PARSHA-PIX Parshat Vayeitzei

Parsha Pix
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.
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!

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.

There is a matador waving his red cape at - not a bull, but a pair of lips. As in the haftara, UNSHA-L'MA FARIM S'FATEINU, and our lips (voices in prayer) will replace the bulls (sacrifices).

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] Not a cheap handgun easily obtained and concealed, but...
"A cheap handgun easily obtained and concealed" is the definition of the colloquial term, "Saturday night special". But not for us. For us, in the context of Parshat Toldot, our Motza'ei Shabbat special is the widely neglected, but beautiful prayer at the end of Maariv, whose opening pasuk comes from Yitzchak's first bracha to Yaakov - V'YITEN L'CHA HA-ELOKIM...
[2] 1904-10 Ave. N, 78-15 Parsons Blvd...
Answer: TORAS EMES (a.k.a. Torat Emat). That's a phrase found in the haftara of Toldot. That is its only occurrence in Tanach. The first version of this TTriddle just had the first address in Brooklyn and the words, among others. However, after discussing the TTriddle with someone, it was discovered that different people associate Toras Emes with different places. A search of the internet - using Toras Emes, Torat Emet, and Torath Emeth - uncovered many yeshivot and shuls with that name, as well as Torah publications. So we settled on the address of the Brooklyn yeshiva and the address of a shul in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, NY. The ellipsis (the tree dots at the end of the TTriddle) indicates and here represents the many other Toras Emes institutions that come to your minds, dear TTreaders, as you read these words. (Montreal, Miami, Columbus, et al.) [Did you know that et al means "and others"? Yes, you say? But did you know that it is an abbreviation for the Latin "et alii"?]
[3] could 2612 have been in 5634?
B'reishit 26:12 translates as: Then Isaac sowed in that land, AND REAPED IN THE SAME YEAR A HUNDREDFOLD; and HaShem blessed him. The phrase in uppercase letters can read - in TTriddle translation - And he founded in that year Me'ah She'arim. That sh'chuna (neighborhood) is one of the oldest "extramural" neighborhoods, having been established in the year 5634, a.k.a. 1874 c.e.
[4] demitasse spoon last week; pygmy marmoset this week - sort of
The demitasse spoon pictured in last week's ParshaPix, represented the little KAF (letter of the Alef-Bet and also Hebrew for spoon) in the word from the beginning of Chayei Sara, V'LIVkOTAH. In To-l'dot, we find a small KUF in Rivka's statement kATZTI B'CHAYAI. (KUF, the letter, sort of sounds like KOF, which means monkey. The KUF looks a little like a monkey too.) The pygmy marmoset is the smallest monkey species in the world, weighing a little over 100g and being as long as a closed Torah Tidbits is wide (not counting the tail). It is native to the rainforest canopies in parts of South America.
[5] 1 of 39, Eisav (Yaakov) and who?
1 of 39 refers to one of the 39 categories of Melacha forbidden on Shabbat - specifically, TZAD, hunting. The word TZAYID (or TZEID) occurs only 10 times in Tanach, 8 of which are in the book of B'reishit. Two (actually 3) people are associated with TZAYID in the Torah. The first is Nimrod (he's the who in the TTriddle). He is called GIBOR TZAYID twice. The other is Eisav, "a man who knows the hunt" (was a skillful hunter). When Eisav returns with food for Yitzchak, Yitzchak realizes that it was someone else who had already brought him food, and he asks, "Who then is he who hunted venison?" So Yaakov too is associated with TZAYID.

This week's TTriddles:
[1] his name’s meaning accompanies not just his birth
[2] Happy Something
[3] Alternate ending of 2810: And you get 392
[4] You never saw a purple cow. What about pinque sheep?

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