Torah tidbits
PARSHA-PIX Parshat No'ach


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Parsha Pix
A classic ParshaPix we've used before, with a change and a couple of additions.
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 are 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. This year they all mean "water". As mentioned in the Lead Tidbit, we are adding another 15 languages to the 7 represented in the title on the front page. In the ParshaPix, to the left of the leaning tower, from top to bottom, are the words for water in the following languages: Luxembourgish (similar to the German word, but with an additional a), Zulu, Chinese, Swedish, Tamil, Gaelic, Italian (Latin), Carib, Finnish, Welsh, Hungarian, Albanian, Bengali, Korean, and Indonesian. You can believe that I am conversant in each of these languages, or that I found a website with water in many languages. Your choice. And then there are two unexplained elements of the PP for you to solve.

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. 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 (Sukkot-B'reishit) TTriddles:

[1] Its name sounds like something we cannot use to cover it
[2] Followed by Kaddish, Kaddish, Kiddush
[3] The two 2-parters, the tall one, the last one
[4] 31.1T if you get around to it
[5] it was immediately, not 6 months later
[6] The 7 on the 7 minus the 7

And the envelope, please...

[1] BASUKOT TEISHVU... In Sukkot you shall dwell... Thus begins Vayikra 23:42 which gives us the mitzva of Sukka. Targum Onkeles renders the word SUKKOT as M'TALAYA, which sounds like METAL, which cannot be used for S'CHACH.
[2] Vayikra 23:44, VAYDABEIR MOSHE... is said on the eve of Yom Tov right before the Kaddish and Amida (but not according to Minhag Yerushalayim). On the first day of Sukkot, the pasuk was read right before the Kaddish between the two Sifrei Torah. And at Kiddush on Yom Tov morning, it precedes BOREI PRI HAGAFEN, which is Kiddush.
[3] In the ALEF-BET, there are only two letters that are written with two separate parts: KUF and HEI. They are the two 2-parters. The tall one (letter) is LAMED and the last one is TAV. These four letters spell KOHELET, the megila read on Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot.
[4] 31.1 T (t'fachim) is the circumference of the smallest kosher circular sukka (if you get a round to it - get it?) The minimum dimensions (length and width) of a sukka are 7 by 7 t'fachim. In order for a circular sukka to be kosher, a 7x7 square would have to be able to be inscribed in it. The diagonal of a 7x7 square is 7 times the sqare root of 2, which is about 9.9. The square's diagonal is also the circle's diameter. The circumference is pd, which is approx. 31.1. (Mishna B'rura uses 1.4 as an approximation for the square root of 2 and 3 as a low approximation of PI. He therefore concludes that a circular sukka with a circumference of 29.4 t'fachim is kosher. Using closer values for the square root of 2 and PI give the number in the TTriddle. An interesting halachic question is whether a circular sukka with a circumference of 30T is kosher or not.)
[5] Sukkot was the very first place the people of Israel camped after leaving Egypt, rather than Sukkot (the holiday) being 6 months after Pesach.
[6] The 7 (1 etrog + 1 lulav + 3 hadasim + 2 aravot) on the 7 (days of Sukkot) minus (except for) 7 (Shabbat).

This week's TTriddles:

[1] Pyle Gog Paras Athens Kayin Chochma Jiffy Pop
[2] His father's northern boundary
[3] Rosh Chodesh is his foot
[4] Elokim four times, who else & what?


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