Parsha Pix Upper-left is the scene after the earth split open and swallowed Korach's gang. To its right is the fire that consumed the 250 incense- offerers. Some say that Korach was swallowed up by the earth; others say that he died by the heavenly fire that consumed his "gang" of 250. Some say that he was punished both ways. Continuing to the right, we find a photo of one of the Pidyon HaBen coins minted by the State of Israel. Many people will by these coins, which contain the correct amount of silver each, in order to fulfill the mitzva. Upper-right is a guard standing at attention in front of the guard house. This represents the positive mitzva of Guard duty by Leviyim (and a few kohanim) around the Beit HaMikdash and Har HaBayit. SH'MIRA in the MIKDASH was a matter of honor guard (depicted in the picture), rather than a "open your pocketbook are you carrying any weapons put your keys and other metal objects in the tray and go back through the metal detector" type of guard. Second row, left. Milk (bottle and glass - where are the cookies?) and honey (with a cheery bee overlooking the scene) representing the Land of Israel, which is described, as we know, as a land flowing with milk and honey - and - L'HAVDIL, the perverse use of the beautiful phrase by Datan and Aviram in referring to Egypt. The gift box represents the various gifts to the kohein that are mentioned in the sedra. The percent symbol represents the tenth of a tenth that the Levi is required to give to the kohein. This "due" is called Maaser min HaMaaser or T'rumat Maaseir. The baby carriage (ble for a boy) with the lamb inside, represents the mitzva of B'CHOR, specifically that of a kosher domesticated animal - i.e. cow, goat, and sheep. The next row, from the left. A graphic representation of a storm, occurring at the time of the cutting of the wheat (as symbolized by the sickle) is from the Haftara. Shmuel HaNavi invoked a miracle from G-d in the form of a storm thunder and lightning in order to impress upon the people the injustice of their desire to push the prophet aside in favor of accepting a king as their authority. Below the storm and sickle is garlic and sugar cubes - another representation of Pidyon HaBen. Moving to the right is a stalk of wheat, standing straight, looking like the number 1, with a decimal point before it - representing the mitzva of giving Maaseir to a Levi. Next we have a close up of the staff of Aharon (see further) which blossomed with almonds and almond flowers. The smiley globe - its mouth represents PI HAARETZ, the mouth of the earth that opened and swallowed Datan and Aviram and company. Pirkei Avot teaches us that PI HAARETZ was one of 10 special items that were created in the instant before the first Shabbat B'reishit. Bottom row: from the left - NOt a donkey have I taken from you... thus Moshe Rabeinu protested to Korach and Co. in the sedra and Shmuel HaNavi protested to the people in the Haftara. Middle-bottom are the rods from each tribe with the middle one, Aharon's representing the whole tribe of Levi, having flowered overnight. And finally, in the lower-right corner of the ParshaPix is a choir, representing one of the main functions of the Leviyim in the Beit HaMikdash. 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 (SH'LACH) TTriddles: [1] Ehud Shiliu did seize on alti sedici In addition to TTriddles on the sedra and an occasional TTriddle on the issue number (known as a Footer TTriddle), TT 816 also contained TTriddles related to the number 16 - in honor of the 16th anniversary issue of TT. This TTriddle is one such TTriddle. A strange sentence. The numeric value of EHUD = ALEF + HEI + VAV + DALET = 16. SHILIU is 16 in Chinese. The word "did" is there just to make the TTriddle sound like a sentence. But, we almost had another 16 with it since D is the 4th letter of the alphabet and I is the 9th and therefore the numeric value of DID is 17. "Missed it by that much!" Seize is Frence for 16. On alti is Turkish for 16. and sedici is Italian for 16. [2] Water - Yaakov - the Land M'OD M'OD - very, very much. This description occurs 12 times in Tanach, seven of which are in the Torah. Of those seven, four are BIM-OD M'OD, and we'll put those aside, as well. Three times M'OD M'OD in the Torah. One in Parshat Sh'lach, in describing the land of Israel as very, very good - TOVA HAARETZ M'OD M'OD. The waters of the Flood rose very, very high. Yaakov's wealth in the form of flocks of goats and sheep increased very, very much. [3] SIMCHAT CHAYIM Joy of life. This was a Footer TTdriddle as the gimatriya of the words is: 300 + 40 +8 +400 (748) + 8 + 10 + 10 +40 (68) = 816, the issue number of TT for Parshat Sh'lach. [4] 4 letters, 4 strokes, three times And wine, V'YAYIN, is spelled VAV/YUD/YUD/NUN. Four letters, written in Hebrew script as four simple strokes of different lengths. The word V'YAYIN occurs three times in Parshat Sh'lach. (3 other times in the Torah and 21 more times in the rest of Tanach.) [5] If one tribe is XXX and 3 are XXY, who makes Bamba? L'MATEI R'UVEIN SHAMU'A b. ZAKUR. The spy (scout) from the tribe of Reuven is Shamu'a ben Zakur. If we play with the initial letters of the name of the tribe, its spy and its spy's father, then for Reuven we get REISH/SHIN/ZAYIN. This would be of the type XYZ since the three letters are all different. Shimon would be SHIN/SHIN/CHET (for SHAFAT b. CHORI), which is an XXY type, because Shimon and Shafat both begin with the same letter. With Kalev b. Yefuneh we have an XYX tpe, etc. There are two other XXYs and one XXX (Yig'al b. Yosef or Yissachar). Who makes Bamba? Osem does. ALEF/ SAMACH/MEM. Which tribe is OSEM? EFRAYIM, whose spy was S'TUR b. MICHA'EIL. So who makes Bamba in the context of this TTriddle? ASHER is the answer. No credit for answering Osem; that's the answer [6] How many Sh'lach p'sukim are said on YK? There are three p'sukim that have found their way into the Yom Kippur davening. Bamidbar 14:19 and 20 - Moshe's plea for forgiveness on behalf of the People - S'LACH NA LA-AVON HA-AM HAZEH... And G-d's response: ...SALACHTI KIDVARECHA. And 15:26 which is from the parsha that discusses a communal sin offering for inadvertent violations, V'NISLACH L'CHOL ADAT B'NEI YISRAEL... In addition to these three p'sukim are the five last p'sukim of the sedra which constitute the third passage of the SH'MA - which is, of course, said on Yom Kippur, as it is said every other day of the year. [7] B'reishit has one; Sh'mot, none; Vayikra one; Bamidbar 5 (4 in a row); D'varim 2 This TTriddle refers to the 9 sedras of the Torah's 54 whose names consist of three letters. In B'reishit, there is MIKEITZ. That's all. Sh'mot has no three-letter sedra names. Vayikra has B'HAR. In Bamidbar, there is NASO and then four in a row: SH'LACH, KORACH, CHUKAT, and BALAK. D'varim has the final two - and they are consecutive: EIKEV and R'EI. [8] There are several unexplaineds in this week's ParshaPix (and elsewhere in the hard copy of TT). Consider them visual TTriddles. The ParshaPix was quite "busy" with 26 items that were explained and 4 additional items that were not explained. One of them related to the sedra: The picture of Rubeus Hagrid, a fictional character in the Harry Potter book series... usually called just Hagrid... the Keeper of Keys and Grounds, the gamekeeper and, later, the teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, of the Care of Magical Creatures teacher. He is of mixed parentage, coming from a giant mother and a wizard father. This makes Hagrid suitable to represent Y'LIDEI HAANAK, offspring of the Giant, which is one of the things the Meraglim reported they had seen during their 40 day scouting exposition in the Land. The other three unexplaineds relate to the number 16, in honor of the 16th anniversary issue of Torah Tidbits. p is the 16th letter of the Greek alpahbet. In the lower-right is an M-16 rifle. And Olive Oyl's left is Whitey Ford, a great baseball pitcher for the Yankees, whose uniform number was 16. On page "third base" you will find two Visual Footer TTriddles: The emblem of the Kansas City Royals baseball team and a picture of Harry S. Truman. To call the Royals or anyone else from their city or to call anyone in Truman's hometown of Independence, Missouri, you will need to use the area code 816. [9] Shabbaton table "numbers" At Israel Center Shabbatonim, we number the table with words that somehow tie in with the sedra or the calendar. For example, a Shabbaton on Parshat Eikev is likely to have tables "numbered" WHEAT, BARLEY, GRAPES... for the 7 Species - identified in Parshat Eikev. Or the pre-Rosh HaShana Shabbaton will have tables named SHOFAR, TASHLICH, APPLE & HONEY, ZICHRONOT... This past Shabbat, Parshat Sh'lach, was the 16th anniversary of Torah Tidbits. Each of 8 tables was named/numbered with two different names, as follows: Abraham Lincoln MIUT SHEINA P AYIN PI SHIVIT HASHEM L'NEGDI TAMID BESHALACH SHOMEAH TEFILA Tennessee IYOV Sweet MLB NL teams YUMA ab=ba a>b R'U Antares Sulfur Chicago the 16th president of the U.S. The 16th letters of the English, Hebrew, and Greek alphabets 16th sedra of the Torah 16th state to be admitted into the union as in Sweet 16 16th Masechet in Mishnayot 16th generation of the world element #16 16th of the 48 ways by which Torah is acquired pasuk from T'hilim 16 16th bracha of the weekday Amida 16th book of Tanach 16 teams in the NL 4 squared and 2 to the fourth power both equal 16 16 th brightest star in the sky (not counting the Sun) Chicago softball is played with a 16" ball (and no gloves) How many table names all together? 16, of course. After after a hiatus, master TTriddler HC submitted the winning solution set this week. This week's TTriddles: [1] The Golden Almond Blossom [2] Gid'n and Shimshon [3] ophiophagus hannah [4] Chetzron and Yerachmiel could both be called this [5] Hebrew description of Charmin [6] Photo of a specific baseball bat autographed by the non-steroid home run king [The Parshat Korach Homepage] |
