PARSHA-PIX Parshat Yitro

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Parsha Pix
Upper-left is the hearing ear of VAYISHMA YITRO, and Yitro heard. You can ask and/or answer the famous question, what did he hear that brought him to Judaism.
B"H in upper right was said by Yitro when he heard all the things that G-d had done for Israel. From that we are taught that one makes a bracha on miracles. Who else said BARUCH HASHEM in the Torah?
The scales represent the justice system, Yitro's suggestions, Moshe's response, etc.
One of the outcomes of Yitro's advice was the assignment of "captains" of groups of 1000, 100, 50, and 10 - represented by the Roman numerals M,C,L,X.
When Bnei Yisrael arrived at Har Sinai,they displayed a unity that is captured by the word VAYICHAN, and as Rashi puts it, we were like one person with one heart. That's the graphic under the ear.
The Shofar is one of the symbols of the Sinai experience, as we more than mention on Rosh HaShana.
The washing machine is for the people to clean their clothes during the preparatory days for Matan Torah.
Wine cup is for Kiddush (ZACHOR) and the negation circle is for the prohibition of Melacha, including writing, watering plants, digging, sewing, building.
Do not steal (the Xed out thief) and do not go up to the Mizbei'ach with steps (the negated ladder) are two other prohibitions in the sedra.
The volcano represents Har Sinai all smoking from the fire of G-d’s presence “upon” it.
The tongs are from the haftara. An angel flew to the Heavenly Mizbei'ach and picked up a glowing coal in a pair of tongs. He then touched the coal to Yeshayahu's lips, representing a purifying process that would allow the prophet to speak on behalf of G-d.
The MEM SOFIT, which is better called a "Closed" MEM, appears in the haftara in the middle of a word, rather than at the end, where we are used to seeing that kind of MEM. Not a bad idea to point it out to the Maftir in your shul before he reads the haftara, so he won't mistakenly read it as a SAMACH.
We then have a former visual TTriddle: four dots (should be only three dots) and a short vertical line. Graphically, these are the additional marks needed for the 4-mitzva/commandment pasuk to transition between the TAAMEI TACHTON form and the TAAMEI ELYON.
The first 3 parts of the pasuk change TROP and as a result, the DAGESH KAL returns to the TAVs. And the TZADI of TIRZACH gets a KAMATZ instead of a PATACH, because the word now is at a SOF-PASUK. Hence the three dots and short vertical line. Note that in Israeli S'fardit pronunciation, there are no changes. In Ashkenazit, SIRTZAWCH becomes TIRTZACH. SIN-AF/TIN-AF; SIGNOV/TIGNOV.
That leaves two new unexplained elements, which therefore are 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

New format for TTriddles. Let us know if you like it this way or the "And the envelope please" old way

Last issue’s (B'SHALACH) TTriddles:
[1] XLXXLXXLXXLXXLV
Are these sizes? XL, extra large and XXL, extra-extra large? No. Someone went with that and actually tied it with something in the sedra, even though the knot was so loose that it opened by itself. How about Roman numerals? Yes. So let's insert spaces to make the numbers more obvious. XL (that's 40) then X, which is 10.Again XL, X, which is another 40 and 10. And again. And again. And finally, a V, which is 5. So we have 40,10,40,10,40,10,40,10,40,5. Now let's convert the Roman numerals to Jewish ones. That gives us MEM, YUD, MEM, YUD,MEM,YUD, MEM, YUD, MEM,HEI. Separate this string of letters into two words that appear in the sedra and you get the unusual phrase MIYAMIM YAMIMA. Which appears only once in Tanach, in the book of Sh'mot, in Parshat Bo. So you must be wondering what it's doing as a TTriddle for B'shalach. Excellent question. We have no idea. Actually, we have a very good idea. It was put in by mistake. Sorry. Still, it is an unusual sequence of letters. Maybe unique. We searched for HEI and YUD alternating, but only found a smaller sequence.
[2] Lavan, Nevayot, Nachshon, Aharon; What and who else in NACH?
In Chumash, there are four people who identify their sisters. That is, Rivka is called ACHOT LAVAN. One of Eisav's wives was MACHALAT b. Yishmael, the sister of NEVAYOT. Aharon married Elisheva b. Aminadac, ACHOT NACHSHON. And Miriam is called ACHOT AHARON when she takes the TOF in her hand to lead the women in songs of praise and thanks to G-d for the splitting of the Sea. These four are the WHO in Torah. The WHAT you just saw. The other WHO are in Nach. The following are people in the rest of Tanach whose names follow the word ACHOT. NACHAT, ACHAZYAHU, TACHP'NEIS, AVSHALOM, and TZ'RUYA. Of these 9 people where were the sister of someone- all are brothers, except for TZ'RUYA, who, herself was a sister of David HaMelech.
[3] G-d/Chava, kings/Avraham, Yaakov/Lavan, people/Moshe
WHAT DID YOU DO?!? MA ZOT ASITA or ASIT? G-d asked Chava, to which she answered that the NACHASH enticed her to eat from the Tree. Both Par'o and Avimelech asked Avraham what he did by saying that Sara was his sister. What I almost did! Yaakov said it to Lavan when he realized it wasn't Rachel he married. To which Lavan answered that in these parts, it doesn't work to marry off the younger before the older. And the people challenged Moshe with that same phrase - why did you take us out of Egypt...
[4] Torah is not the only thing it precedes [l'havdil]
We turn to Pirkei Avot for that which "precedes" the Torah. DERECH ERETZ KODMA LATORAH. Manners, proper behavior. Perhaps, earning a livelihood. The words DERECH ERETZ also come before the word P'LISHTIM, l'havdil, in the beginning of Parshat B'shalach. The words do not mean the same thing in these two contexts, but that's the way TTriddles work.

NachKay Jewish Trivia Question: What Brachot that are said only once a year? Prizes for the best lists.
Many solutions received to this question, but two individuals stand out among the many, having gone above and beyond with their solutions.
The original answer to this question consisted of four brachot that are said once a year by Jews all over the world. That means making no distinction between Eretz Yisrael and Chutz LaAretz. After we present these four, we will mention other brachot that are said once a year by the Jews of Israel, and twice by the Jews outside of Israel.
Lighting of candles for Yom Kippur is accompanied by a bracha that is said only once a year: L'HADLIK NER SHEL YOM HAKIPURIM.
Searching for Chametz, nullifying it, and burning it are covered by the bracha we say right before we begin B'dikat Chametz on the eve of the 14th of Nisan. AL BI'UR CHAMETZ.
Upon seeing fruit trees in bloom during the month of Nisan, there is a bracha to recite. This is said only once a year. SHELO CHISAR BA'OLAMO DAVAR...
The Jerusalem bracha of the Amida has a different and unique text for Mincha on Tish'a b'Av. M'NACHEIM TZIYON UVONEI YERUSHALAYIM.
Aside from these four, for Eretz Yisrael we add AL ACHILAT MATZA and AL ACHILAT MAROR. These are said twice each in Chutz LaAretz.
The Geula bracha at the Seder right before we drink the second cup is also a once a year bracha for Jews living in Eretz Yisrael. (Or, according to some poskim, for Jews celebrating Pesach in Eretz Yisrael, regardless of where they usually live.)
Once we get past those brachot, the question cracks wide open. One of this week's winners (HC) submitted a list of 105 brachot. Some can be argued away, but the vast majority have to qualify.
Are we to count the first bracha of the repetition of the Amida of Yom Kippur Shacharit, for example, because the PIYUT makes it different (and once a year) from all other first brachot of the Amida? If we allow it, then there are many, many more like it. And since we asked people to be creative,
I guess we have to allow them. So HC and EB take this week's honors. The question really needs to be reworded to prevent so many technically correct answers.
Speaking of technicalities... we should really disqualify L'HADLIK NER SHEL YOM HAKIPURIM, since when YK is Shabbat, the bracha is modified. So it is not said once a year (on average). It is said "no more than once a year". If the wording of the question includes that phrase, YK candles are in.
A personal favorite is AL S'FIRAT HA'OMER, when the person forgot to count the second day. But of course, that one is disqualified for obvious reasons.
Let's leave matters at that. Enough said... for now.
On another note, several people have already responded to our request for more questions. Because this feature was initiated by Nachman Kay, we will continue to call the question of the week the NachKwestion, regardless of who submitted it.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] All of ours in general, hers in particular
[2] In the year that who what?
[3] G-d, Yitro, Micha, David HaMelech
[4] The others are Naomi, Machlon and Kilyon
[5] There is a hidden TTriddle hiding in plain sight at the end of one of the TT features

This week's NachKwestion was submitted by Shmaya - prize to him,and to the best answers.
Find three different consecutive words in the davening that have the same root (There are several possible answers)

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