PARSHA-PIX Parshat Tazri'a-M'tzora

Click on image for enlargement

Parsha Pix
Top row, left to right: baby boy, 7+33 days for the mother.
Knife for Brit Mila.
Then a baby girl with 14+60 days.
Then come the dove and lamb, which are two parts of the Korban Yoledet, the offerings of the woman who has given
birth.
On the next row is a hand afflicted by a NEGA and a shirt, representing those garments and materials that are able
to be afflicted with NIG'EI HABEGED.
They are followed by a CHAMELION, noted for changing colors - a significant factor in the determination of NEGA'IM.
Next row has a razor, used by a M'TZORA on the day of his purification.
The pair of eyes is missing one of its eyebrows, mentioned in the parsha.
The two birds, the hyssop and the cedar tree are all part of the purification process of the M'TZORA.
Lower-left is a house afflicted by a NEGA.
Lower right are the three parts of the body dabbed with the blood of the korban.
As far as the earlobe is concerned, T'NUCH might mean the top or middle of the outer ear. Depends on whom you ask.
The 2+1 lambs are part of the korbanot of NEGA'IM.
Plus 2 visual TTriddles.

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 (SH'MINI) TTriddles:
[1] the two who bypassed the venetian blinds
[2] Add an ALEF for two of them; swap an ALEF for its partner for another; for the other one, only one letter in
common
[3] the quintessential worm-catcher/getter
[4] The 8th in the 8th is kosher
[5] Gets a lollipop, and you can quote me on that
[6] Lot, Avraham, and Bil'am, their what? Aharon, his what? The Nation, its what?
[7] Not symmetrical in Aramaic
[8] A mother, her daughter, fire & fire
[9] plus three items in the ParshaPix on page 3

And the envelope, please...
[1] Bypassed the venetian blinds can mean to look out of a window. Which is exactly what it does in this TTriddle.
The two, here, refers to the two women who, Tanach tells us, looked through a window. In the haftara of Shmini, it
is Michal, daughter of Shaul, wife of David HaMelech, who looks out a window and sees the way her husband was
dancing before the Aron. In Shoftim, in Shirat Devora, to be specific, Sisra's mother is described as looking
through the window waiting for her son to return.
[2] Four animals are mentioned in the Torah as having one, but not both, of the signs of a kosher mammal. Two of
them are translated into Aramaic in Targum Onkeles by adding an ALEF to the Hebrew name. GAMAL is GAMLA and CHAZIR
is CHAZIRA. The ARNEVET is ARN'VA, where the TAV from the Hebrew name is switched to an ALEF in Aramaic. The TAV
and the ALEF are partner letters in the AT-BASH code of the ALEF-BET. The SHAFAN is rendered TAFZA, with only the
FEI in common.
[3] As the saying goes, the early bird catches the worm (or gets the worm), hence the quintessential
worm-catcher/getter is the early bird. Among the 20 named frying animals in the sedra, the one whose name is a
give-away (in TTriddland) for his being an early bird is the NEITZ (which also means sunrise). By the way, the
expression is meant to encourage people to be early-risers and to get an early start to the day. This might be
sound advice, but should definitely not be followed by worms.
[4] The 8th plague is ARBEH, locust. In the sedra called SH'MINI (8th), they is listed as kosher. Simple.
[5] EB wondered aloud (so to speak, really so to write) if it is easier to solver TTriddles or compose them. In
most cases, it is far easier to make them up than to solve them. That's why I make them - so I don't have to solve
them. Except that once in a while I look at a TTriddle and don't have a clue as to its solution. Some attribute
this to reaching and passing a certain age.
The lollipop and the quote, i.e. the quotation marks, refer to two cantillation notes (TAAMIM, TROP) - the T'LISHA
and GERSHAYIM. Both of these notes appear on the same word (a rare occurrence), and Tradition teaches us that they
both go on the same syllable and in the reverse order from the way they appear. The word from SH'MINI is KIRVU.This
is a rare enough occurrence to note in a TTriddle, but I admit it was near-impossible to get.
[6] The overall answer to this one is VAYISA, and he lifted. There are 42 of them in Tanach. That's too much for a
TTriddle. Even the 25 in Torah does not cut it down enough for a managable TTriddle. So we limit things to the word
VAYISA being followed by a person's name. This works. But to make even a shorter list, it is being kept to VAYISA
<someone> ET <something>. Lot, Avraham, and Bil'am all raised their eyes. Aharon raised his hand(s). That's the one
from the sedra. The (s) of hand(s) is in parentheses, because in the Torah the word is written as if it were YADO,
his hand, singular, and is read YADAV, his hands, plural. And the Nation raised (carried) its dough. That's the
full answer. That is, for the Torah. The rest of Tanach adds a few more. Without the ET we would have included
Yaakov and Eisav, who each raised their voices (and cried), and Yaakov who raised his legs.
[7] Not symmetrical in Aramaic implies YES symmetrical in Hebrew. This refers to the classic DAROSH DARASH, the
"Traditional" midpoint of the Torah in words, with DALET-REISH-SHIN to one side and DALET-REISH-SHIN to the other
side. The Targum on this pair of words is not symmetrical. As mentioned in TT a couple of weeks ago, DAROSH DARASH
is not actually the midpoint of the Torah in words. Some suggest that it is the midpoint of all the double words in
the Torah, like DAROSH DARASH, that is, two consecutive words spelled the same and coming from the same root, even
if their pronunci- ations are different from each other. Thus, YAAKOV, YAAKOV counts for this list, but LECH LECHA
doesn't, because the two words don't have the same root.
[8] The female counterpart of VAYEITZEI is VATEITZEI. Whereas there are 55 VAYEITZEIs in the Torah, including the
sedra by that name, there are only four VATEITZEIs. Two refer to people, Leah and Deena to be specific, that's the
mother (one of the four mothers of the people of Israel) and her daughter, and the other two refer to fire. Both
are from Parshat Sh'mini, making this an appropriate TTriddle..
[9] We now look at the kosher and non-kosher, mammals, birds, and fish. Rather than using graphic images of animals
themselves, we replaced three of the six with visual TTriddles. The non-kosher bird is a KOS (cup). The kosher bird
is turkey (flag of the country Turkey), and the kosher fish is sole. And there you have the solution set for issue
614.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] Amita'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

[The Parshat Tazri'a-M'tzora Homepage]
[The TORAH tidbits Homepage] [How to use TORAH tidbits]
[About The OU/NCSY Israel Center] [About TORAH tidbits]
 [www.ou.org]