PARSHA-PIX Parshat No'ach

Parsha Pix
A classic ParshaPix.
The top row is based on an old joke about the worm coming in an apple, but all the other animals coming in pears (pairs). So a sample of animals are to be found in pears. They represent the animals that came into the Teiva.
There is also a fish to remind us that fish were not taken on the Teiva, but survived the Mabul in a column of water under the Teiva that did not have the destructive forces of the rest of the floodwaters.
There is also a Triceratops, which was a rhinoceros-like dinosaur. One possible explanation for finding fossil remains of pre-historic animals is that they existed in antediluvian times, but did not survive the Flood.
Then there are the famous dove with olive branch, cloud with rainbow and cloud with rain.
The grapes and wine flask are references to No’ach post-Flood occupation.
The people figures represent the proliferation of human beings after the Flood.
The ear of corn, TIRAS in Hebrew, a KUSHball, and GOMER Pyle in the upper-right corner, are three of the 70 nations that came from No'ach.
The Tower of Babel is accompanied by words of many languages. The words all mean WATER, the main theme of the first part of the sedra. languages are: Luxembourgish (similar to the German word, but with an additional a), Zulu, Chinese, Swedish, Tamil, Gaelic, Italian (and Latin), Carib, Finnish, Welsh, Hungarian, Albanian, Bengali, Korean, Indonesian.

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 (B'reishit) TTriddles:
[1] 1 Cardinal; How many what?
The counting numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4... are called cardinal numbers. First, second, third... are ordinal numbers. In the account of the Six Days of Creation, there is 1 cardinal number: And it was evening and it was morning, YOM ECHAD, one day - not Yom Rishon, the first day. The rest of the days, 5 more of them, use the ordinal numbers SHEINI, SH'LISHI... second, third, fourth... Although we call Sunday YOM RISHON in our regular talk, in official documents - a KETUBA, for example, Sunday is referred to as ECHAD B'SHABBAT. This echoes the wording of the opening chapter of the Torah.
[2] B'reishit's two confused kings
A confused king in TTriddle language usually means an anagram of the word king, or in this case - MELECH. Confuse the letters of MELECH and you get LEMECH, of which there are two in Parshat B'reishit. Kayin's son CHANOCH had a son named M'CHUYA'EL or M'CHIYA'EL (depending upon whether you are a kugel-Litvak or a kigel-Galitziyaner- just kidding). M'CHUYA'EL had a son METUSHA'EL, who had a son named LEMECH. The Torah tells us that he took two wives, ADA and TZILA. Our tradition is that this first LEMECH accidentally killed his great-great-grand- father KAYIN. The other LEMECH was the son of METUSHELACH (note the similarity in the names of the fathers of the two LEMECHs) and the father of NO'ACH.
[3] thigh muscle in the sedra
EB who had a near-perfect solution set this week answered this one with the phrase AL KEIN (therefore), a term which is in Parshat B'reishit in context of man leaving his parents and cleaving to his wife. In Vayishlach, the words reappear with the prohibition of GID HANASHEH, which is a nerve and surrounding other parts in the thigh of a kosher mammal. Nice try, but not what was intended here. The main thigh muscle is the QUADRICEPS, which literally means (in Latin), four-headed. The river that flowed from EDEN had "four heads" - GICHON, PISHON, CHIDEKEL, and P'RAT.
[4] switch order on this
Once in a while, there is a word in the Torah that is marked with two TROP marks; the word is to be read with both notes, sequentially. In B'reishit, the word with the two TRP marks is ZEH, this - the "this" of the TTriddle. The notes are used in reverse order - the GERSHAYIM first and them the T'LISHA GEDOLA. The reason the T'LISHA appears first is that a T'LISHA GEDOLA is always printed above and a little before, the first letter of the word. Therefore, there is usually an asterisk (or its equivalent) over the word with a note in the margin to switch the order of the TROP notes.
[5] he and father are as far apart as possible
He is SHEIT, son of ADAM and CHAVA. Father is AV. He is spelled SHIN-TAV, the last two letters of the ALEF-BET. AV is ALEF-BEIT, the first two letters. Since each word is the minimum of two letters, SHEIT and AV are as far apart in the ALEF-BET as possible.
[6] for women this week; for our southwestern neighbors 14 weeks later
Women were told that they would have birth pangs. Among the words in G-d's statement to Chava are: HARBA ARBEH... referring to the increase in pain. 14 weeks after Parshat B'reishit, we read Parshat Bo, which contains the last three plagues on Egypt (our neighbors to the southwest), including HARBEI ARBEH (many locust).
[7] on the one hand - 1,2,6; on the other hand, 3,4,5
The VAI-HI EREV VAI-HI VOKER of day one, the second day, and the sixth day are part of the final pasuk of the account of the day. On the other hand, for the third, fourth, and fifth days, each is in its own pasuk. Does anyone have a clue as to why this is so or if it is at all significant?
[8] Unnumbered, but our monthly Mazal (Zodiac symbol) TTriddle.
For over a year now, we've been using a pictograph rather than a real symbol or picture of the Mazal. The Mazal of Cheshvan is Scorpio, the Scorpion. AKRAV. Last year we used the Scorpion-133, a 2-seat home built helicopter. This year, we are using (as HSM correctly pointed out) he Scorpion - a lightweight, high performance,two person racing dinghy.
[9] More 5, 7, 6, 7
Last week we listed the solutions of 0 through 10 using 5, 7, 6, and 7 - in that order, with any math symbols. We challenged the more mathematically adventurous TTreaders to continue from 11 and up until they reached their lowest number that they couldn't solve. EB submitted from 11 thru 22 inclusive, and so: He gets a second prize this week and we up the challenge to 23 and up.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] After the flood, No'ach went out to see the world
[2] It went and they returned at the same time
[3] they might have the same yahrzeit
[4] Motza"Sh: Speaking of this morning's sedra...
[5] When he has this, there is no yibum
[6] T-43

[The Parshat No'ach Homepage]
[The TORAH tidbits Homepage] [How to use TORAH tidbits]
[About The OU/NCSY Israel Center] [About TORAH tidbits]
 [www.ou.org]