PARSHA-PIX Parshat Va-eira
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Parsha Pix
7 of the 10 images from the Davka Judaica graphic of the 10 plagues.
To these 7 that appear in Va'eira is added the word BO, which is not only
next week's sedra, but also the number 3 (2+1), the number of remaining
plagues that are reported in Parshat BO.
Notice the Staff, prominent in the middle of the ParshaPix.
Above it is a sword. This can represent Z'RO'A N'TUYA, the "outstretched
arm" with which we were to be taken out of Egypt. Also, the sword is
prominently mentioned in the Haftara as that which will befall Egypt.
Next to the staff and sword is a shovel used by the Egyptians to dig for
water - only way to get a drink...
the oven is what some frogs went into, producing a Kiddush HaShem and a
lesson to us that G-d is still in charge of nature - He renews, every day,
the acts of Creation. (Each element of nature that was used by G-d in the
process of the Plagues and Exodus sanctifies G-d's name because we see His
control and involvement in this world. Famous re the non-barking dogs, but
frogs, etc. too.)
The Staff is burping from its recent meal of Wizard Staffs.
We have the four cups of wine corresponding to the Four Terms of
Redemption, which we find at the beginning of the sedra.
Triple-S J, Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, slogan was Let My People
Go.
Lower-right is the pictorial representation of Par'o's heart
strengthening, as is mentioned in several places in the sedra and the next
one.
Go to the upper-right and the emblem of the Hogwarts School. Par'o's
wizards might have been dropouts from Hogwarts since they were not able to
cope with the plague of KINIM. Whatever.
Lower-left. The numbers with the plus signs is a representation of the
korbanot of Shabbat Rosh Chodesh. 2 daily T’midim and 2 Musafim of
Shabbat, plus the Musaf of Rosh Chodesh, which is 2 bulls, 1 ram, 7 lambs,
and a goat as a communal CHATAT.
Below the numbers are the standing wheat and the broken barley in the
aftermath of BARAD.
Chair in the Heavens and footstool on earth (tree) stands for the opening
pasuk of the haftara.
One unexplained pix - it's a visual TTriddle.
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 Parsha Pix-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
...and here is a visual TTriddle
(a.k.a. PPP, ParshaPixPuzzle)
Last issue’s (SH'MOT) TTriddles:
[1] Borrowers include: RHM, PA, and R' Yaakov b. Asher
[2] He returned there 80 years later. Who was there first?
[3] Chayei Sara, Vayishlach, Vayigash, Va-eira, Bamidbar (3), Pinchas,
Mas'ei
[4] What did each of the three (f) open?
[5] His 2 sons, 5 of his sons, and Moshe - what, who and whom else?
[6] Moshe grew, no king, they gathered
And the envelope, please...
[1] Let’s say this TTriddle would have been like this: Borrowers include
Rosh HaShana Musaf, Pirkei Avot, and R’ Yaakov b. Asher? Would that have
been easier? Don’t answer that. It would have. I have this aversion
towards making things simple. With apologies to veteran TTriddles solver
RHM, this time RHM stood for RoshHaShana Musaf, which borrowed 10 p’sukim
from Tanach for each section/bracha - Malchiyot, Zichronot, and Shofarot.
One of the Shofarot p’sukim was borrowed from the haftara of Sh’mot -
V’HAYA BAYOM HAHU... the prophecy of the Ingathering of the Exiles. Pirkei
Avot borrowed another pasuk from the same haftara - as the quotefor the
statement about three who eat at a table and do not share Divrei Torah
among them (Yeshayahu 28:8). And the part that several solvers got - R’
Yaakov b. Asher, that is Rabeinu Asher (The Rosh), is the Baal HaTurim
(i.e. the son of the Rosh). One of the four TURIM of the TUR SHULCHAN
ARUCH is YOREH DEI-A, a phrasealso borrowed from the haftara.
[2] This TTriddle refers to S’FAT HAYE-OR, the shore of the river. That
phrase appears only four times in the Torah (and not elsewhere in Tanach).
Moshe as a baby is played AL S’FAT HAYE-OR... 80 years later, G-d sends
him to S’FAT HAYE-OR to stand there and face Par’o. So it was Moshe who
returned there 80 years later.Par’o and his dream cows had been there
earlier.
[3] This one was solved by more people than any of the other TTriddles.
The answer is V’EILEH SH’MOT. Although we get the name of the second book
and its first sedra from these opening words, the phrase appears 15 times
in Tanach - And these are the names of... BNEI YISHMA’EL (in Chayei Sara),
ALUFEI EISAV (in Vayishlach),BNEI YISRA’EL (in Vayigash and again in
Sh’mot), BNEI LEVI (in Va-eira), HA-ANASHIM (the leaders of the Tribes who
stood with Moshe and Aharon when the census was taken, in Bamidbar), BNEI
AHARON and BNEI GERSHON (also in Bamidbar), B’NOTAV (his daughters, in
Pinchas, referring to Tzelofchad), and again HA-ANASHIM (inMas’ei,
referring to the Tribal Leaders at the end of the forty years of
wandering). Five other references in NACH were not included in the
TTriddle.
[4] The (f) stands for female, so the question is about VATIFTACH, and she
opened. (As opposed to VAYIFTACH, which would have made the TTriddle to
hard to handle.) The word VATIFTACH appears only four times (which makes
for a nice TTriddle). The first is in Sh’mot - BAT PAR’O opens the basket
(TEIVA) with Moshe in it. Thenin Korach and in Pinchas, when the Torah
retells what happened in Korach - the Earth opens its mouth (and swallows
some of Korach’s gang). The final VATIFTACH is in SHO-F’TIM (the book, not
the sedra) - YAEL opens a flask of milk and gives Sisra to drink from
it...
[5] A little on the tough side, and the 5 sons of Yaakov threw people off
the track. The went for the 5 sons that Yosef presented to Par’o. That
sent them in the direction of LIFNEI PAR'O, before Par'o. Then His two
sons became AMRAM (Moshe & Aharon), even though Moshe was mentioned
separately as part of the TTriddle. Nicetry, but... At least one solver
got it exactly the way it was intended. VATIKRA SH’MO... and she “called
his name”, i.e. she named him... The first two times the phrase appears
are with the daughters of Lot naming their sons MO’AV and BEN AMI (AMON).
Remember that they were his (Lot’s) sons too. 5 of his sons does, infact,
refer to Yaakov, but not to the 5 who were introduced to Par’o. Rather the
five whose birth are accompanied by VATIKRA SH’MO. They are Reuven (by
Leah), Shimon (Leah), Naftali (Rachel), Yissachar (Leah), and Binyamin
(who was named BEN ONI by Rachel). Moshe was named by Bat Par’o. That was
the what. The who and whomelse are found in Divrei HaYamim (Alef 7:16).
MAACHA, wife of MACHIR b. MENASHE gives birth to a son and she calls him
PERESH. (Just to fill out the list of those who were named by women... if
we now include VATIKRA ET SH’MO... we add SHEIT by CHAVA, apparently, GAD,
ASHER, and ZEVULUN by LEAH, ONAN and SHEILA by BAT SHUA,Yehuda’s wife,
SHIMSHON was named by his mother, wife of Mano’ach, SHMUEL by CHANA, and
maybe SHLOMO was named by his mother BAT SHEVA - maybe not - depends on a
KRI & K’TIV.)
[6] This one was also fairly easy and solved by several solvers. VAYHI
BAYAMIM HAHEIM... a phrase you would expect more than its three
occurrences in Tanach. In Sh’mot, it precedes “and Moshe grew up”. In
Sho-f’tim (the book not the sedra) it is followed by “and there was no
king over Israel...” In Shmuel Alef it introduces“and the P’lishtim
gathered their camp to fight against Israel”. (And, also in Sh’mot, we
find VAYHI BAYAMIM HARABIM HAHEIM, the king of Egypt died...)
As of this writing, the front runners for top honors this week iare DAC
and EB. There were some other good solution sets, but theirs were the the
best.
For those of you who read this column but are too shy to send in
solutions... let me encourage you to do so, even if you only solved one
TTriddle. You can still win a CD from NOAM Productions, and you then join
a special group of TTriddle solvers
This week's TTriddles:
[1] Bad for most of the world, bad for Egypt, good for the people of
Israel - VAT eye drops
[2] Sara, Avraham, Yishmael, who AND?
[3] The reptile reptile switch
[4] one, many, thirteen
[5] One guy writing; one gal reading
[6] The Maftir opener leads to another Shabbat Rosh Chodesh connection
besides Yeshayahu's
[7] plus one element from the Parsha Pix Puzzle and a separate PPP
[8] - Not a TTriddle but: We take out two Torahs this Shabbat. Before you
look for the answer, try to guess it on your own. How many times this year
do we in Israel read from exactly two Torahs?
Answer is at end of TBDATR file.
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