There is a collection of symbols representing Shabbat (candle sticks),
Pesach (3 matzot), Shavuot (Har Sinai with the Luchot), Rosh HaShana
(apple and honey - the shofar is extra because it is one of this sedras
mitzvot), Yom Kippur (the scales), Sukkot (the sukka, sort of).
That leaves the nastalgic inclusion of one of the very first
ParshaPixPuzzles. It reads from left to right. First is a candy CANE
inside a musical NOTE. Which gives us KEIN B'NOT... Next is a sniper,
TZALAF in Hebrew. Combined with the 1 gives us TZELAF-CHAD. The bear is a
DOV and the piece of the multiplication table reminds us of the method by
which many of us had to learn it - namely, by ROTE. All together, we have
G-d's answer through Moshe to Machla, No'a, Chogla, Milka, and Tirtza:
KEIN B'NOT TZELAFCHAD DO'V'ROT... Depending upon the age of your children
and/or the background of your Shabbat guests, you can work them through
this classic PPP. ParshaPix is meant to be a springboard to a Sedra
review.
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 (BALAK) TTriddles:
[1] Balak to Bil'am to the Arnon River and Yoshiyahu to whom (and for what
purpose)
[2] He's one before the finish
[3] He and the one he contains are each previewed
[4] His father is continuously confused
[5] fgfhfhhgf
and from the ParshaPix:
[6] The rain on the plant
[7] The two actors
And the envelope please...
[1] VAYEITZEI LIKRATO, and he went out to greet him... You get a feeling
of enthusiasm and eagerness in this expression. In Parshat Balak, the
Torah tells us that when Balak heard that Bil’am was coming, he went out
to meet him at the capital city of Moav that is on the border at the River
Arnon, which is at the extremity of the border. You sense an excitement on
Balak’s part and then you can understand his frustration and anger as the
story unfolds.
In Divrei HaYamim we read that in the 18th year of the reign of Yoshiyahu,
after the great Pesach celebration, Necho, king of Egypt, went up to do
battle in Karkemish, and Yoshiyahu “went out to meet him”. Necho, it
seems, just wanted to go through Eretz Yisrael and fight against Bavel
(?), but Yoshiyahu refuse him and a battle ensued in which Yoshiyahu was
mortally wounded.
It just seemed interesting that the phrase appears only twice in Tanach,
and these are them.
[2] Finish is G’MAR, GIMMEL-MEM-REISH. One letter before each letter of
G’MAR are BET before the GIMMEL, LAMED before the MEM, and KUF before the
REISH. So it is BALAK who is one before the finish, TTriddle-wise.
[3] He is PINCHAS and the one he contains is NO’ACH (The NUN-CHET spelling
No’ach are contained within the name Pinchas). At the end of Parshat
B’reishit, the Torah mentions that No’ach found favor in G-d’s eyes. That
is the preview of the following sedra, Parshat No’ach. Similarly, the end
of Parshat Balak contains the beginning of the Pinchas-Zimri episode,
serving as a preview of the following sedra, Pinchas.
[4] This one is pure Games magazine cryptic crossword puzzle style clue.
(I think they are also known as British crossword puzzles). The tricky
part of these clues is that you cannot tell which words are meant
literally and which words have a devious other meaning. Confused usually
indicates a word with scrambled letters. In this case, if you take the
Hebrew word for continuous(ly), which is RATZUF (REISH-TZADI-VAV-FEI), and
you mix them up, you get TZIPOR (TZADI-PEI-VAV-REISH). The answer to the
TTriddle then is BALAK.
[5] fgfhfhhgf. As one of our staff said, “It was bound to happen”. And so
it did. Whenever a page is being prepared and there is a nice, small
TTriddle space between two ads or at the bottom of a column, I mark the
space by rapidly and briefly hitting a few keys on the keyboard. Notice
that f, g, and h are together in the middle of the keyboard and they are
often the place-holders for a TTriddle which is then typed in. Only in the
case of last week’s TTriddles, the placeholder was left in and a TTriddle
never got to replace it. Apologies to at least one TTriddles solver who
spend some time working with letter- substitution codes, and maybe some
AT-BASH and more... with no results. Sorry. Would have really been
interesting if something actually came from fgfhfhgf. LaBriyut.
[6] This is based on the phrase in the opening pasuk of the haftara for
Balak - ...KIRVIVIM ALEI EISEV, like raindrops on plants... (A metaphor
for the remnants of the people of Israel scattered in the midst of many
nations.)
[7] In the hard copy, the two pictures were difficult to make out, but on
the website, because the ParshaPix is in color and it can be enlarged, one
might have identified the images as that of Bill Murray and Sandra Balak.
That is, Bill M. and Bullock - say that a few times and you should get the
TTriddle.
The TTriddle could have used Hall of Famer Bill Mazerowski (17-career with
the Pirates) and Eric Gerald Bullock, who played for the Astros, Twins,
Phillies, and Expos from ‘85-’92. He had 146 at bats during his 7-year
career. Thought there was a better chance you’d recognize Sandra.
This week's TTriddles:
[1] Small, broken, read, write
[2] D + B = L = ?
[3] The fish was thrilled with this hello & goodbye
[4] Bundle: AttackT
[5] More than any of the other 5845 - How many times this year?
[6] Add a tiny bit of ink and jump four generations ahead
[7] Whose son was most entitled to steal the Afikoman?
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