Torah tidbits
PARSHA-PIX Parshat Shemini

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Parsha Pix
The CALF was the first of the one-time special korbanot on opening day of the Mishkan (following the seven inauguration days).
The RAM was also part of those EIGHTH DAY korbanot.
8=8 means that the 8th day of SHMINI was the 8th day of Nissan. That is one opinion. The other opinion is that it was Rosh Chodesh, as in 8=1.
The negation circle over the wine represents the "rules of conduct" for kohanim upon entering the Mikdash, which included not drinking wine on the day of their performing Avoda.
The fire is the fire that was used by Nadav and Avihu... It is a strange fire because the flames are blue and green. (If you have only the hard-copy of TT with its black & white ParshaPix, then you can consider the fire the one from the Mizbei’ach, the one they SHOULD have used. Or imagine it being blue and green.)
Each year we depict a kosher and non-kosher mammal, bird, and fish, under the check mark and the X respectively. We'll treat the six elements as one visual TTriddle.
The havdala candle represents the repeated theme in the sedra that a major purpose of many of the mitzvot presented is to distinguish - between sacred and profane, between tahor and tamei, etc.
The big hook, in Hebrew, VAV, is for the big VAV of GACHON.
The other visual TTriddles are the Danish flag and the roundabout.

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 (TZAV-PURIM) TTriddles:

[1] 12 times in the Megila? V'HANORA B'NORATECHA
[2] medians connect vertices to these
[3] 2847 miles • 4581 km
[4] Sort of fulfills 429:1
[5] 12 ALEF, 6 TAF, RESH, YUD, 5 PEI, DALED, 2 SHIN, SAMECH, NUN, LAMED, 1 MEM, ZAYIN
[6] Fiji in 1970 and Achashveirosh
[7] Just this once; the other five are Bnei Yisrael
[8] several elements from the Parsha Pix

And the envelope, please...

And the envelope, please...
[1] V'HANORA B'NORATECHA are words from Shacharit of Shabbat and Yom Tov. Specifically, they are the words right before HAMELECH. That is, LIFNEI HAMELECH. And that's an interesting phrase, occurring 36 times in Tanach, 12 of which are in Megilat Esther.
[2] In a triangle, the line connecting a vertex of one of its angles with the midpoint of the side opposite that angle is called a median. There are three midpoints of the three sides of a triangle. There are three midpoints (p'sukim, words, and letters) in Parshat Tzav.
[3] This is the distance from capital (New Delhi) to capital (Addis Ababa) from HODU to KUSH, as in the 127-state kingdom of Achashveirosh.
[4] Shulchan Aruch Orech Chayim 429:1 tells us that we should begin reviewing the laws of Pesach 30 days before the Chag. Parshat Tzav sort of does that by commanding the eating of matza and prohibiting the baking of chameitz. The "sort of" is because neither of those commands deal with Pesach; they deal with most Menachot (flour and oil offerings).
[5] This is the letter-count for the names of Haman's 10 sons. When looking over the list, I noticed a large number of repeat letters, as the tally in the TTriddle indicates.
[6] What's the connection between Fiji 1970 and Achashveirosh? Fiji became a member of the United Nations in 1970. That brought the total number of member states to 127.
[7] TZAV ET AHARON... Besides this TZAV ET, there are 5 others in the Torah, all TZAV ET B'NEI YISRA'EL.
And now for the unexplained ParshaPix elements. There are 9 elements, not counting the ear, but they group into four visual TTriddles, as follows:
[8] Winnie the Pooh, known in Hebrew as Pooh HaDov, and in short in both languages as POOH. p=a+b+c is the formula for the perimeter of a triangle. We can call the perimeter a rim. So we have PU-RIM M'SHULASH.
[9] The boxes of Reynold's aluminum foil stand for the G'LILEI CHESEF, as in the description of Achashveirosh's palace.
[10] Raggedy Ann and a telephone makes DOLL-PHONE, DALFON being one of Haman's sons.
[11] The logo of Hadassah Medical Center represents Hadassah. CH3COOC2H5 is the molecular formula for ethyl acetate, a colorless volatile flammable liquid, used in perfumes, flavorings, lacquers, pharmaceuticals, and rayon and as a general solvent, which is an ester. Next comes the baseball bat and then the dod bird, giving HADASSAH, she is ESTHER BAT-DODO (his cousin).
[12] The ear in the upper right corner had its connection, to the sedra, with the thumb and big toe. Additionally, there are at least three connections to the Purim and Megila. Hamentashen, Oznei Haman, Haman's ears. The mitzva to hear the reading of the Megila. And the word IR occurs 12 times in Megila, including three times the phrase IR vaIR (every city).
All in good fun. What wasn't, we humbly apologize for
This weel's TTriddles Champ is DM - be in touch

This week's TTriddles:

[[1] Bale of turtles. Army of turtles?
[2] Beginning of the second half of what Par'o thought was his first dream
[3] TTriddle-proof allowing grape juice for what?
[4] Lutjanidae are because they have them and something else
[5] major, minor, chromatic, pentatonic, Harri Holkeri, Karita Mattila
[6] plus elements from the Parsha Pix


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