PARSHA-PIX Parshat To-l'dot
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ParshaPix
Top-left is Yaakov with his lentil stew.
Next to him is one of Yitzchak's workers on a break from digging wells.
Continuing across the top, we come to a Seder plate. Rashi tells us that it
was the first night of (the future) Pesach that Yaakov presented himself to
Yitzchak for the bracha. Rivka told Yaakov to bring her two goats. Just to
feed Yitzchak, you need two goats? Rashi answers that one was for the main
dish and the other for Korban Pesach.
Upper-right is a king on his father's back. The hand is pointing to the
father, who would be AVIMELECH. This is not the only pun in this week's
ParshaPix, as you will see.
The rain cloud is part of the bracha that Yaakov received.
The sword is part of the bracha to Eisav.
The lion cub on the map of Israel is another pun - GUR BAARETZ HAZOT.
Actually, live in this Land...
The tow truck is another pun - Yitzchak lived in GERAR.
The passport is for Yaakov who is being sent abroad by both Yitzchak and
Rivka. Yitzchak never needed a passport, but Yaakov did.
The teddy bear is holding aloft the number 7 in one paw and an upraised hand
in the other. There are two meanings to the name Be'er Sheva. One is from
the seven sheep that Avraham gave Avimelech as a token of the covenant
between them, and the other is for the oath(s) that were taken in that
agreement. SHEVA has both connotations.
Lower-right is the Davka Judaica Graphic of Yaakov, the studious ISH TAM,
dweller in the tent of Torah study, and Eisav, the ISH SADEH, the man of the
field, the hunter.
Straus and Keren HaYesod are the streets on which the Israel Center was and
is. They are Rechovot, as in the name of the well.
C is 100 in Roman numerals. With a gate inside the C, you get ME'AH SHE'ARIM.
There are also 2 new Visual TTriddles.
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 (CHAYEI SARA) TTriddles:
[1] Avraham : Sara :: Ido : whom?
[2] Among many others, only these... Ada, Hagar, Sara (twice), Bilha, Zilpa
(twice), [3] Rachel, Ada, Maacha
[4] Nine extroverts in the beginning
[5] Avraham, Yehoshua, David
[6] At least twenty million
[7] That leaves the Zodiac TTriddle
[8] Two unexplained elements in the ParshaPix
And the envelope, please...
[1] The TTriddle should have read: Avraham is to Sara as who is to Ido?
Avraham came LISPOD, to eulogize Sara. Only one other occurrence in Tanach
of someone coming to eulogize someone. It is in Melachim Alef 13. A "man of
G-d" (Rashi says it was Ido the prophet) delivers a message from G-d and
performs a miraculous sign to King Y'rav'am. He (Ido) is then deceived by a
false prophet and disobeys G-d as a result. Consequently he dies, and the
false prophet regrets what he did, laments Ido's death, and he LISPODs him.
Something like that.
[2] Among the many women that give birth in Tanach, this is the short list
of the times it says [VATEILED name of the women]. It does say it twice in
reference to Sara Imeinu, but the two ADAs on the list are different people.
One is one of the wives of Lemech, blind killer of Kayin; the other is a
wife of Eisav. These are the children named after VATEILED so-and-so: YAVAL,
Yishmael, Yitzchak, Naftali, Gad and Asher each follow a VATEILED ZILPA,
Binyamin, Elifaz, Peresh. Remember, there are many more VATILEDs, but only
these 8 women's names directly for the word VATEILED.
[3] Extroverts are outgoing people. In the Beginning means B'reishit. In
this TTriddle, reference is to people in the Book of B'reishit whose names
follow the word VAYEITZEI. They are: Kayin, No'ach, Bera (king of Sedom),
Lot, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Eisav, Chamor (father of Sh'chem), Yosef.
[4] The sedra contains the unusual phrase to describe Avraham's advanced
years: ZAKEIN, BA BAYAMIM. The haftara uses the same phrase for David
HaMelech. Anyone else? Just Yehoshua. Twice. That's it. Interesting, there
ages at death were 175, 70, and 110 respectively. So the phrase means more
than advanced years.
[5] Lavan's blessing to Rivka (which is used for brides at weddings unto
this day) included, May you be the mother of thousands of myriads. Thousands
is plural. Minimum plural is two. so Lavan's blessing was for Rivka to be
the ancestries of at lease 2000 ten-thousands, which is 20,000,000 or twenty
million.
[6] For several months now, in the Word of the Month box on page 2, we have
been using a TTriddles version of the mazal of the month (Zodiac symbol),
rather than the traditional symbols. We switch to the new month on the
Shabbat of Rosh Chodesh Benching. Kislev's month symbol is old time actor
Errol Flynn (1909-1959) in the role of Robin Hood, who was an expert archer.
The mazal of Kislev is Sagittarius, a.k.a. the Centaur, a.k.a. the Archer.
[7] In the ParshaPix, there is an arrow from the gift package to the bull.
The represents the phrase at the end of the sedra describing where the
families from Yishmael traveled and dwelt - from CHAVILA (package) to SHUR
(homograph of SHOR).
[8] DING, DING, DING. This is not just a visual TTriddle. This is the first
Not-Just-T's TTriddle, the first submitted solution thereof wins a custom
made T-shirt from Not-Just-T's. What you have in the lower-left corner of
the ParshaPix is a badge. No, not the police or even the FBI, it is a badge
of that special organization known as CONTROL. (Just found a terrific
website www.wouldyoubelieve.com, and searched it to find out what CONTROL
stood for. It didn't. It's just the word. In contrast to KAOS.) The badge
belongs to Agent 99, played by Barbara Feldon. And finally, we come to the
TTriddle. As a female agent, 99 was a SOCHENET, a word that appears twice in
the haftara of Chayei Sara, in reference to Avishag. These are the only two
appearances of the word in Tanach.
[9] In Chayei Sara: Sara (11), Yitzchak (13), Eliezer (by name, 0), HaIsh
(9) Eved (13), Avraham (37). This was NOT a TTriddle, but it might have
looked like one. It is the number of occurrences of various names and
monickers in Chayei Sara. Noteworthy is the fact that Eliezer is never
called by his name, just the Servant,Avraham's servant, and the Man, a total
of 22 times. Let's add a couple more names to fill out the picture. Rivka
(13), Lavan (3), Betuel (4), Yishmael (6). Notice the balance with 13
Yitzchaks and 13 Rivkas. Also balanced are Ha'Ish and HaEved at 9 each. What
does it mean? Does it mean anything? Maybe something.
This week's TTriddles:
[1] The T-shirt TTriddle: To which Jerusalem neighborhood did Rivka send
Yaakov?
First correct answer wins a T-shirt from Not Just T's, Rechov HaHistadrut,
off Ben Yehuda. Whether or not you get this TTriddle, it's K'DAI to check
out Not Just T's. Tell them Torah Tidbits sent you.
[2] Two others who prayed the same way
[3] Gerar, Charan, Timna
[4] Author of N'KUDOT HAKESEF
[5] plus two elements from the ParshaPix
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