Torah tidbits
PARSHA-PIX Parshat Vayikra

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Parsha Pix
Pelephone represents G-d calling to Moshe (after the Cloud lifted, Moshe had K'LITA).
Cow, goat, sheep, and dove are all represented.
As is the Mizbei'ach for the Korbanot
Salt shaker is for salting all korbanot
Hand with pinky sticking up and thumb pointing out is the Kohen's K'MITZA.
In his palm, within the curl of the three middle fingers is the quantity of the Mincha dough that was burned on the Mizbei'ach, and the amount of L'VONA that was added to the Mincha.
Kidney is referred to several times in the sedra.
Flour and oil are the main ingredients of Minachot and the frying pan and oven are two methods of preparing the Mincha.
Upper right is branch of the Boswellia Thurifera tree, from whose resin comes L'VONA.

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 (Vayaqhel-P’kudei - HaCh) TTriddles:

[1] First Greek letter in Aramaic to Hebrew to Roman numeral
[2] 6-hook score: 15-12, what?
[3] Two ways of looking at it: 3335 • 4433 • 4454 or 344 • 344 • 335 • 534
[4] Approx. 96,288,061.50NIS as of Wednesday, March 17th
[5] plus a cluster of pictures from the Parsha Pix
[6] and the graphic with the 6, a 2 and plus sign

And the envelope, please...

[1] EB traced this one perfectly. First Greek letter is alpha. ALFA is the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew ELEF, 1000. In Roman numerals, that’s M - the solution to this TTriddle.
[2] I often layn at Mincha Gedola on Shabbat in my shul. While preparing the reading for the “preview” of Vayaqhel, I noticed that the list of materials collected for the Mishkan was almost the same as the list in Parshat T’ruma, differing only in an occasional VAV HACHIBUR, the conjunctive VAV. That’s the meaning of 6 (which is the numeric value of VAV) and hook (which is VAV in Hebrew). These are the materials to be collected (note the word AND, which indicates a VAV): Gold and silver and copper. And blue-dyed wool and purple-dyed wool and crimson-dyed wool and linen and goats hair. And sheep skins dyed red and Tachash skins and acacia wood. Identical until this point. From here, the extra VAVs in Vayaqhel are represented by the extra ANDs in parentheses. (And) Oil for lighting (the Menora), (and) spices for the anointing oil and the incense. (And) Shoham stones and gemstones for the Eifod and for the Choshen. The final score is 16-13, Vayaqhel over T’ruma. The 15-12 score of the TTriddle neglected to count the VAV of V’LACHOSHEN, which would have been okay not to count, but then neither should the VAV of V’LIKTORET HASAMIM been counted, which they were. Either 14-11 or 16-13 would have been better than 15-12, so this was a sloppy TTriddle. Nonethe- less, EB’s daughters did justice by the TTriddle by going in a different direction, of which there were two possible paths to take. 6 is not only VAV, but SHEISH, which also means linen, which is mentioned quite often in the sedras. Hook means VAV and VAV as hook is also mentioned often, in the plural form and connecting form. Neither got to the right “scores”, but then they weren’t “right” either.
[3] So far, two solvers have not only solved this one, but both (EB and RHM) have corrected the careless interchange of the last two digits in the last number. There are two ways to look at the stones of the CHOSHEN: Three stones each in four rows or four stones in each of three columns. Actually, there are opinions that the stones were arranged in four columns of three stones each (which can also be seen as three rows of four stones each). Which- ever. Following the names of the stones mentioned in the p’sukim and counting the number of letters in each name, we get the three- and four-digit numbers of the TTriddle.
[4] P’kudei has the totals for gold, silver, and copper in the collection for the Mishkan. The figure in NIS is the value of the gold only, based on the price of gold on Wednesday, March 17th ($406.50 per ounce), a shekel rate of 4.5NIS per dollar, and most importantly, it is based on Rav Aryeh Kaplan’s figure for the amount of gold in pounds, rather than KIKAR and SHEKEL. It further assumes that the pounds referred to in the footnote in the Living Torah are Troy rather than Avoirdupois. Troy pounds have only 12 ounces, but the ounces are larger than the Av. ones. Anyway, this was another TTriddle that was able to be “figured out” without being figured out, since TTriddles solvers would instinctively know that it had to do with the amounts of the precious metals from P’kudei.
[5] In last week’s ParshaPix explanations from page 45 (which would have been page 51 if pages were numbered sequentially, without exception or deviation), it said: “The set of pictures in the upper-right are a little hard to make out. There is a photo of a popular, wonderful, fantastic shiur-giver at the Center, a picture of the Lone Ranger and his trusty steed. And a graphic of a British bobby. What they are supposed to mean is for you to work out.”
The shiur-giver is none other than HaRav Sholom Gold, dean of the Avram Silver (which could have been for the second metal) Jerusalem College for Adults of the Seymour J. Abrams • Orthodox Union • Jeusalem Wolrd Center (which some of you probably still think of and even refer to as the OU Israel Center). So Rabbi Gold is for ZAHAV. L’havdil, the Lone Ranger’s trusty steed was Silver. (His faithful Indian - or should we say, Native American - companion was Tonto, whose horse was Scout.) KESEF. And a policeman, expecially a British policeman, is called a copper, or cop for short. NECHOSHET. Hence, the trio of pictures represents the three metals used in the construction of the Mishkan.
[6] On page 36, there was a large number 6 with a 2+ inside it. Once in each of the two sedras of last week, the words TOLAAT HASHANI is followed by UVASHEISH, referring to red-dyed wool and linen. If you take the SHANI as SH’NEI and add the U (SHURUK, VAV with the dot in it from UVASHEISH), you get 2 and, or 2+, followed by BASHEISH, in the 6. Something like that. EB had a slight variation, which was also good. In fact, so far (as of Sunday 3:00pm), his is the winning solution set. We’ll see.

This week's TTriddles:

[1] Never on Shabbat Chanuka, but this Shabbat YES
[2] Mentioned four times in Bamidbar (book), he is numerically connected to Vayikra (sedra)
[3] What shape is Aramaic taking?
[4] Confused buffalo translates to something smaller


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