PARSHA-PIX Parshat Yitro

Click on image for enlargement

Parsha Pix
Upper-left is the hearing ear of VAYISHMA YITRO, and Yitro heard. You can ask and/or answer the famous question, what did he hear that brought him to Judaism.
B"H in upper right was said by Yitro when he heard all the things that G-d had done for Israel. From that we are taught that one makes a bracha on miracles. Who else said BARUCH HASHEM in the Torah?
The scales represent the justice system, Yitro's suggestions, Moshe's response, etc.
One of the outcomes of Yitro's advice was the assignment of "captains" of groups of 1000, 100, 50, and 10 - represented by the Roman numerals M,C,L,X.
When Bnei Yisrael arrived at Har Sinai, they displayed a unity that is captured by the word VAYICHAN, and as Rashi puts it, we were like one person with one heart. That's the graphic under the ear.
The Shofar is one of the symbols of the Sinai experience, as we more than mention on Rosh HaShana.
The washing machine is for the people to clean their clothes during the preparatory days for Matan Torah.
Wine cup is for Kiddush (ZACHOR) and the negation circle is for the prohibition of Melacha, including writing, watering plants, digging, sewing, building.
Do not steal (the Xed out thief) and do not go up to the Mizbei'ach with steps (the negated ladder) are two other prohibitions in the sedra.
The volcano represents Har Sinai all smoking from the fire of G-d’s presence “upon” it.
The tongs are from the haftara. An angel flew to the Heavenly Mizbei'ach and picked up a glowing coal in a pair of tongs. He then touched the coal to Yeshayahu's lips, representing a purifying process that would allow the prophet to speak on behalf of G-d.
The MEM SOFIT, which is better called a "Closed" MEM, appears in the haftara in the middle of a word, rather than at the end, where we are used to seeing that kind of MEM. Not a bad idea to point it out to the Maftir in your shul before he reads the haftara, so he won't mistakenly read it as a SAMACH.
That leaves one additional graphic element as a visual TTriddle. This one isn't going to be easy, but our more experienced solvers should give it a try.

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 (B'SHALACH) TTriddles:
[1] A dozen ballpoint pens have them - 5 Iyar thru 15 Tammuz
[2] Dalfon the Fuller Brush man
[3] All of Torah and three portions thereof, and one other item
[4] A question, good food, bad person
[5] Lavan, Nevayot, Nachshon, Aharon - What and who else?
[6] Three did this in the Torah: Avraham, Lavan, Par'o

And the envelope, please...
[1] These could have been presented as separate TTriddles, but they belong together and putting them in the same box made solution easier - based on the number of correct solvers. Ballpoint pens have springs. A dozen pens have 12 springs, as did EILIM - the place Bnei Yisrael camped en route to Sinai. The Torah tells us that there were also 70 date (trees) there. So too, there are 70 dates between 5 Iyar and 15 Tammuz.
[2] Dalfon was one of Haman's sons. He was therefore an Amaleki, like his father. The classic Fuller Brush man was/is a door to door salesman. Together, we has a play on the final words in B'shalach - BA'AMALEK MIDOR DOR.
[3] The TTriddle was amended to three portions thereof. HASHIRA HAZOT - This Song. The phrase appears 10 times in Tanach, 8 of which are in the Torah. The first is in B'shalach and refers, of course, to SHIRAT HAYAM. The Song of the Well and Haazinu are the other two portions of the Torah that are described as HASHIRA HAZOT.Several uses of the term are considered to be talking about the whole Torah. The two references in the rest of Tanach (Shmuel Bet and T'hilim) both refer to the Song of David upon being saved from his enemies.
[4] HEI-MEM-NUN. [Question] G-d asked Adam HaRishon if he had eaten from the tree that He had commanded him not to eat from - HAMIN HA'EITZ... [Good food] HA-MAN, the Manna. [Bad person] HAMAN.
[5] People have names, of course, but they are sometimes described as Joe's brother, Sid's nephew, Shirley's sister-in-law, etc. Five people in Tanach are identified as the sister of someone. Rivka is referred to as ACHOT LAVAN HAARAMI. Eisav took Machalat, daughter of Yishmael, ACHOT NEVAYOT as a wife. Aharon took Elisheva...ACHOT NACHSHON as his wife. Miriam, AHARON'S SISTER took a tambourine in her hand... And, in Shmuel Bet, AVIGAL bat NACHASH is also identified as ACHOT TZ'RUYA
[6] VAYIRDOF, and he chased, pursued. Avraham, Lavan, and Par'o are the three in the Torah who VAYIRDOFed. There are several others from Tanach.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] What else besides what's in 10?
[2] Usually 5 on a Shabbat; this Shabbat - 6
[3] Brit, Birthdays, Shavuot, dirty guy with torn clothes, Pesach
[4] 747 + dove + hockey team
[5] Describes part of the Sinai Experience, as well as a Plague Ender and an illness
[6] Initial upper/lower mirror-image marks
[7] plus one element from the ParshaPix

TTriddles apology: Due to a computer problem (all right, and a human error), some of last week's TTriddles were missing words in the email versions and on the website. Sorry 'bout that.

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