Torah tidbits
PARSHA-PIX Parshat Vayigash

Click on image for enlargement

ParshaPix
Across the top of the ParshaPix, from right to left, are the TRUP marks for the first six words of Vayigash. See the comment in the Sedra Summary.
If you’ve got U.S. sports fans among your Shabbat guests and/or household, you might want to challenge them with the Pix before they read the solution.
The basketball player is labeled CHI for Chicago, as in the Bulls. The football player is labeled DET, for the Detroit Lions. Together they represent the clash between Yehuda (Lion) and Yosef (Shor).

See the diagram of a square knot? It stands for V’NAFSHO K’SHURA V’NAF-SHO, and his soul was tied up with his soul (Yaakov and Binyamin).

To the right of the knot are five shirts, standing for the five changes of clothes that Yosef gave to Binyamin.

He also gave him 300 silver pieces, represented by the money sack marked with... with what? (TTriddle).

There are two of the wagons that Yosef sent to Yaakov, to bring the family down to Egypt... and to remind him of the Torah topic they last studied together.

The noble steed, a.k.a. Donkey with 10+10 above him stands for the donkeys (10 CHAMORIM and 10 ATONOT) that Yosef sent to Yaakov with provisions for their trip to Mitzrayim.

See the dreidel? Purposely a Chutz LaAretz one, with SHIN. The letters of the dreidel rearrange to spell GOSHNA, to Goshen. This, from Vayigash, which is almost always the post-Chanuka Shabbat.

Next we have the number 70, marked with an asterisk, and an arrow pointing downward. This represents the 70 souls who went down to Egypt. The asterisk reminds us that one had gone down much earlier (Yosef) and two others were born in Egypt (Efrayim and Menashe), but are still counted among the 70.

That leaves three visual TTriddles (in addition to the markings on the money sacks).

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 (Mikeitz-Chanuka) TTriddles:

[1] Mazal Tov Andy & Ayalah
[2] The ace TTriddle solver is...?
[3] This is a connection between Sukkot & Chanuka
[4] What a google was invented for
[5] Peleg and S'rug ___ at the same age that ___
[6] plus one element from the ParshaPix

And the envelope, please...

[1] In addition to the real mazal tov to Andy & Ayalah on BackPage B, we used them in a simple TTriddle. Their family name is Haas, a word that appears in the haftara of Shabbat Chanuka.
[2] Yosef, of course. Par'o declared him Tza'f'nat Pa'nei'ach. Rashi, following Targum Onkeles, explains this unique phrase as the one who explains the hidden (mysteries). If Yosef was that, then he certainly would have been the ace TTriddle solver.
[3] Obviously, if this was a TTriddle (which it was), then the answers are NOT the 8 days each, or Hallel, or ascending and descending numbers of candles and bulls in Musaf, or any of the other real connections between Sukkot and Chanuka. In fact, the answer to this TTriddle was stated in the TTriddle itself. The word THIS is a connection. The 8th day of Chanuka is called ZOT CHANUKA, this is Chanuka. On the 8th day of Sukkot, i.e. Sh'mini Atzeret, a.k.a. (in Israel) as Simchat Torah, the Torah reading is V'ZOT HABRACHA. So "this" is a connection between Sukkot and Chanuka.
[4] Actually, googol was spelled wrong. But using the google spelling allowed several readers to find a solution different from the one originally intended, and one solver got solutions for both spellings. First, Google is an internet search program, which people connected to Yosef searching the belongings of the brothers to find his special Cup. The other googol is a mathematical term for 10 to the 100th power, or a 1 followed by 100 zeroes. That number is so unimaginably large that nothing in the known universe would need a number that large to count it. So it might have been invented (in TTriddle terms) for the grain Yosef collected during the years of plenty. The Torah tells us that they stopped counting it because there were no numbers large enough.
[5] Fill in the blanks: [Peleg and S'rug] each had their first sons [at the same age (30 years old) that] Yosef was when he stood before Par'o.
[6] In the lower-right corner of the ParshaPix was the logo for Club 365, which is the special card of the department store chain in Israel, HaMashbir. Yosef is described as HaMashbir, the sustainer of all the people of the land.
Yes, as several readers pointed out, the solution to TTriddle number 3 was left out of the report last week. Thank you for that observation. We were hoping to get away with ignoring [3], since after working for 45 minutes on trying to solve it (having forgotten the solution), we gave up.
This week, prizes to RHM and MM/Bklyn.

This week's TTriddles:

[1] As one, in hand, I will bring, a fish (separate prize)
[2] When reading of redeeming one's house, the pasuk reminds you of something in Vayigash
[3] money, arrows, gourds
[4] Yosef, Avimelech, David, Achashveirosh, Ochu
[5] Whose son has to watch out for whose son, if he is an early riser?
[6] Hey, Ma Nishma?
[7] E:C = Y:D • How many?
[8] That leaves three visual TTriddles (in addition to the markings on the money sacks).


[The Parshat Vayigash Homepage]
[The TORAH tidbits Homepage] [How to use TORAH tidbits]
[About The OU/NCSY Israel Center] [About TORAH tidbits]
 [www.ou.org]
 
The Torah Tidbit Archive