Torah tidbits
PARSHA-PIX Parshat Vayeitzei

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Parsha Pix
See the KIPA towards the top-middle of the ParshaPix? That’s because we learn from this week’s sedra that Yaakov Avinu wore a kipa. Vayeitzei Yaakov, and Yaakov went out... Would Yaakov go out without a kipa?!
The road sign could have been at the side of the road that Yaakov traveled at the beginning of Vayeitzei, with Be’er Sheva behind him and Charan still to come. En route, Yaakov encounters “The Place” where he spent the night and had his famous dream.
Speaking of which, at the lower-left is the rock he put by his head and the ladder standing on the ground climbing heavenward.
U’FARATZTA, and you shall spread out in all directions, is represented by the compass.
Yaakov promised to give G-d (so to speak) MAASER, one tenth, .1
Along the right side are 10 babies in cradles, with an 11th one facing the other direction (for Dina) and then a 12th one in the boy direction, for Yosef.
The plant above Yaakov’s pillow-rock is a mandrake, the DUDA’IM that Reuven collected for his mother.
There are two of the sticks Yaakov used to induce the production of the striped, speckled, and plain sheep and goats.
That leaves the ice cream, G’LIDA, which is the Targum of KERACH in Yaakov’s tirade about his cold nights spent watching over Lavan’s flocks. It seems that Hebrew took the Aramaic word for ice, changed the final letter from ALEF to HEI and decided to use it for ice cream.
There are three unexplained elements in the Parsha- Pix; they are pictorial 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-insolution 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 (TO-L'DOT) TTriddles:

[1] Three boys, three teens, five adults, and...?
[2] Yitzchak’s servants and who & who?
[3] Yitzchak to Yaakov, G-d to Moshe and [L] Bil’am
[4] Aside from many names, only three are called this way
[5] & [6] The unexplained elements from the ParshaPix (page 3)

And the envelope, please

[1] VAYIGDAL, and he grew up. A search in Tanach for VAV-YUD-GIMEL-DALET-LAMED produces 18 hits. Take away V’YIGDAL, VIGADEIL (twice), and VAIGADEIL and that leaves 15 VAYIGDALs. Three times in Tanach, the phrase VAYIGDAL HAYELED, and the boy grew up, appears. The YELED in question are Yitzchak, Moshe, and the son of the Shunamit. Three times, the phrase VAYIGDAL HANAAR, and the lad (let’s say TEEN) grew up. This time, the references are to Yishma’el, Shimshon, and Shmuel HaNavi. Once, the phrase VAYIGDAL HA-ISH appears. Here again, it is Yitzchak that “grows”. The other references are to “my master” (that is Avraham Avinu, as stated by Eliezer), Moshe when he went out to see what was happening with his brethren, Shmuel HaNavi by name, Shlomo HaMelech (twice), and... the sin of the people (mentioned in Eicha).
[2] VAY’HI BAYOM HAHU, and it happened on that day... Wouldn’t you expect that this phrase appears morew than twice in all of Tanach? Only twice. Once with the servants of Yitzchak who reported to Yitzchak about the well they had dug. And again, with Eli HaCohen and Shmuel, the then almost Navi.
[3] KUM LEICH - Get up and go. That command is issued three times in the Torah. Yitzchak tells Yaakov to get up and go to Padan Aram, to the home of Betuel, your maternal grandfather, and take from there a wife from among the daughters of your uncle Lavan. G-d comes toBil’am at night and tells him, if the people have come to summon him, then get up and go with them; but only do that which I will tell you. [L] is for L’HAVDIL. Moshe Rabeinu tells us that G-d said to him, get up and go and lead the People to the Land that I (G-d) had promised their ancestors to give to them.
[4] This was a potentially tricky TTriddle, because the words can be misunderstood and thereby divert the attention of a would-be solver in the wrong direction. It all started with the words VAYIKRA ET. There are over 200 VAYIKRAs in Tanach and they mostly mean And he called to (somebody) or he called (something). For calling to somebody, the word VAYIKRA is either followed by EL (to) or L’ (also, to). Sometimes there are intervening words, but that’s the usual format for VAYIKRA when it is another person (or G-d) who is being called. Very often, the word is used when someone names something. Of 23 VAYIKRA ETs - e.g. Sheit too had a son and he CALLED HIS NAME Enosh, G-d created them male and female, He blessed them,and He called their names Adam on the day He created them, and He called his name Yisrael, And he called the name of the place Beit El - 17 of them are namings. In the Torah, aside from the many names, only three people are called this way, meaning with the words VAYIKRA ET (rather than EL or L’) - namely (pun intended), Yitzchak calls EISAV (in Toldot, that’s why this is a TTriddle for that sedra), Par’o calls his wizards (to interpret his disturbing dream(s)), and again Par’o, who calls YOSEF (who is taken from the dungeon).
[5] Which brings us to the two PPP elements in the ParshaPix. One is a gate contained within the letter C. C is 100 in Roman numerals, gate is a SHA’AR, hence ME’AH SHE’ARIM, which is a well-known Jerusalem neighborhood, but in the context Parshat To-l’dot (where the term comes from) it refers to the success of Yitzchak’s harvest, that the yield was 100 times that which would be expected.
[6] And then there are the names of the two streets where the Israel Center was or is located - Straus and Keren HaYesod. The particular choice of streets is irrelevant; the fact that they are streets is all that counts for this TTriddle. Streets are RECHOVOT, as in the name of the city, but in the context of the sedra, the name of the third well that Yitzchak dug, the one that was not fought over, after the first two had been.

This week's TTriddles:

[1] Mentioned here 5 times. Avot was referring to a different one
[2] Adam & Chava, Lavan & Yaakov
[3] How long is a white quail?
[4] Yaakov was the 6th of 13 individuals in the Torah. Who was the first and who was the last?
[5] An oak pillar in Sh'chem, mound of a siege, and what?
[6] She's confused panic
[7] plus 3 unexplained elements in the Parsha Pix puzzle


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