PARSHA-PIX Parshat No'ach

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Parsha Pix
A classic ParshaPix we've used for a number of years, but with some changes and additions this year.
The top row is based on an old joke about the worm coming in an apple, but all the other animals coming in pears (pairs). So a sample of animals are to be found in pears. They represent the animals that came into the Teiva.
There is also a fish to remind us that fish were not taken on the Teiva, but survived the Mabul in a column of water under the Teiva that did not have the destructive forces of the rest of the floodwaters.
There is also a Triceratops, which was a rhinoceros-like dinosaur. One possible explanation for finding fossil remains of pre-historic animals is that they existed in antediluvian times, but did not survive the Flood.
Then there is the famous dove with olive branch, cloud with rainbow and cloud with rain.
The grapes and wine flask are references to No’ach post-Flood.
The people figures represent the proliferation of human beings after the Flood.
The ear of corn, TIRAS in Hebrew, stands for one of the 70 nations that came from No'ach - the one called TIRAS, which Rashi says is Paras, or Persia.
The Tower of Babel is accompanied by words of many languages. They all mean "please", but no one would be able to understand what the others were saying.

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 alsopresented 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 (B'reishit) TTriddles:
[1] Had he known in advance, he might have done commercials for Carmel's Brandy
[2] The Kayin-Yissachar connection in what mitzva?
[3] Sort of supports the Big Bang theory
[4] Taninim, Adam & Chava, Shabbat
[5] Can't resist: Parsha connection to the WS
[6] This time he doesn't back up R' Chananya's words
[7] Whose children were like the pre-tree couple?

And the envelope please...
[1] Carmel’s Brandy is known as SHEVA-SHEVA- SHEVA, 777. That was the lifespan of LEMECH, father of No’ach. As No’ach’s father and M’tushelach’s son, (not to mention sharing a name with KAYIN’s descendant and accidental killer), LEMECH would have been a good choice for advertizing Carmels’ 777 (had it been known that he would become associated with that number).
[2] The word ROVEITZ appears only three times in Tanach, all three occurrences being in the Torah. It means to lie, crouch, stretch out (and a few other things). The first occurrence is in Parshat B’reishit (which is why it’s a TTriddle now), when G-d challenges Kayin for being upset and depressed when his offering was not accepted (by Hevel’s was). The expression used is “sin crouching in wait...” (B’reishit 4:7). We next encounter the word in Yaakov’s bracha to Yissachar, (49:14). Yissachar is a strong donkey, stretched out between the saddlebags. Not exactly complimentary in today’s culture, but the connotation of this bracha is very positive (see commentaries). BTW (by the way), the word ROVEITZ does occur more than these three times, but in other grammatical forms. The third and only other appearance of ROVEITZ is in Parshat Mishpatim in the context of the positive mitzva known as PEIRUK MASA, unloading another’s overloaded (hence, lying of crouching under its burden) beast of burden (donkey is the example in the pasuk), even if the owner of the animal is someone you hate. So this is the mitzva that goes with the Kayin-Yissachar connection. SHILU’ACH HAKEN would also be an answer, if we didn’t want to stick exclusively to ROVEITZ. The mother bird is described as ROVETZET, sitting on the chicks or eggs...
[3] The scribal tradition is to writing the opening letter of the Torah with a big BET; association to a BIG B,and from there to the Big Bang theory of the beginning of the universe. The especially fits if we use the title of Prof. Gerald Shroeder’s book: Genesis and the Big Bang.
[4] This one was kind of easy. In the Torah’s first account of Creation, G-d gives three blessings. VAIVAREICH (OTAM) ELOKIM... The recipients of these brachot were the TANINIM, created on Day 5, ADAM (and CHAVA), created on Day 6, and the SEVENTH DAY (Shabbat).
[5] This isn’t really a TTriddle, mostly because it isn’t original. It’s from an old riddle about baseball in the Torah. There is a list of various phrases from different p’sukim. Most answers are puns which elicit groans. This one is certainly one of the groaners. The connection beteen B’reishit and the World Series (aside from game six being played on Motza’ei Shabbat Breishit) is the phrase: In the Big Inning. (In the beginning, B’reishit, big innining, get it?) Sorry, but as we said in the TTriddle - Can’t resist.
[6] Rabbi Chananya ben Akashya says (in the mishna at the end of Makot, which is quoted at the end of each chapter of Pirkei Avot, and which is used countless times at the conclusion of a shiur, as a lead-in to Kaddish D’Rabbanan), G-d wanted to merit the people of Israel, therefore he heaped upon them (us) Torah and Mitzvot. The mishna concludes with a supporting quote from Yeshayahu (42:21). This chapter is the regular haftara of Br’reishit. But this year, it was preempted by the haftara of Machar Chodesh, so we don’t have the back-up to R’ Chananya’s words.
[7] Let’s use this TTriddle to show you how some TTriddles are made. It starts with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Tree itself is mentioned twice. Then the NACHASH uses the term YO-D’EI TOV VARA as a G-d-like quality, “knower of Good and Evil”. There term comes up once more in the “decision” to expell Adam and Chava from Gan Eden. Four occurrences of TOV VARA raise a TTriddle-potential which leads to the next step: a search of Tanach for the phrase. Using DBS’s database of zillions of Sifrei-Kodesh (but restricting the search to Tanach only), resulted in only one other occurrence of TOV VARA in all of Torah and Tanach). In the beginning of D’varim, Moshe Rabeinu is telling the people about the Sin of the Scouts. He mentions that the previous generation was worried out the innocent children, who turned out to be the generation that would enter the Land (the people that Moshe is telling this to). The phrase of innocent children are those who don’t even know the difference between TOV VARA, good and bad. Definitely, TTriddle material. What’s left is to formulate it. Sometimes, they come out better than others. Here, it is the pre-tree couple, i.e. Adam and Chaya BEFORE they ate from the Tree, and were not yet YO-D’EI TOV VARA, just like the children of DOR HAMIDBAR.
What remains of the TTriddles of Shabbat B’reishit 5764 is to await the solutions...

This week's 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?

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