
PARSHA-PIX Parshat Lech L'cha

Click on image for enlargement
Parsha Pix
Modified version of past years.
Arrow from the birthday stuff into Eretz Yisrael is Lech L'cha...
MiMoladt'cha - go from your birthplace to the Land... From Eretz Yisrael
to the south-west and back again is the round trip to & from Egypt.
The compass on the outline of the map is G-d’s instructions to Avraham to
walk the Land, its length and breadth, and in all directions.
The arrows branching in opposite directions was Avraham’s choice to Lot
when they separated.
Avraham’s oath before the king of S’dom, that he would not even take a
thread of a shoelace.
Telescope and stars stand for G-d’s promise to Avraham that his
descendants will be as countless as the stars of the heavens.
On the right in the lower half of the Pix are crowns representing the war
of the five kings against the four.
The father with his little son represents Brit Mila.
There is the tent that Avraham pitched a few times in the sedra (not
really a good representation, because it seemsto have only one entrance.)
Center- lower half, is a representation of Brit Bein HaB’tarim, with each
split animal accompanied by a triangle standing for the adjective
M’SHULASH/M’SHULESHET.
The bird at the top was not cut. See the Sedra Summary for details.
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 (No'ach) TTriddles:
[1] No'ach, (Ushpizin-Yosef), Gid'on, Shmuel, Shaul
[2] No'ach, Avraham, Rachel, and...?
[3] The narrow one cycle per second wanted trouble - confused?
[4] It attempts to retore 11:1
[5] Remembers, trustworthy, fulfills
[6] Almost like Yaakov, Par'o, and Shimshon
[7] Small letter small - how many children?
And the envelope please...
[1] The tricky twist in this TTriddle was (Ushpizin-Yosef), which, in
order to understand it as it was meant, must be read Ushpizin minus Yosef,
i.e. Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe, Aharon, and David. Add them to the
list of No'ach, Gid'on, Shmuel HaNavi, and Sha'ul HaMelech and you get the
list of people that the Tanachtells us built a Mizbei'ach. (Actually,
there are others, but this list is restricted to those where the term
VAYIVEN... MIZBEI'ACH is used. Breishit 8:20 is from Parshat No'ach and
refers to No'ach's building a Mizbei'ach. Breishit 12:7, 12:8, and 13:18
refer to Mizbachot that Avra(ha)m built. 26:25 is Yitzchak and 35:7is
Yaakov. In Sh'mot we find twice for Moshe, 17:15 and 24:14, and once for
Aharon, 32:5. Then in Sho-f'tim (the Book, not the sedra), we have Gid'on
building one, 6:24. In Shmuel Alef - Shmuel (7:17) and Sha'ul (14:35).
Shmuel Bet 24:25 and Divrei HaYamim Alef 21:26 record David HaMelech
building a Mizbei'ach. And theone we accidentally left off the list -
Divrei HaYamim Bet 33:16 records that King Menashe built a Mizbei'ach to
HaShem - apparently doing T'shuva after a long lifetime of the worst
idolatry.
[2] VAYIZKOR ELOKIM... And G-d remembered... In the Torah (and all of
Tanach), we find those words only four times. In Parshat No'ach, G-d
remembered No'ach and all in the Teiva with him and He caused a strong
wind that began the receding of the water. G-d remembered Avraham and He
spared Lot, Avraham's nephew, from thedestruction of Sedom and the other
cities. G-d remembered Rachel and "opened her womb". The fourth instance
is G-d heard the cries of the Israelites in Egypt and He remembered His
covenant with Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov.
[3] This is an anagram TTriddle - the word CONFUSED is a key word for
anagram. The narrow is HATZAR. One cycle per second is the unit of
frequency called HERTZ. Wanted is RATZA. Trouble is TZARA. All of those
words are spelled with a HEI, TZADI, and REISH, in different order. So is
the word from Parshat No'ach, TZOHAR,referring to either a kind of window
in the Teiva or to a precious gem that gave off light.
[4] B'reishit describes the status of the world as there being one
language... That which tried to restore the world to that state is
Esperanto, an artificial language introduced in 1887 and intended by its
inventor, Dr. Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof (1859–1917), a Polish oculist and
linguist, to ease communication between speakersof different languages...
it has been taught in schools and universities throughout the world but
has not received wide acceptance as an international language...
[5] This was an easy one. The answer is the RAINBOW. The bracha we say
upon seeing a rainbow is a composite of three suggested bracha endings: He
remembers the covenant, And is trustworthy to keep His covenant, And
fulfills his Word.
[6] For Yaakov, Par'o, and Shimshon, Tanach uses the term VAYIKATZ... and
he awoke. For No'ach, the term was similar - same spelling, but VAYIKETZ.
If anyone can explain the slight difference in words, please contact us by
email (tt@ou.org) or phone (566-7787 ext. 207) or in person (22 Keren
HaYesod) or by mental telepathy(you know how).
[7] Who is small letter small? Small letter is YUD. Small is KATAN.
Together, we have YUD-KUF-TET- NUN which is YOKTAN. Among the five sons
named of SHEIM son of No'ach, the one who is part of the generational
chain that leads to Avraham Avinu is ARPACHSHAD. His son SHELACH was the
father of EIVER. Eiver had two named sons,PELEG (and we know what happened
during his lifetime) and YOKTAN. He had 13 named sons. Is this perhaps the
largest number of named sons of anyone in the Torah? What about Tanach?
YYW, EB, and MM/Bklyn all submitted near-perfect solution sets, with EB
edging the others very slightly. EB wins the double NOAM-BIG DEAL prizes
and YYW and MM/Bklyn each get a runner-up CD from Noam Productions.
Concerning the anagram TTriddle [3], EB writes: I discovered on Shabbat
that your anagram isn't just a riddle, but actually a Dvar Torah. Here's
an excerpt from Minchat Yitzchak on the Torah: (our translation) The power
of tzadikim to nullify evil decrees and to mitigate punishment is by
switching letters around, from NEGA(affliction) to ONEG (pleasure) etc.
and here (in Parshat No'ach) it is hinted that... TZARA was switched to
TZOHAR... that for No'ach (and co.), strict judgment (MIDAT HADIN) was
switched to MIDAT HARACHAMIM. Thanks EB.
BTW, there are at least two semi-Divine anagram pairs in Tanach, several
occurrences of each. What are they? Any others?
This week's TTriddles:
[1] menagerie à trois
[2] After comfort comes the grandson
[3] Avraham and Yehoshua are (sort of) the ony two mentioned in the Tanach
[4] Stars, ladder, soot, sun-moon-stars, The Mitzva
[5] Tent, shoulder, hand, staff
[6] Situations (8), person/people (4), things (3), animals (3)
[7] A 4 vs. 5 battle site, this Emori city is a present-day resort - what
& what?
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