Parsha Pix Kohen Gadol. The whole first section of the sedra deals with the sanctity of the kohanim in general, and the Kohen Gadol in particular. The term HAKOHEIN HAGADOL occurs 21 times in Tanach, with its first use in Parshat Emor and three further times in the book of Bamidbar. The other 17 times are scattered in Tanach. The broken foot is representative of the invalidating defects of a Kohen (some permanent and some transitory). Look closely at the lamb the foot is pointing to. It's missing an ear. That's a blemish which invalidates the animal for the Mizbei'ach. Note that blemishes that disqualify an animal for the Mizbei'ach do not necessarily make the animal a TREIFA. In the lower-left are a mother sheep (ewe) and her newborn, which may not be taken from its mother to be used as a korban until it is at least 8 days old. AND, the sheep and lamb also represent OTO V'ET B'NO, the prohibition of slaughtering an animal and its offspring on the same day. Note that the 8th day rule is specifically for korbanot while the two-generation rule applies to holy animals and to profane animals. Just for fun we added Marlin and Nemo from Finding Nemo to also represent OTO V'ET B'NO, although this prohibition does not apply to fish. Upper-left is a negation circle, indicating the prohibitions of building, sewing, writing - representative of all forbidden Melacha for Shabbat, Yom Kippur, and Yom Tov. The counting of the Omer is a mitzva from Parshat Emor. So too are the mitzvot of dwelling in a Sukka for the seven days of Sukkot, and the taking of the Four Species on Sukkot. And there are the Two Loaves of Shavuot. Also Lechem Mishneh for Shabbat, which is also in the sedra. The matzot can represent Pesach, but also stand for the Lechem HaPanim, dealt with in the sedra. They had to be made according to matza rules. There is a wine bottle with Y/N on the label. Y is for YES, yes have wine on Shabbat and the holidays for Kiddush and havdala. Not only that, when you say Kiddush on Yom Tov day, recite one or both of two p'sukim that come from Emor. But N is for NO. No, a kohein may not drink wine when he has service to perform in the Beit HaMikdash. No one may enter the Mikdash "under the influence". Nor, may a poseik render a halachic opinion after having drunk wine. There is a MOOSE with an arrow pointing to his nose, which is AF in Hebrew. So this friend of Bullwinke, Tuke and Rutt represents the MOOSE-AF, MUSAF of each holiday, as commanded by the Torah, partly from Parshat Emor and partly from Parshat Pinchas. There is a needle and an eye right under the eye of the needle, representing AYIN TACHAT AYIN. Right after Parshat HaMoadim (Vayikra 23), we have the command to light the Menora in the Mikdash with pure olive oil. This is seen as a REMEZ, hint to Chanuka from the Torah. (One of several REMAZIM.) Hence the dreidel in the PP. The numeral 1 was intended to refer to the haftara, where reference is made to Bikurim, T'ruma, Challa, and other gifts of the FIRSTs to the kohanim. That leaves one unexplained which is automatically a visual TTriddle. 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 (K'DOSHIM) TTriddles: [1] campo, tete, skagg The TTriddle could have said "field, head, beard", but that wouldn't have been much fun. So we went with campo, which is Portugu's (which is Portuguese for Portuguese) and Italiano (which is Italian for Italian) for field, t'te, which is French for head, and sk'gg, which is Svenska (which is Swedish for Swedish) for beard. That was the fun part. The rest is straightforward. PEI'A (corner) is mentioned in K'DOSHIM in the context of the corner of one's field, which is not to be cut and is to be left uncut so that poor people can come and harvest ome grain), and in context of the prohibition of using a razor to round the corner of one's head and shave one's beard. [2] People without and things with a hook In the Aseret HaDidbrot (as in Who knows 10, I know 10), commandment number 8 is LO NIGNOV. We are taught that the specific prohibition intended is kidnapping - i.e. the stealing of people. In Parshat K'doshim we find LO TIGNOVU, another you shalt not steal, this time referring to things that belong to others. LO TIGNOV without a VAV (hook) at the end of the word applies to stealing people, and with a hook (VAV), to stealing things. [3] 130.81 Hz - 12 times in K'doshim Hz is the abbreviation for hertz, the unit of frequency, equal to one cycle per second. The range of audible frequencies for the human ear is approx. 20-20,000 Hz. 130.81 Hz is the frequency of the musical note, low C (which is the lowest note of a viola). This TTriddle requires the Ashkenazic pronunciation to work (many TTreaders can think of it as nostalgic). Take for example the prohibition of putting a stumbling block before the blind. V'LIFNEI IVEIR LO SITEIN MICHSHOL. There's one low C. LO C-kom v'LO C-tor are two more. There are 12 in K'doshim. Technically, we could have used 246.94 Hz, which is the B note right below middle C. B is ti, so that note could be called low ti (which doesn't seem to be in use), which would give us LO TIKOM and LO TITOR and a whole bunch more. And we'd have to make it 13 occurrences in K'doshim because of LO TIGNOVU, which has a DAGESH in the TAV making it the same pronunciation for Ashkenazit and S'fardit. [4] Usually zero (63.2%), sometimes 6 (26.3%), and sometimes 13 (10.5%) How many days are there between the reading of Acharei and the reading of K'doshim? In 12-month years, these two sedras are always combined, so 63.2% of the time, the answer is zero days. In 13-month years, they are read separately - mostly (26.3%) on consecutive Shabbatot, so there are 6 days between their readings. 10.5% of the time, Acharei is Shabbat HaGadaol and K'doshim is the weekly sedra after Pesach, which puts 13 days between their readings. [5] APC, GRAVE, FIRKIN This one also could have been presented much more simply - but not as much fun. Vayikra 19:35 states: You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measures of length, of weight, or quantity (liquid or dry volume - Rashi). To lead to this pasuk, the TTriddle could have been: acre, ton, gallon. Or any other normal units of measurement that would match the words in the pasuk. But checking the web for unusual units of measurement, turned up our three units. An apc is an attoparsec. This is a fairly whimsical unit, because it starts with a parsec which is a very large unit of distance and reduces it tremendously by prefixing it with atto. A parsec is a unit used in astronomy for expressing the distances from Earth to different stars. It is equal to about 3.26 light years or a bit over 30,000,000,000,000 km or almost 20,000,000,000,000 miles (that's 30 or 20 trillion kilometers or miles). A centimeter is 1/100 of a meter; millimeter is 1/1000 of a meter. Micro- is a millionth, (we'll skip a bunch); atto- is a quintillionth, 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000. Combining the atto and the parsec, we find that an apc is a bit over 3 cm. A useless, but fun unit of length. Grave was an original suggestion for the main unit of mass in the metric system. It comes from the word gravity and was rejected, and the term kilogram was adopted insted. (Pity.) A firkin is a small wooden barrel or covered vessel and became a unit of capacity (volume) equal to approx. 9 gallons (34 liters). [6] When did Shishak eat the fruit? Shishak was the king of Egypt in the time of Shlomo HaMelech. Yerav'am escapes Shlomo and flees to Shishak's kingdom. Shishak later invades Jerusalem under the rule of Rechav'am and robs the Beit HaMikdash and the king's palace. (courtesy of www.tanakhprofiles.org - check it out - useful site. It was BASHANA HACHAMISHIT, in the fifth year of Rechav'am's reign that Shishak came to Jerusalem. And in Parshat K'doshim, it is in the fifth year of the growth of a tree that we may eat its fuits (not counting the Kedusha situation of the fourth year, which follows the three years of prohibited ORLA). So when did Shishak eat the fruit? In the 5th year! [7] one element from the ParshaPix The one unexplained element of the PasrshaPix (from page 2) is a T made of a horizontal comb and a vertical golf tee, producing a LO TIKOM, as in "don't take revenge". [8] The Mazal-pic The graphic for the month of Iyar (we switch Mazal-pics for Shabbat M'vorchim) is a beach scene, a.k.a. shore - English-Hebrew play on the word SHOR, which is the Hebrew term for the Mazal of Iyar, Taurus, the Bull. AW/Cranford emailed us his wife Patty's correct sol'n for LO tee-comb. Welcome to the club Patty. MM/Bklyn submitted another excellent sol'n set for the TTriddles of 810. H(S)M seems to enjoy solving the visual TTriddles, especially - but not exclusively, the MazalPic. He even comes up with his own suggestions for some months. YYW has done it again. This time, a perfect sol'n set. He would have gotten the elusive score of 10, but he forgot the Mazal Pic and so finishes the competition in first place with an impressive 9.95. After submitting his sol'n set by phone he was told: "You have a warped mind!" He replied, "Thank you!" Right answer! This week's TTriddles: [1] 1,18,20,21,23,25,28,30,32,34,35,(198) [2] When you list Trei Asar in order, something from the sedra will happen [3] Spartacus & Fatal Attraction's Dan G. [4] Was Titus's nephew exempt from eating matza? [5] This Shabbat, calcium counts [6] If Kali were a jug of wine, who would you be? [7] Embedded 3 times in opening pasuk - once 25 other times [8] Cooking isn't this 7-repeated term [9] one element from the ParshaPix [The Parshat Emor Homepage] |
