PARSHA-PIX Korach

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Parsha Pix
Split-ground earthquake scene. Fire.
Korach and his gang meet their end in one or the other (some say Korach got both)
Guard at his post - Leviyim
Gift, representing the gifts of the Kohen and Levi as found in the sedra
5 coins are for Pidyon HaBen
Largest part of the ParshaPix are the barren staffs of the tribes surrounding the flowering staff of Aharon
Lamb in a baby carriage, B'CHOR B'HEIMA T'HORA
Earth with a mouth - PI HA'ARETZ
Percent sign stands for the tenth of a tenth the Levi gives to a kohein
Cow and bee are for the Land flowing with milk & honey
Negated Eeyore (donkey) is from Moshe’s and Shmuel's statements
Sickle and storm cloud are from the haftara. Shmuel invoked a severe storm; at the time of the cutting of the wheat, no less!

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 (Sh'lach) TTriddles:
[1] TTriddle double holdover: We're still looking for a Biblical personality who would call Shavuot something slightly different. Hint: His name is one of the books of Tanach

Okay, enough holding onto this one. We were looking for Daniel. If you look through the book (actually or by computer search) you will not find the word Shavuot, meaning weeks. Yet the word weeks appears six times in an English translation. Interest- ingly, the plural of SHAVU'A (meaning week) in the book of Daniel is SHAVU'IM, all 6 times, rather than SHAVU'OT. Nowhere else in Tanach do we find the word SHAVU'IM. Note that most masculine nouns are pluralized with a YUD-MEM ending and most feminine words with a CHOLAM-TAV, but by no means is the plural ending of a word a reliable indicator of its gender. There are so many exceptions, that it barely would qualify as a rule. SHULCHANOT, CHALONOT, SHANIM, MILIM are some examples of the crossed-plural ending. So is SHAVU'A. except for Daniel.

[2] Head of Yissachar and its spy
The head of Yissachar refers to the word's first letter. The head of Yissachar is the letter YUD. Its spy was Yig'al b. Yosef. His initials are YUD b. YUD. Same initial as his tribe. Shafat b. Chori has the same initial as his shevet, but his father doesn't. So too with Nachbi b. Vafsi from Naftali, and G'u'el b. Machifrom Gad. But only Yissachar has both initials match.

[3] for two, theirs have the same ratio; for the other, its is what?
Let's fill out the wording of the TTriddle with the words that will make the question less difficult to understand (which, of course, makes it less of a TTriddle and more of a plain, ordinary question. For two of the kinds of animals offered as korbanot in the Beit HaMikdash, their Mehachot have the same ratio of flour to oil; for the third animal, its ratio is looser. A bull (PAR) gets 3 TENTHS of an EIFA of flour to half a HIN (with is 6 LOGIM) of oil. Ratio is 6 LOG : 3 ESRONIM or 2:1. A ram (AYIL) gets 2 TENTHS with a third of a HIN. That's 4 LOG to 2 ESRONIM, also 2:1. But the lamb (KEVES) gets one ISARON flour with a quarter of a HIN oil. That's a ratio of 3 LOG to 1 ISARON, producing a looser, more liquidy mixture than the other two animals.

[4] This time 3 same letters; usually a 3-letter word
This time, Parshat Shlach, the last five p'sukim are followed by a PEI-PEI-PEI in a Chumash, indicating the end of a sedra (with the following sedra beginning with a Parsha P'tucha). Usually, twice daily, every day, those same five p'sukim, which are the third passage of the SHMA, are followed by a 3-letter word, namely EMET.

[5] Where do we find the inverse ratio of the Cheit HaMeragim Decree?
The CHEIT HAMERAGLIM (sorry for the typos in the original presentation of this TTriddle) DECREE was one year per day. Forty years of wandering for 40 days of the our of the Land. YOM L'SHANA YOM L'SHANA, a day for a year, a day for a year. This phrase occurs in only one other place in Tanach - in Yechezkeil 4:6. G-d tells Yechezkeil to lie on his right side for 40 days, a day for each year of the iniquity of the people of Yehuda. (This followed 390 days on his left side, for the 390 years of iniquities of the people of Yisrael.) This is the same ratio of sin to punishment (sort of), but they are inverse of each other. Day to year and year to day.

[6] does the water army fear the copper vessels on land?
M'OD M'OD, very much (or something like that). The word-pair occurs 6 times in Tanach. In Sh'lach, Kalev called the Land of Israel very, very good. Back in Parshat No'ach, it was the water that great very, very high. In Melachim Alef, we find a description of the very, very many copper vessels that Shlomo HaMelech had made for the Beit HaMikdash. In Melachim Bet it is used to describe being very, very afraid. Yechezkeil describes with it a very, very large army. The other time M'OD M'OD appears is in the description of Yaakov's wealth when he was ready to leave Lavan's house. That is not represented by this TTriddle.

[7] He's just a huge mixed up marble
This was the easiest - and gotten by more solvers - of the bunch. Marble is SHAYISH, SHIN-YUD-SHIN. Mixed up, you get the name of one of the giants mentioned in the description of what and who the meraglim found in K'na'an. SHEISHAI.

NachKwestion of the Week
This week's NachKwestion really belongs to a couple of weeks ago, but it will be a long time until it is next an actual question, so we're going for it now, while Shavuot is still in the recent past.
It's a little complicated, but the answer is interesting. We'll see if anyone gets it.
On the Friday evening following our one day of Shavuot, and being the eve of the second day of Yom Tov for outside Israel, we had the following situation. Jews all over the world davened an abridged Kabbalat Shabbat and then Maariv. The Amida of Maariv was different one from the other, but the rest of the davening was very much the same. Let's leave out the differences in Nigun, melody of the davening, let's leave out the p'sukim right before the Amida, since Minhag Yerushalayim is not to say them, and let's not consider a difference between Adon Olam and Yigdal which might exist. What this NachKwestion is looking for is a QUALITATIVE difference to some part of the davening on that Friday night between Israel & Chu"L.

We have, so far, received two correct solutions (acknowledged elsewhere in this issue). More might still come in.
After the Amida of Friday night davening, we say VAICHULU HASHAMAYIM... together, as a TZIBUR. Have you ever wondered why we say it again if we just said it in the silent Amida and will be saying it a third time in Kiddush. The answer is Yom Tov that falls on Shabbat. The Amida for Shabbat-Yom Tov contains references to Shabbat, but its main theme is Yom Tov and the specific passage of VAICHULU is not said. Therefore, we all say it once in shul (and once more at the table) after the Amida. In a strange disproportionate LO PLUG (not to make a distinction) we say it after the Amida every Friday night, even when it isn't Yom Tov. (Sort of like the tail wagging the dog.) A couple of weeks ago, Chutz Laaretz people said that VAICHULU "for real" and we in Eretz Yisrael said it by extension of the Yom Tov rule to the rest of the Leili Shabbat of the year. There was a qualitative difference, therefore, in that specific passage. (Next scheduled for three years hence.)

Winners of the NachKwestion prize this week: ZR/RBS, EB (so far)

This week's TTriddles:
[1] choice of representation is a good play on words in Hebrew (works in English too)
[2] Named 39+13 times in one book. Second name appears once in A and in "cleaned up" version in B
[3] Home of (Mork &) Mindy
[4] could also connect with Shavuot or Vayeitzei
[5] At least maybe he had nachas from his father's cousin's namesake
[6] This time, they send and we take
[7] She didn't want him to follow one side or the other, but to be his ____ person

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