PARSHA-PIX - Parshat Vayigash

Parsha Pix
Across the top of the ParshaPix, from right to left, are the TRUP marks for the first six words of Vayigash. See the comment in the Sedra Summary for details of the Vilna Gaon’s observation. Here, we’ll repeat just one part of the comment, namely that the TRUP on the name Yehuda, and his position among the brothers age-wise, are both R’VI’I - fourth.

Last year’s PP had graphic images of a bull and a lion, representing the confrontation between Yehuda (the lion) and Yosef (the bull). This year, we dropped the obvious and went for the fun - albeit only for people who are tuned into the American sports scene. If you’ve got U.S. sports fans among your Shabbat guests and/or household, you might want to challenge them with the Pix before they read the solution. The basketball player is labeled CHI for Chicago, as in the Bulls. The football player is labeled DET, for the Detroit Lions. So we are still referring to the “confrontation”.

The two Zodiac symbols to the right of the football player are for Leo and Taurus – again, representing the confrontation.

Below the symbol of Taurus is a diagram of a square knot, standing for V’NAFSHO K’SHURA V’NAF-SHO, and his soul was tied up with his soul (Yaakov and Binyamin).

Below the knot are five shirts, standing for the five changes of clothes that Yosef gave to Binyamin.

He also gave him 300 silver pieces, represented by the money sack marked with a SHIN, which equals 300.

Then there are two of the wagons that Yosef sent to Yaakov, to bring the family down to Egypt... and to remind him of the Torah topic they last studied together.

The outline of a donkey marked 10+10 stands for the donkeys (10 CHAMORIM and 10 ATONOT) that Yosef sent to Yaakov with provisions for their trip to Mitzrayim.

This brings us to the dreidel — purposely a Chutz LaAretz one, with SHIN. The letters of the dreidel rearrange to spell GOSHNA, to Goshen. This from Vayigash, which is almost always the post-Chanuka Shabbat.

To the right of the dreidel is a pie with five sections, one of which is colored in. This represents the fraction one-fifth, the tax imposed at Yosef’s suggestion, on the Egyptians, during the seven years of plenty.

The shepherd’s crook is the symbol of the occupation of Yaakov’s sons (which was problematic in the Egyptian setting).

And lastly (but not leastly), there is the number 70, marked with an asterisk, and an arrow pointing downward (really southwesterly). This represents the 70 souls who went down to Egypt. The asterisk reminds us that one had gone down much earlier (Yosef) and two others were born in Egypt (Efrayim and Menashe), but are still counted among the 70.

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] Eisav, Yaakov x 2, Yosef x ?
[2] Sister-in-law of the mother of royalty is an anagram for royalty
[3] From the name - Twice in the first, with; twice in the second without
[4] Par'o, Bnei Yisrael, G-d, the king, and who before?
[5] items, brothers, voice, prophet; who & what?

And the envelope please...
[1] The word VAYEIVK, and he cried, appears 10 times in the Torah (all in the Book of B’reishit). Eisav cried once. Taakov cried twice. And Yosef cried SEVEN times!
[2] Mother of Royalty is a nickname of RUTH. from whom came David HaMelech and the whole Davidic line. Her sister-in-law was ORPAH — the two of them were married to Machlon and Kilyon, sons of Elimelech and Naomi. The letters of ORPAH - AYIN, REISH, PEI, and HEI rearrange to spell the generic term for the kings of Egypt, PAR’O.
[3] From the name... of the 8th day of Chanuka. ZOT CHANUKA. In the first... Sefer Torah, the word ZOT appears twice with a BET at the beginning. That’s “with”. In the second Torah, the maftir for Chanuka, ZOT appears without any prefix letter.
[4] VAYITAV HADAVAR B’EINEI... or something like that. And the thing was good in someone’s eyes. The phrasing appears with Par'o, Bnei Yisrael, G-d, and the king (referring to Achashveirosh). And who before? Trick (TTriddle-style) question. Once it says And the thing was good (not in his eyes, as the expression usually goes) LIFNEI, before. The who? is HAMAN, as with the suggestion of his wife and loved ones that he should get the king’s permission to hang Mordechai.
[5] VAYAKEIR, and he recognized. Yehuda recognized the items he had left with Tamar. Yosef recognized his brothers. Shaul recognized David's voice. Ach’av recognized that he was dealing with a Navi.
Top honors go to a relatively new - but deadly accurate TTriddles solver (we’ll call them TTriddlers) — DAC/EFRAT. It’s a good thing he picked up his first load of prizes, because now he gets two more - a CD from NOAM and a gift from Big Deal.
There were other solutions submitted, but no one came close to DAC’s solution set.
Even though it wasn’t part of the TTriddles set - it was only a “fun question”, the DACs counted 220 candles lit in their home over Chanuka. Had everyone been home throughout Chanuka, DAC adds, there would have been 278. One imagines that numbers varied from house to house.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] The twice-expressed approach has a hostile connotation in the once-recited version
[2] The head of his family, yet many older brothers
[3] The best of Egypt; the shortest year

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