PARSHA-PIX Parshat Sh'lach

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Parsha Pix
Some straightforward items and some word plays.
Mad Magazine's Spy vs. Spy, which we can apply to the 10 black Meraglim vs. the 2 white ones. They are carrying a bomb... like a grenade, RIMON in Hebrew, one of the fruits that the Meraglim brought back. The author of Spy vs. Spy always signed his name in Morse code. Here we have Kalev’s call in Morse - ALO NA'ALEH.
The compass represents the directions that Moshe sent the Meraglim to explore.
The grapes refer to the timing: "...And the days were the days of the ripening of the grapes." (B'midbar 13:20).
The tree with the eye is a play on words: See if the Land has trees IM AYIN, or not. Switch the initial ALEFs of IM AYIN to AYINs and the question becomes: Is there a tree with an eye?
Towards the upper-right are the spies with the grapes as they appear in the emblem of the Ministry of Tourism and the logo of Carmel-Mizrachi Wines. Interesting how both industries took the same emblem.
Among the names of the Meraglim (including fathers’ names) are three related to animal names: Gadi b. Susi and (Amiel b.) G'mali.
Flour (flower), Olive Oyl, and wine are for the MENACHOT and N’SACHIM presented in the sedra.
The Challah stands for the mitzva of CHALLAH.
Tzitzit, obvious.
To Olive Oyl's left is Murex Trunculus, possible (probable) source T'cheilet, used by many people today for that aspect of the mitzva.
The heart with the eyes combine the two warnings of not to follow the evil temptations of your heart and your eyes.
Lower-left is the wood gathered on Shabbat and the stone used to execute the Shabbat desecrater.
The window with a red ribbon hanging from it is the sign for Yehosha's army to spare the lives of Rachav and her family. Between the tzitzit and the heart is the emblem of Jewish Scouts, sort of a description of the Meraglim.
Steam shovel (earth mover) is a play on LACHPOR HAARETZ, to "dig" the land, also to scout it out (as in the haftara).
The NY is the logo of the NFL New York Giants. The meraglim reported that they had seen giants in the Land.
The key, a skeleton key, is (used to be) referred to as an EFES KEY. Labeled with a zero, it served as a master key for many doors with that type of lock. EFES KI... is a phrase from Parshat Shalach.

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'haalot'cha) TTriddles:
[1] iiigniiiious (sep. prize)
There are three basic types of rock on Earth. Remember your sixth grade earth science unit? Or at least ninth grade? Anyway, they are sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous. We're interested in the word igneous, as misspelled as it is, because what you have in that word is a rock with the letter i in it seven times. Orin TTriddle talk, a rock with seven eyes, as mentioned in the haftara.

[2] two meanings, neither rare
This is a good one. It deals with the word NA, that's NUN-ALEF. The word appears twice in the famous, short prayer of Moshe Rabeinu on behalf of his sister, Miriam. KEIL NA R'FA NA LA. Several commentaries point our that the first NA means "please", as the word very often does. G-d, please... The second NA means "now".Heal her now. If you look at Targum Onkeles, you will find the same word rendered differently each time. The word NA in B'haalot'cha has two meanings, but neither of the meanings is "rare", as the word means back in Parshat Bo, when the Torah forbids us to prepare the Korban Pesach any other way than fire-roasted. NA in that context means not fully done, or rare. And so this was another play on words in the TTriddle, since neither definition of NA is rare, since they both are common, and neither was "rare", since one was "please" and the other was "now".

[3] one if by land, one if by sea
This is, of course, a variation of the famous call of Paul Revere on his midnight ride, one if by land, two if be sea. He was referring to a lantern signal to tell people which way an attacking force of British soldiers would approach. Here, in TTriddle-world, it is a reference to Nachshon b. Aminadav, who is the leader of the first tribe to travel in the Midbar (on land) - Shevet Yehuda. So he was number one on land. And, according to Tradition, he was the first into Yam Suf, so he was also one if by sea. In fat, there is an expression in modern Hebrew - K'FITZAT NACHSHON, Nachson's jump (into the sea), which has the connotation of a bold, brave, pioneering action. To go where no one has gone before.

[4] Under it, rhymes with me; in it, hear it well; over it, not that far
The letter HEI. And a DOT. A dot under a HEI is a CHIRIK and makes the HEI sound like HEE, which rhymes with "me". A dot in a HEI is called a MAPIK, occurs at the end of a word, and requires that the HEI be well sounded, aspirated. A dot over a HEI is rare, but does occur in B'haalotcha over the HEI at the end of the word R'CHOKAH. Commentaries say that the dot indicates that a person which is "far" from the place of Korban Pesach, and therefore exempt from bringing it, does not really mean very far at all. One of the opinions in the Mishna is that if one is outside the Temple area, he is considered to be B'DERECH R'CHOKA. Not far at all. (The other opinion calculates to about 15km.)

[5] 02 open out in close 02
Open the Ark, take out the Torah. Later, after reading it, put the Torah in and close the Ark. (Of course, the Ark doesn't stay open the whole time the Torah is out, so the TTriddle might have said, "open, out, close, open, in, close.) During the taking out and putting in of the Torah, we say various passages, including the two bracketed p'sukim in B'haalot'cha. The brackets are backwards NUNs. NUN is 50 numerically, and a digital looking 50 when written backwards will look like 02.

[6] 23 days late in Cholon, 30 in L.A.
In Parshat B'haalotcha, we find the description of the first traveling from Sinai done by Bnei Yisrael. It occurred on the 20th of Iyar, a bit over a year following the Exodus and a little under a year from the Sinai experience. In Cholon (and all over Israel), that portion of the Torah was read last Shabbat, 23 days after the 20th of Iyar. In L.A. (and all over Chutz LaAretz) it will be read this coming Shabbat, 30 days after 20 Iyar. The choice of Cholon and L.A. was random and without special significance to the TTriddle.

[7] 4 is its only factor that is missing
In describing how much quail there will be to eat, the Torah says in Bamidbar 11:19 - You will eat it not for one day, not for two days, not for five days, not for ten days, and not for twenty days.

With the numbers 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20, you have almost the full factor set for 20. The only factor of 20 missing is 4. To refresh your memories: A factor of a number is another number that will divide the first number evenly, without a remainder. A number is always a factor of itself (although it is called an improper factor). 1 is a factor of all numbers. Sometimes, 1 and the number itself are the only factors of the number. In that case, the number is called PRIME. In the case of 20, in addition to 1 and 20 being factors, so are 2, 4, 5, and 10.

[8] D& A bad; E & M good; rich & poor
HC, this week's winner, answered this one very nicely. Here are his words:
The rare phrase SH'NEI ANASHIM (two men) is mentioned only four times in Tanach. The first occurrence relates to the two bad men Datan and Aviram (D & A). The second occurrence (in B'haalotcha) refers to the two good men Eldad and Meidad (E & M). The character of the third pair is unknown and that is probably why they are not represented in the riddle. The fourth occurrence is in the famous parable of the prophet Natan to King David involving two men, one rich and one poor.

NachKwestion of the Week
List names of people in Tanach whose fathers' names are the names of animals (or close to it)

We asked and received some additional names to add to last week's list. KOREI and NACHSON are both birds. KALEV is spelled the same as KELEV. Could this be why we don't hear of many KALEVs, even though he is certainly a good person to take a name from? GADI is close to G'di. BE'EIRI is not as close to BEAR. And a few others.

This week's NachKwestion really belongs to a couple of weeks ago, but it will be a long time until it is 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.

This week's 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
[2] Head of Yissachar and its spy
[3] for two, theirs have to same ratio; for the other, its is what?
[4] This time 3 same letters; usually a 3-letter word
[5] Where do we find the inverse ration of the Ceit HaMeragim Decree?
[6] does the water army fear the copper vessels on land?
[7] He's just a huge mixed up marble

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