PARSHA-PIX Parshat Vayeitzei
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ParshaPix
How do we know that Yaakov Avinu wore a Kipa? Vayeitzei Yaakov, and Yaakov
went out... Would he go out without a kipa?! Old joke, represented by the
KIPA
The road sign could have been at the side of the road that Yaakov traveled
at the beginning of Vayeitzei, with Be’er Sheva behind him and Charan still
to come. En route, Yaakov encounters “The Place” where he spent the night
and had his famous dream.
Speaking of which, there's the rock he put by his head and the ladder
standing on the ground climbing heavenward
U’FARATZTA, and you shall spread out in all directions, is represented by
the compass.
Yaakov promised to give G-d (so to speak) MAASER, one tenth, .1
There are 10 babies in cradles, with an 11th one facing the other direction
(for Dina) and then a 12th one in the boy direction, for Yosef.
The plant above Yaakov’s pillow-rock (also the rock he moved from the mouth
of the well) is a mandrake, the DUDA’IM that Reuven collected for his
mother.
There are two of the sticks Yaakov used to induce the production of the
striped, speckled, and plain sheep and goats.
Ice cream, G’LIDA, which is the Targum of KERACH in Yaakov’s tirade about
his cold nights spent watching over Lavan’s flocks.
The Torah Tidbits logo with a thumbs up signal is for Lavan's endorsement-
TOV T.T.
The sine wave is a GAL (not the English gal, the Hebrew for wave), as in the
pile of rocks at the end of the sedra.
3 items unexplained: 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 (TO-L'DOT) TTriddles:
[1] The T-shirt TTriddle: To which Jerusalem neighborhood did Rivka send
Yaakov? 1st 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
And the envelope, please...
[1] Solutions for the T-shirt TTriddle should be submitted the same way
solutions for any TTriddles are submitted: email to tt@ou.org or phone to
(02) 566-7787 ext. 207. They should not be submitted to Not Just T's. As
stated, the first correct solution wins a custom-printed T-shirt from Not
Just T's.
This TTriddle has nothing to do with Charan or Padan Aram, since it was
Yitzchak that sent Yaakov there, not Rivka. True, it was Rivka's idea, and
she told Yaakov to flee Eisav, but she prompted Yitzchak to do the sending.
Earlier, Rivka sent Yaakov to bring her two goats, so that she could prepare
the special dishes for Yitzchak. The Jerusalem neighborhood associated with
two goats is Emek Refa'im, a.k.a. the German Colony and Baka. On Rechov Emek
Refa'im, there is a metal sculpture of two yellow goats. In TTriddle-land,
they obviously mark the spot that Rivka sent Yaakov for the two goats.
Honorable mention to JS for Bayit Vegan, since he was going to family, it
would feel like home (BAYIT) but he would be GONE from his real home. And to
the E family for Mattersdorf, which means Mother's City. No winner yet, as
of Sunday (when this page is printed); if a winner is declared before TT is
completed, an announcement will appear elsewhere in this issue.
[2] There are many terms in the Torah for prayer. Prominent from the
beginning of Parshat To-l'dot is the word VAYE'TAR. Yitzchak (and Rivka)
prayed for children, and that is the term used for their prayer. A search in
Tanach reveals that the others that VAYE'TARed were Moshe Rabeinu and
Mano'ach, father of Shimshon HaGibor.
[3] Many TTriddles are born from rare words of phrases in the sedra. If a
word or phrase is unique, it doesn't usually end up as a TTriddle. And, of
course, if a word or phrase occurs very often, it doesn't make a good
TTriddle either. The phrase ANSHEI HAMAKOM, the people of the place, i.e.
the locals, occurs twice in the same pasuk in To-l'dot (26:7). In this pasuk,
the locale is GERAR. In this week's sedra (Vayeitzei) the phrase appears
again, referring to Lavan's friends and neighbors, the wedding guests, so
the locale is CHARAN (or Padan Aram). In Vayeishev, Yehuda goes looking for
Tamar (he didn't know it was Tamar) and inquires of the locals, the people
of Timna.
[4] Rabbi Shabtai b. Meir HaKohein (1621-1662) of Vilna is better known in
the yeshiva world as the SHACH, an acronym for Siftei Kohein. That phrase
comes from the haftara of To-l'dot. Among his other works is N'KUDOT HAKESEF,
a response to the comments of the TAZ, the other main commentary on the
Shulchan Aruch.
[5] The two unexplained elements in the ParshaPix both play off the tow
truck. The tow truck by itself was a Hebrew play on words for GERAR. Above
the truck is the emblem of NAHAL, as part of IDF. Combined with the truck it
reads NACHAL GERAR, the place where Yitzchak settled after Avimelech kicked
him out of Gerar.
From the back of the tow truck is an arrow pointing to the computer icon for
a DOS prompt. Together it gives the Ashkenazit pronunciation of the sedra,
TOW-L' (to, that's the arrow) DOS.
This week's TTriddles:
[1] Who = No'ach + Lavan, childwise?
[2] Rachel, Yonatan b. Evyatar, an angel
[3] Why Bet-El is reluctant to field sports teams
[4] Going and returning is common to these two sedras
[5] first 4 here; 1st & 4th with last 2 in last
[6] plus 3 elements from the ParshaPix
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