PARSHA-PIX Parshat Tazria

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Parsha Pix
Top row, left to right: baby boy, 7+33 days for the mother. Knife for Brit Mila. Then a baby girl with 14+60 days. The numbers are the days of Tum'a and Tahara following a birth. Then come the dove and lamb, which are two parts of the Korban Yoledet, the offerings of the woman who has given birth.
On the next row (from the left) is a hand afflicted by a NEGA and a shirt, representing those garments and materials that are able to be afflicted with NIG'EI HABEGED.
They are followed by a CHAMELION, noted for changing colors - a significant factor in the determination of NEGA'IM.
Plus 2 visual TTriddles.
The traffic light was a visual TTriddle last year. It also refers to the changing of colors in the NEGA'IM. This is a particularly appropriate graphic to use for this, since its colors are all mentioned in the sedra. Hair in a wound changing to yellow (or not). And the term Y'RAKRAK, greenish (or maybe strong green). So too ADAMDAM, reddish, or powerful red.
In the lower-right corner is HaRav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohein Kook, zt"l, wearing glasses. This stands for the oft repeated V'RA'A HAKOHEN, and the kohein saw. Searching the Tanach, one finds that the phrase occurs 14 times altogether, 13 in Tazri'a (chapter 13 therein) and once , a 14th time, in chapter 14 (M'tzora). And to make the life of a Bar Mitzva boy who is trying to study this parsha miserable, the V'RA'A HAKOHEN phrase comes in 8 different TROP-combinations. And this doesn't take into account the 5 V'RA'AHU HAKOHENs with their TROP variations. And this is also not to mention the 40 HEI-VAV-ALEFs in this short sedra, 18 of which are HI (meaning she) and 22 of which are HU (meaning he), but in most cases really meaning "it". And none of this mentions M'tzora, another hard sedra to learn well, which is more often combined with Tazri'a than not. But we digress...
In the lower left corner is a calendar marked with a 1. This obviously represents HaChodesh and the mitzva to make the calendar, and the designation of Nissan as the first month among the months.
That leaves two unexplained items which are visual 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. 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 (SHEMINI-Para) 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

And the envelope, please...
[1] After the Torah tells us of the mammals, fish, birds, and insects that we may and may not eat, there is a list of small animals that "breed on land". They are all non-kosher. Named among them is the TZAV. Rav Aryeh Kaplan renders the TZAV as ferret, claiming that the other animals in the same pasuk are also mammals (weasel and mouse). In modern Hebrew, the TZAV is a turtle. Targum Onkeles for TZAV is TZAVA, the same word as the Hebrew for army. That led to one of the many websites that list the special names of groups of animals. Herd of antelope, pride of lions, gaggle of geese, et al. Some group names are quite fanciful: murder of crows, convocation of eagles, prickle of porcupines, and a bale of turtles. But our suggestion based on Onkeles is "army of turtles" (or ferrets). (The list of collective nouns has business or fesnying of ferrets.)
[2] Par'o thought he had two dreams - one with cows and one with grain. Yosef told him that the dreams were one. The first half of the first (part of the) dream were the seven healthy, fat cows. The beginning of the second half is the eighth (SH'MINI) cow (PARA) as in last Shabbat's designation: SH'MINI-PARA.
[3] TTriddle-proof is not like child-proof, but a proof, TTriddle style, that grape juice is acceptable for Havdala. The Torah says (Vayikra 10:9-10) that wine and beer cannot be drunk... and to distinguish (HAVDALA) between Kodesh and Chol...If one cannot drink wine for Havdala, then it follows that grape juice is acceptable. (Remember, this is only in the world of TTriddles, not halacha, since the text is not talking about Havdala.)
[4] Lutjanidae is the family of fish known as snapper. They are (kosher) because they have (SNAPIR - snapper, get it?) and something else (scales).
[5] major, minor, chromatic, and pentatonic are types of musical scales. Harri Holkeri is a former prime minister of Finland and former speaker of the UN General Assembly. Karita Mattila is a famous opera singer from Finland. So this TTriddle's solution is scales and Finns.
[6] In the ParshaPix are six items representing kosher and non-kosher mammals, birds, and fish.
The mammals are represented by two NFL football teams - the Chicago Bears (not kosher) and the St. Louis Rams (kosher). The kite is for a kite, a predatory bird in the hawk family (not kosher). The kosher bird is represented by the logo of an NHL hockey team, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. A skate is a non-kosher fish closely related to rays and sharks. And the spearhead is called a pike, which is a kosher fish.
[7] The other unexplained elements of the Parsha- Pix are the flag of Denmark and the symbol for a traffic circle (a.k.a. roundabout) with N7/M50 below it. Both these pictures represent the Para Aduma. In past years, we used a red cow with a Communist (Red) hammer and sickle. We decided an more obscure things this year. In surfing the web for "red cow", two interesting TTriddle possibilities came up. The red background of the Danish flag is based on the skin of a red cow. And there is a roundabout in Ireland where the National Primary Route N7 intersects the M50 motorway, known as the Red Cow Roundabout. Believe it or not, GR got the roundabout (and others). We'll see what else he and other TTriddlers come up with.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] Matza and this day
[2] Haftara reminder of Purim
[3] Some give them honorable mention this Shabbat
[4] If ZELIG is the boy, what's the girl's name?
[5] Each can get them. Together they are what?
[6] 2 elements from the Parsha Pix

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