PARSHA-PIX Rosh HaShana

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Parsha Pix
The ParshaPix is a familiar collection of Rosh HaShana items, yet it can be the stimulus to discussions with your family and guests.
You have your shofar and your apple and honey. You have pomegranate and the head of a fish, as two representatives of the "SIMANIM" at the Rosh HaShana table.
The crown, Akeida screen, and Moshe on Sinai are three of the themes of Shofar.
And then there is the Tashlich scene in the upper- left of the ParshaPix.
Standard things; nothing hard. But it will work well with younger children. See who spots the ram caught in the bush by its horns.

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 (Nitzavim-Vayeilech) TTriddles:
[1] Big split; this not
There is a Hebrew mnemonic device for remembering when Nitzavim and Vayeilech are read combined and when they are read separately. This TTriddle is an English?Hebrew TTriddles-style counterpart to that memory aid. Big in Hebrew is BET and GIMMEL, standing for Monday and Tuesday. When Rosh HaShana is Monday or Tuesday (that is, Monday and Tuesday or Tuesday and Wednesday), then Nitzavim and Vayeilech are split. This in Hebrew is ZEH, spelled ZAYIN-HEI, standing for Shabbat (the 7th day of the week) and Thursday. When Rosh HaShana is Shabbat-Sunday (as it is this year) or Thursday-Friday (as it is scheduled to be next year), then Nitzavim and Vayeilech are NOT split.

[2] Placed before us, in hand of Tongue
In Parshat Nitzavim, G-d says, through Moshe Rabeinu, that He places before us this day, LIFE and DEATH. In Mishlei, there is a famous statement that DEATH and LIFE are in the "hand" of the tongue. This is a reference to the awesome power of speech, something that is exclusively human, and that which distinguishes us from the animals.

[3] indivisibility jibing with it
The meaning of these words are irrelevant to this TTriddle. It is merely that eleven of the letters in this phrase have dots above them, just like (not really, but) the phrase LANU ULVANEINU AD at the end of chapter 29. indivisibility is a famous word for having so many "i"s and no other vowels (except that "y" in the word is really a vowel).

[4] Beis Midrash Govo'ah
This is the official name of the Lakewood Yeshiva. The yeshiva's phone numbers are prefixed with the area code 732, as in the issue number of last week's Torah Tidbits and the number of home runs Barry Bonds has hit in his MLB career, as of this writing (Sunday, September 17th).

[5] It might have been at the top anyway
Several times a year, the topic of this TTriddle says, "Pick me, pick me, make another TTriddle out of me." There is a scribal tradition that six specific letters begin columns in a Sefer Torah. The first one is obvious - the first column in every Torah scroll begins with a BET. The other five are not as obvious. There is a column that begins with a YUD, the AZ YASHIR column begins with a HEI, a specific column begins with a SHIN (exactly which one is disputed), the MEM of Bil'am's MA TOVU is at the top of a column. And the first of the two HAAZINU columns begins with the word V'A'IDA, with a VAV. Since there is a custom that all columns in a Torah except the five referred to, begin with a VAV, then V'A'IDA might have been at the head of a column even without that scribal tradition. By the way, a Torah that does not have the six-column starters is perfectly kosher. This practice is not M'AKEIV, its lack does not invalidate a Torah. Nor does the VAV at the head of all be five columns. It is done, it is standard practice today, but it does not invalidate a Torah if other letters start columns.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] Mine between 400 and 20
[2] Eye the Briefcase confusedly
[3] A mixed up reminder of the "70 faces"
[4] Related to a half and a third in different ways
[5] The letter HEI
[6] Make 32 from 5,7,6,7
[7] The woman in the mixed eagle
[8] Cross an invalid source with a different kind of instrument and get the real things
[9] stir a quantity for me
[10] 57-6x7 = 15 •.5x7x6/7 = 3
Now you get 128 two different ways
[11] The seven disordered violins of Rosh Hashana

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