Torah tidbits
PARSHA-PIX Parshat Matot-Mas'ei

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Parsha Pix

An “oldie but goodie” ParshaPix, with a little addition to keep you on your toes. .
Upper-right. Father and daughter; husband and wife. The two pairs involved in HAFARAT NEDARIM.
Five crown plus one with a sword under it refers to the five kings and Bil’am who saw their end during the battle against Midyan.
The face-to-face sheep, cows, and donkeys represent the even split of the spoils of war from Midyan, divided between the army and the rest of the people.
The pot of gold refers to the contribution of the officers of the battle in thanks to G-d for the zero casualty rate.
The Pyramids, the many arrows, and the outline of Israel, of course, stand for the travels of the people from Exodus to Eretz Yisrael.
The quill refers to the Torah’s statement that Moshe wrote down the travelog of Bnei Yisrael.
The map above the Pyramids with a big 3 on each side of the Jordan River refers to the Cities of Refuge to be designated in Eretz Yisrael.
The scales of justice are for the careful attention that the courts must pay in cases of homicide (the example from this week’s sedra) in determining culpability of the guilty party.
The road sign to Hebron is one of the requirements for Cities of Refuge (which Hevron is one of). Roads to them must be well-marked to facilitate the escape to them of one who committed a homicide, regardless of the outcome of his trial.
The cow with the horns stands for the rare (this once only) occurrence of the TROP called KARNEI PARA.
The big rock under the sword is TZUR, the name of one of the late Midyanite kings. the mathematically incorrect statement, that a quarter is equal to a fifth. A quarter is REVA, one of the five kings (1/5) killed in the Midyanite battle.
Lower-right is the logo of YOTVATA, the choir is for MAK-HEILATA, the Lulav for SUKKOT, and the dreidel is for CHASHMONA - all names of places of encampment.
There is another Chatan-Kallah, this time multiplied by 5, representing the daughters of Zelofchad who marry distant cousins to solve the old “land going from one tribe to another tribe” problem.
Which leaves...

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. 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] One of two of three (times 2)(Special stand-alone TTriddle challenge)
[2] Top of the 5th can be first; bottom of the 5th can be last
[3] The befuddled barefoot sea
[4] Gad got double on the 8+2+14
[5] Reuven, Menashe • Shimon, Gad, Zevulun, Efrayim, Binyamin, Asher • Yehuda • Yissachar, Dan, Naftali
[6] What connects Pinchas to Yitzchak, Eliyahu, and Yirmiyahu?

And the envelope, please...

[1] There are 13 or so 3-word p'sukim in the Torah. One of them from Parshat Pinchas is: UV-NEI FALU ELIAV. And the sons (plural) of PALU are/is ELIAV. Eliav is ONE of TWO (minimum B'NEI is TWO), of the THREE-word pasuk. Times 2 refers to the other 3-word pasuk very similar to this one. UV-NEI DAN CHUSHIM. Separate prize for correct solutions to this TTriddle.
[2] Top of the 5th is the first part of the fifth Aliya in Pinchas, can be the first Aliya on a weekday Rosh Chodesh. Bottom of the 5th can be the last Aliya (maftir) of Shabbat Rosh Chodesh.
[3] Barefoot is YACHAF, YUD-CHET-PEI. Sea is SAMACH-YUD. Befuddled means scramble those letters and the answer is PINCHAS.
[4] YOM HASHISHI, the 6th day. That was the day of the gift of the leader of the Tribe of GAD. That was the day that a double portion of Manna fell. That was the day of Sukkot that the Musaf was made up of 8 Parim + 2 Eilim + 14 K'vasim.
[5] This is a list of the Tribes of Israel, obviously. The way they are divided up (with a big dot between groups) is based on the TROP mark on the name of the tribe in the census from Parshat Pinchas. Check it in a Chumash. Bnei Reuven and Bnei Menashe are both MUNACH-R'VI'I. The next group is the largest, with six of the tribes having a ZARKA (or sqiggly, as we used to call it). Yehuda alone has a TIPCHA, but a pasuk later he too has a squiggly. And the last group (of three sh'vatim) have a PASHTA.
[6] The connection to Eliyahu and Yirmiyahu is via the haftarot of Parshat Pinchas: one if it falls before the Three Weeks and one if it falls during (respectively). Of course, the connection to Eliyahu is much stronger than the haftara - Several sources identify Pinchas as Eliyahu. Can't get a closer connection than that. And the connection to Yitzchak is via g'matriya, both total 208.

This week's TTriddles:

[1] Sarah Schenirer's flocks and the residents of the neighborhood bordering 100 gates.
[2] Two consecutive words that are almost Heb-Eng translations
[3] Three is common to the five
[4] If there were six fewer of these, the opening word of the sedra would fit perfectly
[5] So when is Chani Eim coming?
[6] One element from the ParshaPixPuzzle


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