PARSHA-PIX Parshat Vayishlach

Click on image for enlargement

ParshaPix
Silhouettes of the animals Yaakov sent as gifts to Eisav. Each animal has the number of males and females sent. The second 30 on the camel is not mentioned in the text, but is based on Rashi, that there were an equal number of males that accompanied the "nursing camels".
The ribbon bow among the silhouettes represents the gift aspect of the animals.
The two ancient-looking jugs are the small vessels that Yaakov went back for after he brought his family across the YABOK river.
Notice between the SOLD sign and the tree is the emblem of the WWF. We do not know if Yaakov and/or the Sar shel Eisav were members, but see if your kids can identify the emblem and make the connection.
The SOLD sign over the FOR SALE sign is for the purchase of the land in the Sh'chem area by Yaakov Avinu for 100 K'sita.
D'vora (the bee) was buried under the crying tree.
The baby carriage is for Binyamin.
Kever Rachel is Kever Rachel.
The sword was used by Shimon and Levi to avenge what happened to Dina.
The die with six dots, for the six dots over VAYISHAKEINU. (In past years it was a visual TTriddle - but now we give it away. You can still use it on your children and guests (if they don't read TT) and see if they can figure it out.
That leaves a soda can with a straw and a knife with a blade. Forget the can. It's the STRAW we're after. And the blade of the knife. KASH and LEHAVA. As in the pasuk from the haftara that compares Beit EWisav to straw and Beit Yosef to the flame of the fire that is Beit Yaakov.

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 (VAYEITZEI) 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, one of which is the T-shirt TTriddle:see further

And the envelope, please...
[1] Childwise, No'ach is the one person in Tanach identified as having had three sons. (Others had three sons, but with No'ach it specifically says: VAYOLED NO'ACH SH'LOSHA VANIM... And No'ach bore three sons.) Lavan is specifically identified as having had two daughters. (So was Lot, but let's stay with Lavan so that this TTriddle can belong to Vayeitzei.) One person is identified as having had three sons and two daughters, and that is Chana. Therefore Chana = No'ach + Lavan, childwise.
[2] This is one of those TTriddles born of an unusual phrase. This time, it is ODENU M'DABEIR... he was still talking... (Yaakov to the shepherds), and Rachel came... In Melachim Alef it is Yo'av still saying some- thing to Adoniyahu, when Yonatan b. Avyatar comes... In Melachim Bet, it is Elisha who is talking to the elders gathered to him, which an angel comes...
[3] Yaakov named the place Bet El, but it had been previously known as LUZ. It is possible that no sports team would want to play for a city called LOSE. [The one possible exception is mentioned in [6] below.]
[4] And Yaakov went out from Be'er Sheva and he WENT to Charan. True, at the end of the sedra Yaakov returns, but there is also the command in the haftara of T'SHUVA, return - SHUVA YISRAEL AD HASHEM ELOKECHA... In those years when Rosh HaShana falls on Monday or Tuesday (like this year, 5766), we read Parshat Vayeilechon Shabbat Shuva. So there is also GOING in the beginning of the sedra, and RETURNING in the haftara.
[5] Among the KRI-KTIVs, words written one way and read a different way, we find "here" in Parshat Vayeitzei, a four-letter word that is to be read as two separate two-letter words. BA GAD (in the naming of GAD b. Zilpa by Leah). It is the first 4 letters of the Alef-Bet that are involved in BA GAD. The other example of this type of KRI-KTIV is in the "last" sedra, V'zot HaBracha. There, the letters involved are the first and fourth of the Alef-Bet - ALEF and DALET, and the last two letters, SHIN and TAV. The word(s) is/are read EISH DAT, as two separate words, even though they are written together.
Which brings us to the unexplained elements of the ParshaPix. There are three.
[6] Philadelphia Phillies cap. That team has the ignoble honor of being the losingest team in Major League Baseball. And it goes one step further. They are the losingest team in major league sports (in the US, counting baseball, football, basketball, and ice hockey.) Perhaps, then, they are the modern incarnation of the teams that did play in LUZ.
To be fair to the town of LUZ (Beit El), it is only in TTriddle-land that there is an association with the English word LOSE. LUZ is the hazel tree, one of the sticks that Yaakov used in Vayeitzei at the behest of the angel... LUZ is also the name of the vertebra at the top of the spinal column that is associated with the starting point of T'CHIYAT HAMEITIM. Go Phillies!
[7] Staying with sports, we also have a South Park figure playing dodgeball. (We know it's hard to tell what he's doing.) This is similar to the game MACHANAYIM, as in the concluding word of Parshat Vayeitzei, referring to the twin camps of angels that Yaakov saw upon his return to Eretz Yisrael.
[8] And this brings us to the (unannounced) T-shirt TTriddle. The first correct solution to this Visual TTriddle will get a Torah Tidbits Visual TTriddles T-shirt from Not Just T's - Rechov HaHistadrut, off Ben Yehuda.
T-shirt TTriddle answers should be submitted to us at tt@ou.org or 566-7787 ext. 207. But definitely check out Not Just T's, whether or not you are a TTriddler. Tell them Torah Tidbits sent you.
We will usually announce in advance what the T-shirt TTriddle is. But readers are encouraged to submit solutions to any TTriddles (don't be discouraged if you get just one - send it in). You never know what wins prizes. Noam Production CDs, Big Deal this and that, and Not Just T's T-shirts.
There is a matador waving his red cape at - not a bull, but a pair of lips. As in the haftara, UNSHALMA FARIM S'FATEINU, and our lips (voices in prayer) will replace the bulls (sacrifices).
Old business — SD wrote for Parshat Vayeitzei: TT min HaTorah minayin? As it says: Tov TT (B'reishit 29:18). In the same pasuk we also find mi-TT. Thanks for noticing, SD. FYI (all TTreaders, not just SD), the TT and mi-TT in Vayeitzei are it for the Torah. In Shoftim and Melachim Alef there is one mi-TT each and in Micha their is a TT. And that's it for all of Tanach.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] Vayishlach, B'shalach, Vayak-heiland even more so, D'varim
[2] proof the middle door is also called a back door
[3] Here it's both; in Divrei HaYamim i'ts a KRI-KTIV
[4] (early Chanuka TTriddle) What Bracha do you say on a confused dreidel?

NEW! Nachman K's Jewish Trivia Question:
What letter appears only once in the regular weekday Amida?

[The Parshat Vayishlach Homepage]
[The TORAH tidbits Homepage] [How to use TORAH tidbits]
[About The OU/NCSY Israel Center] [About TORAH tidbits]
 [www.ou.org]