PARSHA-PIX Parshat A'charei-K'doshim

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Parsha Pix
From Acharei, Kohen Gadol and two identical goats, over which lots are drawn (coin flip).
The pairs of numbers are the counting of the blood-sprinkles on Yom Kippur. Familiar from Yom Kippur Musaf repetition.
The rest is from K'doshim.
House on fire.
Potential life-threatening situation allows making a phone call (etc. on Shabbat - note the Shabbat candles nearby).
Shabbat candles also reminder to keep the Shabbat, which is attached to Reverence for parents and to Reverence for the Mikdash.
B'samim is for Havdala, not from Shabbat to Chol but between kosher and non-kosher animals and between us and other nations - mentioned at the end of the sedra.
Hands and crystal ball represent the prohibitions of divination, omens, and other "black arts".
The heart in the Torah is a pictogram for Love thy fellow being a great Torah rule.
Lifesaver is for the mitzva not to stand by idly while someone is in danger.
Grapes and wheat refer to many agricultural mitzvot in the sedra - PE'AH, LEKET, and others.
Thief is various prohibitions related to theft.
The camel with the monkey- head is a reminder of the prohibition of cross breeding.
Scales of justice knocked over are for the prohibitions related to perverting justice. The scale is weighing a 1 kilo weight, but reads less than one. Either the weight is off or the scale is. Whichever, that would be ASUR, to use false weights and measures or even to possess them.
Razor blade for the prohibition of shaving with one.
The trees with fruit stand for ORLA, then fourth year being special, the fruit is KADOSH. 5th year's fruit is to eat.

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 alsopresentedforcall-insolutiononTorahTidbitsAudio(Arutz-7,Thursdaynight).Thebest 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 (Tazri'a-M'tzora) TTriddles:
[1] Amitai's two grandchildren
[2] Last, this, next x3, skip 2, then thrice
[3] Same on the surface, but below it's EIE for 70 and ISTE for 14
[4] Like a traffic light in more ways than one
[5] I'll give you 5 agorot for counting on the first night, says the very rich uncle to his favorite nephew. Each night after that, I'll double the amount I give you. If the nephew makes it all the way through the Omer, how much will his uncle have given him all together? (Before you calculate the answer, try a quick guess.)
[6] Secret ingredient of the Lag BaOmer fire
[7] bow, count, and a lot of shpritzing
[8] plus 2 visual TTriddles

And the envelope, please...
[1] Amitai in Tanach was the father of the prophet Yona. Yona’s children would be Amitai’s grand- children. And so, we have in the sedra, SH’NEI B’NEI YONA. The intended meaning, of course, is two turtle-doves, but with the TTriddles play on words, it means the two son’s of Yona.
[2] This TTriddle was badly messed up. Apologies. Instead of explaining what it should have said, we'll pose it as a TTriddle for this week (Acharei-K'do- shim). So this is a new TTriddle hiding among last week's TTriddles report. Last week, 5; the week before, only once, but conspicuous; none this week; thrice next week.
[3] On the surface refers to the Hebrew spelling of words without paying attention to the vowels, which are below (or above) the surface. Reference is to the Hebrew for seventy and for a fortnight (that's two weeks, 14 days). SHIN-VET-AYIN-YUD-MEM. Shiv'im and Sh'vu'ayim. EIE for 70 is based on Morse code. E is a single dot, the CHIRIK. I is two dots, which are usually horizontal, but here stands for a SH'VA. The other E is another CHIRIK. That's SHIV'IM. For the 14 (days), the vowels are a SH'VA (I), KUBUTZ (S, which is three dots - remember SOS), T is a dash, PATACH, and the E is still a CHIRIK. That's SH'VU'AYIM.
[4] Two major features of a traffic light echo important aspects of the topic of NEGA'IM, the main theme of Tazri'a and M'tzora. One is the colors. Some blemishes are referred to as having the coloring Y'RAKRAK or ADAMDAM, greenish (or strong green)or reddish (or strong red). Concerning the hair of some blemishes, the color yellow is mentioned. So we have the colors of the traffic light. Another major feature of a traffic light is its changing. This too is a feature of TZORAAT and NEGA'IM. In some cases, they were carefully watched for changes from one week to the next.
[5] This is not a TTriddle really, but a math problem to cause amazement, because a person's guess before calculating tends to be laughably low. Most calculators will not even be able to handle this problem. Our ficticious nephew of the very ficticious, fabulously wealthy uncle, receives 5 Ag. for the first day, 10 for the second, 20 for the third, 40 for the fourth, and 80 for the fifth day (assuming, as we will throughout this problem and iots solution, that the boy does not miss a day's count). Add that up and add the 1.60NIS and 3.20NIS for the 6th and seventh nights and we find that the lad has received a grand total of 6.35NIS for the first week. Not terribly exciting, but on the 8th night, he gets 6.40NIS, which is more than his total to date, bringing his total now to 12.75NIS. In fact, if you work this through, you will find that each days prize is not only double what was received the day before, but it is also 5 Ag. more than all the previous days put together. Let's jump a little (you can do the calculations that we skip, if you want). After counting 11, the total collected passes 100NIS. At the end of two weeks, the nephew has collected 819.15NIS. A week later, the total has reached over 100,000NIS. And one week after that -after 28 days - the total is over 13 million shekel. After 35 days, the total is 1.7 billion shekel. A week after that, the total is more than 219 billion shekel. At the conclusion of the Omer, the total collected is over 28 trillion shekel. There is no real way to illustrate this staggering amount. The total net worth of the 20 wealthiest people in the world (Bill Gates at the top of the list) is less than a half a trillion dollars. Our Omer counter received more than 15 times that amount. When I used to pose a similar problem to my math students at YCQ, I ended by telling them that this situation was obviously ficticious, but that the S'CHAR MITZVA one gets from doing mitzvot (like counting the Omer and many others) is great - in this world and the next - a wonderful offer from AVINU SHEBASHAMAYIM, that outdoes the uncle in the Omer story. Especially because the uncle isn't real... but HaShem is.
[6] LOG (HA)SHEMEN, is mentioned four times in Parshat M'tzora. LOG, a liquid measure equal to about 350ml. is spelled LAMED-GIMEL (as in LAG BA'OMER, so we figured it to be the secret ingredient to the LAG BA'OMER fires coming soon.
[7] SHEVA P'AMIM, seven times, is a phrase that appears in M'TZORA several times, four times, to be exact. Of the 12 occurrences in the Torah, 10 refer to the sprinkling of either blood or oil. The other times the phrase appears, it is Yaakov who bows to Eisav seven times, and the command to count a Shmita cycle of seven years each, seven times... followed by the Yovel year. Bow, count, and lots of shpritzing.
[8] One of the two unexplained elements of the
ParshaPix was a traffic light, a duplicate of TTriddle
[4]. See there. The other was a little difficult to make out in the printed Torah Tidbits, but very clear in the web version. However, different people I showed the hard copy to, identified the person in question without difficulty. There is a phrase that recurs so often - and with different TAAMIM - to be very noticeable. V'RA'A HAKOHEN, and the kohen shall look (at the NEGA, examine might be a better definition) is found 14 times (13 in Tazri'a and once in M'tzora) and nowhere else in the Torah. Add to that five more V'RA'AHU HAKENs, also only in Tazri'a and the natural TTriddle that emerges is a kohen that sees. And who better to represent a "seeing kohen" than HaRav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohein Kook zt"l, who happens to be known as HARO'EH, the seer. To his picture (Davka Judaica Graphics), we added a pair of glasses for good measure.

This week's TTriddles:z
[1] Difference between Aharon's goats... and No'ach's animals
[2] What is Yechezkel's honest daughtercalled in this week's sedra?
[3] Double 19 triple mix
[4] Don't bother with this initial gift to Kojak's alter ego
[5] And the double guy dealswith what? (one word answer)
[6] PIGUL, 82, and WHO?

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