PARSHA-PIX Parshat Bamidbar

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Parsha Pix
The major component of the ParshaPix for Bamidbar is/are the flags - 12 of them - representing the flags of the tribes, as they camped and as they marched. The flags here do not represent any specific tribes, but the one with the crown could be for Shevet Yehuda. And the one with a bunch of carrots marked 2.50 was our whimsical suggestion for the flag of Machane Yehuda. The one with the flower could be for Reuven, perhaps. Don't obsess on the individual flags; they were chosen to number twelve and to differ from each other, as the tribes differed from each other, but were not meant to specifically represent the Tribes.

The compass stands for the different sides of the Mishkan the different groups camped, both among the Leviyim and the 12 Tribes..

The parking meter represents the encampments, since the modern Hebrew word for parking has the same root as to encamp. LACHANOT.

The abacus is for the various countings. (Works better than a calculator because there are no batteries to run down, nor does it ever need charging. The abacus is best-suited for desert counting.)

The skull with the 5 on it comes from 3:47 in the portion of the exchange between firstborns and Leviyim (who were not themselves firstborns). We would say, 5 shekel a head. The Torah uses the term GULGOLET, skull.

And let's not forget the desert scene with the cactus and blazing sun, in the upper-right corner of the PP. Our Midbar is better translated as Wilderness, rather than desert, but there plenty of desert too that Bnei Yisrael passed through.

The three diamond engagement rings in the lower- right are for the final two p'sukim of the haftara, the words we say when winding the T'filin strap around the middle finger of the left hand (or right hand, for lefties), symbolic of our betrothal to G-d.

Middle-bottom of the ParshaPix is a garlic and the chemical formula for sugar. The Sugar formula is raised to the third power, or CUBED. These then represent the sugar cube and garlic clove that are a common "gift" to those at a Pidyon HaBen. In the sedra, we find a mass Pidyon of the first-borns of the 12 tribes. BTW,the significance of the garlic and sugar is to give those who participated at the special Seuda of the Pidyon something to add flavor to their next meal, thereby connecting it to the Pidyon's meal and extending the special nature and SEGULA of that Pidyon meal to one's own table.

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'har-B'chukotai) TTriddles:
[1] Proportionally, 5 times stronger than 5
We've played this TTriddle different ways over the years. It refers to the part of the promises by G-d if we "walk in His laws". Five will be able to repel 100 and 100 will chase away 10,000. If we play with the numbers, at the five - hundred level, each one of ours repels 20. At that strength, 100 would repel 2000. Butt he Torah says 100 chases away 10,000, so each of the hundred is proportionally 5 times stronger than each of the 5.
[2] Why would we hesitate buying a used car at the Osaka Nissan Auto Auction?
The Osaka Nissan Auto Auction is one of the biggest Japanese used car auctions. It is held every week (on a Wednesday) and 2500-3000 are on the block each week. Our (TTriddle) problem with it is its acronym, ONAA. This is the Hebrew term (from Parshat B'chukotai) for cheating in business. Would you buy a used car from a guy named Joe Fraud or from a company called Deceit Ltd.
[3] Can be asked about korbanot, e.g. Tamid
Check out Vayikra 7:37,38. Basically the Torah is summarizing the details of korbanot that have been presented until that point. These are the laws of the korbanot... that G-d commanded Moshe at Har Sinai, making it one of the few other places in the Torah that the question MA INYAN (blank) EITZEL HAR SINAI? And in Parshat Pinchas, we find that the specific korban, namely the T'midim, daily sacrifices, are referred to as OLAT TAMID HA'ASUYA B'HAR SINAI... Again, one can ask MA INYAN...
[4] 5 times throughout Shabbat (incl. Motza"Sh), and an extra time this Shabbat
Yirmiyahu 17:7 is BARUCH HAGEVER ASHER YIVTACH BASHEM V'HAYA HASHEM MIVTACHO. On any Shabbat, assuming that one eats three meals with HaMotzi, he will say this pasuk three times in Birkat HaMazon (last paragraph). He will also say it in UVA L'TZIYON at Mincha and again after the Amida of Maariv after Shabbat in V'ATA KADOSH. This Shabbat (referring to B'har-B'chukotai), it was also said as part of the haftara.
[5] The mixed up product of my fields
My fields in Hebrew is SADAI, SIN-DALET-YUD. One of the terms for the produce of the field, mentioned in B'chukotai, is DAYISH, DALET-YUD-SHIN, which is an anagram of SADAI. The phrase "mixed up" in TTriddles (following Cryptic Crossword Puzzle clues) is usually a hint to an anagram.
[6] Equals its g'matriya's digit sum
Towards the beginning of B'har, we find the pasuk SHEISH SHANIM... V'SHEISH SHANIM... The word SHEISH (meaning 6) only occurs one other time in Vayikra. So this B'har pasuk is two out of three. The g'matriya of SHEISH is 600. The digit sum of 600 is 6+0+0 which is 6, which is what SHEISH means.
By the way, in the world of g'matriya, the regular numeric value of a word is called MISPAR GADOL, the big number. Using the digit sums of the g'matriya of each letter produces the word's MISPAR KATAN, the small number. In Mispar Katan, BET, KAF, and REISH are all valued at 2. Significance is given sometimes to a word's (or phrase's) MISPAR KATAN. So put in another way, this TTriddle points out that the word SHEISH is its own MISPAR KATAN.
[7] Eicha, Rice Lake
These were Footer TTriddles, referring to the issue number, rather than the weekly sedra.
If you list the books of Tanach in order, you will find that Eicha is the one after Ruth. Just as the Torah Tidbits number (715) was one after Babe Ruth's 714 (home runs).
Rice Lake is a small city (8000+ population) in Wisconsin. Its area code is 715.

Plus an unexplained object from the ParshaPix
The element in the ParshaPix for B'har-B'chukotai is barbells. First explanation that would pop into someone's mind would be the book-ending CHAZAK CHAZAK which rang out in shuls last Shabbat. But there is something that the barbells represents, and that is the haftara, which begins with the words HASHEM UZI U'MA'UZI...HaShem, my strength and my fortress.

Dear Parents,
ParshaPix on page 3 of each issue of Torah Tidbits presents a wonderful opportunity to draw your children into a discussion about Parshat HaShavua. Ask your child if he or she reviewed the sedra in school. If yes, ask if they can tell you what this <point to an element of your choice of the many in each ParshaPix>. Very often, items will have layers of significance to the sedra. This makes it very useful for the children that will get the "easy stuff" and have to work out the harder ones. The barbells are just such an example. One child will struggle for the CHAZAK CHAZAK angle. The other child who gets that right away and is bored with such an easy question, has the second challenge. Etc. ParshaPix exist for the intergenerational review of Parshat HaShavua, as well as host-guest discussion around the Shabbat table. Use ParshaPix well.

NachKwestion of the Week
What is the most common pasuk in T'hilim?
What is the second most common, and what is particularly interesting about it? [EB]
Inspired by EB's submission for this "corner", the question became a two-parter because of a unique type of pasuk found in T'hilim - namely, the introductory pasuk, such as
LAMINATZEICH MIZMOR L'DAVID, of which there are nine, making this pasuk the most common in T'hilim. That would have been the end of the NachKwestion, except that this and others are not "real" p'sukim. No insult meant, but you get the point. So the search continued until it found the following pasuk:
YODU LHASHEM CHASDO V'NIFLOTAV LIVNEI ADAM:
"Oh that people would praise G-d for his loving kindness, and for his wonders to humankind."
This is in T'hilim 107, pasuk 8. And 15. And 21 and 31 - that's four times, making it the most common "regular" pasuk in T'hilim. All the more interesting, since the four occurrences are all in the same Perek.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] the Month TTriddle
[2] And that would have made all 7 days this week, had Rosh Chodesh not been on Sunday
[3] 10 times this week all over; once (sort of) in Chutz LaAretz next Shabbat; 4 times the following Shabbat here, 4 times the following Shabbat there. (prize)
[4] From those mentioned in the sedra, who's in the Wilderness Rock Band?

NachKwestion of the Week
The sun in Tanach:
For whom did the sun stop?
For whom did it regress?
Who got sunstroke?
Who got suntanned

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