PARSHA-PIX Parshat T'Tzaveh
Click on image for enlargement
Parsha Pix
The sedra begins with the command to take pure olive oil and use it to light
the Menora daily in the Mikdash, so that it will burn (at least) from
evening until morning. (Upper-left and upper-right.)
The shell to the left of the Menora is Murex Trunculus, the snail which is
thought, by a growing number of scholars and rabbis, to be the source of
T'CHEILET, mentioned often (8 times) in our sedra in connection with the
garments of the Kohen Gadol.
The gemstones under the olive oil are for the CHOSHEN. 3 of the 12 are shown
here.
The chain (below the crossword puzzle) is for connecting the CHOSHEN to the
EIFOD.
Of course, that's the Kohen Gadol on the bottom-left. This is one of Davka's
Judaica Graphics. So is the Menora and the Mizbei'ach HaZahav.
The silhouettes (middle-bottom) of the bull and two adult male sheep (a.k.a.
rams) are the inaugural korbanot of the kohanim.
The matza represents the Mincha offerings that accompanied the animal
sacrifices. Most, but not all, Menachot were halachically matza.
At the Kohein Gadol's elbow are two lambs for the twice-daily T'MIDIM.
Although the mitzva to bring the T'midim is learned from Parshat Pinchas,
the T'midim are also mentioned here in T'tzaveh.
We can also consider the lambs and sheep to represent the animals of Amalek
that Shaul brought back with him, supposedly to offer korbanot to G-d.
Shmuel made it very clear to him that he was greatly mistaken in what he
did.
Besides the sheep, Shaul also made the fatal error of keeping the king of
Amalek alive. AGAG was his name, and he is represented by the roof (top-
middle) which in Hebrew is A GAG.
Between the lambs and the knotted elephant is the Golden Altar, a.k.a. the
Incense Mizbei'ach and the Inner Altar. The command to make this Mizbei'ach
does not appear in T'rumah with the rest of the main items of the Mishkan,
but rather in T'tzaveh.
The heart with the graduation cap (upper-left) represents the CHACHMEI LEIV,
the skilled weavers, etc. who did the work on the garments and other Mikdash
requirements.
The pomegranate and bell (lower-right) are for the bottom of the ME’IL of
the Kohein Gadol.
The book marked with a 4 is section 4 of the Shulchan Oreich, known as
CHOSHEN MISHPAT.
The crossword is TASHBEITZ in Hebrew, the word in the Torah for the weave of
the linen garments.
The chest of drawers is a dresser, which is what Moshe was during the week
of Mishkan inauguration.
The elephant with his trunk tied in a knot. The simple explanation is ZACHOR,
since it is well-known that elephants never forget. But we can go a little
further. Tying a knot is a traditional way to give yourself a reminder of
something. So if elephants never forget and a knot is to remember, the
elephant with a knot in his trunk is a depiction of both mitzvot related to
Amalek - ZACHOR and LO TISHKACH.
Joining the other elements of this ParshaPix is Magilla Gorilla. His first
name is in honor of Purim's main mitzva, the reading of the Megila. (His
second name could represent Chanuka and the guerilla warfare tactics of the
Chashmona'im.)
And a remaining unexplained visual TTriddle.
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 (T'RUMA) TTriddles:
[1] Bigger or further apart
This was less a TTriddle and more a question of figuring out what it refers
to. The first covering of the Mishkan, known as the Mishkan, was made of 10
woven panels, five of which were sewn together, as were the other five, and
the two units were joined with 50 loops and buttons. The second covering,
called the Ohel, was made of 11 panels of woven goat hair, sewn into two
units of five and six panels, and also joined by 50 loops and buttons. The
length of the connection formed was 28 amot for the Mishkan and 30 amot for
the Ohel. So the loops of the Ohel were either bigger or further apart (or
both) than those of the Mishkan.
[2] they got along, but no fishing for them
The haftara tells us that there was peace between Shlomo HaMelech and Chiram
king of Tyre. So they obviously got along. The word SHALOM, however, is
spelled without the VAV, so without a hook they couldn't go fishing. (This
is a TTriddle way of calling attention to the way the word Shalom is
spelled. Per- haps the absence of the VAV is significant, in light of the
comments about the word Shalom in Parshat Pinchas, with the broken VAV. Or
maybe not.)
[3] Yehu in the Shomron lengthwise
28. Not the most common number in Torah or NACH. A search turned up 128,
328, 628, 928, 28,600, but very few 28s. 28 was the length of the woven
panels of the Mishkan. 28 was the years that YEHU reigned in Shomron, hence
Yehu in Shomron length- wise. We should have also added sons of Rechav'am -
maybe next time.
[4] In Anatot of the third millennium
In Anatot, in Hebrew, B'ANATOT. Numeric value: 2 + 70 + 50 + 400 +6 + 400 =
928. The year 928 of the third millennium from Creation is 2928, the year
that Shlomo HaMelech commenced the building of the Beit HaMikdash, 480 years
after the Exodus (as stated in the haftara of Parshat T'ruma).
[5] Yosef's brothers, hungry Israelites, anti Aliya rallyists, and what in
our sedra?
The phrase ISH EL ACHIV occurs 13 times in Tanach. That's usually too many
occurrences for a good TTriddle. But only six times are from the Torah, and
three of those are in the same context. Good TTriddle material. The phrase
is used three times to refer to conversations among Yosef's brothers. Once,
it is used to describe the people's reaction to the MN (manna). When it
first fell (they were hungry Israelites), they said, a person to his
brother, hey look at this interesting and tasty stuff (or words to that
effect). In Parshat T'ruma, the phrase describes the K'ruvim atop the Aron,
facing each other. And those who were discouraged by the Meraglim and joined
the anti-Aliya call, said to each other, let's choose a new leader who will
take us back to Egypt.
[6] kids will have mixed feelings
This refers to the title of the Shabbat within the period of the Four
Parshiyot on which no special parsha is read, as a HAFSAKA. School children
know the word well for recess. Something they get positively excited about.
However, this hafsaka refers to Shabbat, when there is no school. Hence the
mixed feelings of kids towards Shabbat being a Hafsaka.
[7] carpet capital of the world # V'CHAFTOR # Tuesday # 1DH429 # Avrech #
Mano'ach's wife's description of Peli
These were six "sort of TTriddles" scattered around last week's issue of
Torah Tidbits, mostly in the footers. The separator in the list above was
purposely chosen to give a hint. That's the SULAMIT, a.k.a. pound sign,
hash, crosshatch, chicken scratch, gridlet, octothorpe, and the number sign,
a hint that each of these elements refers to the issue number of Torah
Tidbits rather than the sedra. Although one of them points to the sedra too.
Let's begin. The carpet capital of the world is Dalton, Georgia (USA). The
area code for Dalton and other parts of north and northeastern Georgia is
706. The word V'CHAFTOR, and a KAFTOR (orb), one of the decorations on the
Menora, has a g'matriya of 706. The word is significant in that there is a
pasuk in T'ruma (and in Vayakhel) that begins with V'CHAFTOR, and repeats a
five-word phrase three times in a row. So that's a connection between the
issue number and the sedra. Which brings us to Divrei HaYamim Alef 4:29.A
pasuk with no connection to anything, except its total numeric value is 706.
Avrech, a term used for young married yeshiva and kollel students, is a
contraction of AV B'CHOCHMA RACH B'SHANIM, mature in wisdom, soft in years.
The g'matriya of that phrase is... surprise - 706. Mano'ach's wife was the
mother of Shimshon HaGibor. An angel appeared to her a few times and her
husband was a little uptight about it. He did not take the visits as
smoothly as she did. He asked the angel his name. The angel seems to have
been annoyed by the request, but the NAVI tells us that his name was PELI.
Mano'ach's wife described the angel as UMAR'EIHUK'MAR'EI MAL'ACH HA'ELOKIM.
His appearance was like the appearance of an angel of G-d. G'matriya: 706.
NachKwestion of the Week
What is the most often-paraphrased passage from the Talmud in davening?
Approximately how many times is it said in the course of 5766?
The answer is (our answer is)...
Y'HI RATZON MILFANECHA HASHEM ELOKEINU V'ELOKEI AVOTEINU SHYIBANEH BEIT
HAMIKDASH BIMHEIRA V'YAMEINU, V'TEIN CHELKEINU B'TORATECHA.
This is from the fifth chapter of Pirkei Avot and is said at the end of the
Amida. With three times a day, four on Shabbat and Yom Tov, five on Yom
Kippur, and it is said at the end of Korbanot (the prayers/recitations
between the Morning Brachot and P'sukei D'zimra), and some people say it
after counting the Omer, it is most probably the most often-quoted passage
of Talmud. And the original question was going to refer to this as the most
often-quoted passage. But that would be problematic. We needed to change the
wording in the Kwestion to most often-paraphased, because the above words
appear in the Siddur's version of Pirkei Avot, but NOT in the actual Mishna
Avot. In several editions of Mishnayot, this is what we found:
Y'HI RATZON MILFANECHA HASHEM ELOKEINU SHETIVNEH IRCHA BIMHEIRA V'YAMEINU,
V'TEIN CHELKEINU B'TORATECHA.
And how many times do we say it in 5766? Let's keep it to Korbanot and each
Amida. Start with 4 times each day of the year, for 5766 with 354 days,
that's 1416 times. Another time for each Musaf of the year. That's 50
Shabbatot, 17 Yom Tov and Chol HaMoed days that are not Shabbat, another 15
Rosh Chodesh days that are not Shabbat, and one more for Ne'ila makes a
total of 1499 times. Add two more for Chutz LaAretz Yom Tov days that are
not Shabbat - 1501 times. There still is 49 times more if you say it for
S'firat HaOmer, and one more time for each Chazanut concert you go to (just
kidding).
So we say it approx. 1500 times in this year 5766.
Interesting, though, how the wording in the Mishna was changed for the use
in davening. Best guess is that it was taken for the Siddur's version of
Pirkei Avot from the davening, but maybe it was vie versa.
And another interesting point. The Vilna Gaon was of the opinion that this
Y'HI RATZON was supposed to be at the end of the fifth chapter of Avot,
which is the end of the original Masechet (the sixth chapter being a
collection of Mishna-like writings that were formed into a sixth chapter of
Pirkei Avot to facilitate the learning/recitation of Pirkei Avot on the six
Shabbatot between Pesach and Shavuot). In a real GR"A siddur, Y'hi Ratzon is
indeed found at the end of chapter five. If anyone can shed more light...
Re the old NachKwestion about three consecutive different words in davening
all with the same root... following the strong petition of BT and others, we
have decided to consider Birkat HaMazon as part of davening, and therefore
accept BAKOL, MIKOL, KOL as one of the correct answers to the NachKwestion.
This week's TTriddles:
[1] Moshe/the people, Yehoshua/Kohanim - verbs please
[2] Question about or demonstration of?
[3] 11 of this species and 14 hitters of a different species wore three
each; in Tanach, one of the former and two of the latter species wore one
each. Explain. (based on BT's submission)
[4] plus one element from the ParshaPix
NachKwestion for Purim:
Find three consecutive words in davening, Tanach, or Shas, where none of the
three is between the other two.
Winner will receive a CD of Nachman Kay singing the Moroccan National Anthem
from the gate of Har HaBayit
[The Parshat
T'Tzaveh Homepage]
[The TORAH tidbits Homepage] [How to use TORAH tidbits]
[About The OU/NCSY Israel Center] [About TORAH tidbits]
[www.ou.org]
|