Parsha Pix Contradictory symbol of war (the spear) and peace (the dove with olive branch - not only in the ParshaPix but as the bullet right here). Pinchas' act of "violence" was rewarded by the Covenant of Peace. It works this way sometimes. The Brit Shalom is the Kehuna, the CHOSHEN Broken 6 represents the broken VAV in Shalom Small 10 is for the small YUD in Pinchas large 50 is for the large NUN SOFIT in MISHPATAN, their judgment, which Moshe brought before G-d - referring to the claim of the daughters of Tz'lofchad Bill Cosby stands for his Midyanite namesake The calculator is for the counting of the people Lambs are the daily T'MIDIM, or the Musaf of Shabbat - both of which are mitzvot in Pinchas. They are also among the animals brought as the Musaf of all the Chagim. The binoculars are for Moshe Rabeinu to look out over the Land... a collection of symbols representing Shabbat (candle sticks), Pesach (Seder plate), Shavuot (Har Sinai with the Luchot), Rosh HaShana (shofar - which is also its own mitzva in the sedra, not just a symbol for RH), Yom Kippur (the scales), Sukkot (Lulav & Etrog) Then we have the nostalgic inclusion of one of the very first ParshaPixPuzzles. It reads from left to right. A candy CANE inside a musical NOTE. Which gives us KEIN B'NOT... Next is a sniper, TZALAF in Hebrew. Combined with the 1 gives us TZELOF-CHAD. The bear is a DOV and the piece of the multiplication table reminds us of the method by which many of us had to learn it - namely, by ROTE. All together, we have G-d's answer through Moshe to Machla, No'a, Chogla, Milka, and Tirtza: KEIN B'NOT TZELOFCHAD DO'V'ROT... The bird next to Cosby is an albatross, a.k.a. a gooney bird or just a gooney - and thus it represents GUNI, one of Naftali's sons and the family name of those who descended from GUNI. (The last part of the sentence is not redundant, since sometimes we find the family name to be the same as their progenitor and sometimes there is a slight variation, as with another of Naftali's sons, YEITZER, whose family is YITZRI. The most changed name is probably PUVA, whose family are the PUNI.) And then there are the Unexplaineds - visual TTriddles for your solution 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 (BALAK) TTriddles: [1] DAVID MELECH YISRAEL CHAI V'KAYAM DAVID = DALET (4) + VAV (6) + DALET (4) = 14. MELECH = MEM (40) + LAMED (30) + CHAF (20) = 90. YISARAEL = YUD (10) + SIN (300) + REISH (200) + ALEF (1) LAMED (30) = 541. CHAI = CHET (8) + YUD (10) = 18. V'KAYAM = VAV (6) + KUF (100) + YUD (10) + MEM (40) = 156. 14 + 90 + 541 + 18 + 156 = 819. Footer TTriddle. [2] Who is forbidden to take Torah Tidbits with them? Bamidbar 22:13 - "And Bilaam rose up in the morning, and said to the princes of Balak, Go to your land; for G-d refuses to give me leave to go with you." ...KI MEI'EIN HASHEM L'TITI LAHALOCH IMACHEM. Our alternate reading: For G-d refuses for TT (Torah Tidbits) to go with you (the princes of Moav). SAREI MO'AV may not take TT with them. [3] 79S 79H 79C 47D 47C A regular deck of cards has four suits with each suits having 13 cards: A, 2-10, J, Q, K. This special deck has 79 and 47 for each suit, 79 being GOLD (its atomic number) and SILVER being the 47 cards (its atomic number). The "hand" in this TTriddle has 3 Golds and 2 Silvers. As anyone who knows poker knows, three of a kind and a pair constitutes a FULL HOUSE, as in what Bilaam said: If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more (Bamidbar 22:18). And again: If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not go beyond the command of G-d, to do either good or bad of my own mind; but what G-d said, that will I speak? (24:13) Side point (Belongs more in the TBDATR column): Nissan Sharoni in EIM LAMIKRA HASHALEIM calls our attention to the TROP-notes (in the first of the two p'sukim) and the proper pausing, so that the pasuk reads with its proper meaning. (This one is much more subtle than what we wrote in last week's TBDATR column about the third and seventh day... see there.) Look at this partial pasuk (22:18) - IM YITEN LI BALAK MELO BEITO KESEF V'ZAHAV If the stronger pause is after the word BALAK, then what Bilaam is saying is that if Balak were to give me his house filled with silver and gold... That's not the correct meaning based on correct PISUK (pausing). The greater pause is supposed to be after the word BEITO, and Bilaam's statement is: If Balak were to give me silver and gold equal to filling his whole house... It's subtle, as mentioned, but thus is the fine-tuning that comes from knowing correct grammar and TROP... and acting upon that knowledge. [4] Want to shoot pool with walruses? Try Ugannaq Pool Hall. Call for reservations Not a real ad, as we're sure most people realized when they read it. Here's how it works (sometimes): First source of TTriddles in the making is the sedra and its hafrara. Second, for additional fun, is the Torah Tidbits issue number. Those will be the Footer TTriddles. They come from a few different sources. Gimatriya is one source. Torah Codes 2000 by TES has a nice computer search program for whole p'sukim in Tanach, words, or partial p'sukim. Whole p'sukim are the best. When there are none, or none that TTriddles well, we'll try for a word - e.g. HIKDASHTI = 819 (we didn't use it), or a phrase - e.g. R'uvein v'Shimon v'Levi, Vihuda (we didn't use that one either). Then we have a couple of books of gimatriyas, one of them gave us [1] David Melech Yisrael... That was a good one - we used it as is, without TTriddling it. We check for things that might have occurred in the year 819 (ours or the common era's). And we check areacodes from the US and Canada. 819 gave us western Quebec to work with. We found a village in northern Quebec called Ivujivik, which "boasts" a pool hall and amusement center, as named in the TTriddle, plus a large local population of walrus. [5] clapping is transparent great-grandson VAYISPOK, Balak got angry with Bilaam and VAYISPOK his hands. Rashi says the word means he hit one hand against the other. He clapped his hands. Targum Onkeles on the word is: USHKAFININ - that breaks down (TTriddle-wise) to SHAKUF, transparent and NIN, great-grandson. [6] There are a number of UNEXPLAINEDs in the ParshaPix The smiling face of the cute boy belongs to grandson Lavi, who makes it into the ParshaPix because of his name which occurs in Tanach 14 times, four of which are in the Torah, two of which are in Parshat Balak. There are 8 different words used for lion in Tanach - ARYEi, ARI, LAVI, K'FIR, LAYISH, SHACHAL, SHACHATZ, and GUR. LAVI is a young lion (but older than a cub, GUR). ET comes to mind whenever the word ITI shows up. It makes 12 appearances in the Torah - 9 in the book of B'reishit, twice in Sh'mot and once in Bamidbar, Parshat Balak to be specific. There is a double stack of cars, i.e. car-car. Part of Bilaam's final words before he and Balak part ways (Bamidbar 24:17) 'I see it, but not now; I perceive it, but not in the near future. A star shall go forth from Jacob, and a staff shall arise in Israel, crushing all of Moab's princes, and DOMINATING (or DEVASTATING) all of Seth's descendants. That's the word KARKAR. The SHOFAR and the CROWN go together as per Bamidbar 23:21 - "...and the trumpet blast of a king is among them." The trumpet blast is the SHOFAR and the king is the CROWN. This pasuk is one of the 10 p'sukim of MALCHIYOT (Kingship) in the Musaf of Rosh Ha-Shana. Interesting that it might have been chosen for the SHOFAROT p'sukim instead. [7] Old Business The end of last week's TTriddles report was inadvertantly left out (of the hard copy TT). It dealt with the four related graphic images from the ParshaPix of TT 818 ...gift-wrapped box representing the place - whose identity is disputed by various scholars - called MATANA. From MATANA, the Torah tells us, the people traveled to NACHLI'EL... wagtail, known in Hebrew as a Nachli'eili. From there... the people traveled to BAMOT, either a place name or just the high places. In modern Hebrew, BAMOT are stages. In TTriddle form, the connection is to stage, as in stagecoach. From there... to HAGAI, which we are taking as HA (the) GAI (maybe a valley of sorts). The picture is one of Guy Smiley, a Muppets character. Old Business: There was a graphic element in the ParshaPix for Parshat Chukat that was not explained in the ParshaPix report of that issue, nor in the TTriddles report of last week. It was the letter MEM at the top of the ParshaPix. It represents the MEM of MA TOVU OHA- LECHA YAAKOV... which, according to scribal tradition, is always at the top of a column in the Torah. This is so even in a VAV Sefer Torah, where almost every column begins with a VAV. Of approx. 245 column in a Torah, only five do not begin with a VAV. MA TOVU is one of the exceptions. Or, put this way, even in a Sefer that is not a VAV one, where any word can start a column, there are six specific words (one begins with a VAV anyway) that always head a column. The mnemonic device for the six is B'KAH SH'MO, BET (B'reishit), YUD, HEI (Haba'im from the Song of the Sea column, SHIN, MEM (Ma Tovu), and VAV (V'a'ida, from the Haazinu song's first column). and on a more serious note, we received the following email: In a recent Lead Tidbit, Chukat, you mentioned in an off-hand way the chiyuv to honor even an abusive parent. While you of course are essentially correct, given the possible seriousness of such situations (e.g. sexual and violent abuse), I would encourage you to have a look at: www.drsorotzkin.com/honoring_abusive_parents.html We did look at it, appreciated the content, and recommend that you take a look too. This week's TTriddles: [1] He's not very helpful [2] Baloo, Yogi, Koda, Smokey, Funshine, Pooh, Paddington [3] The quintessential uncle [4] garbage dump surrounded by water [5] Efrayim made Kiddush - why him? [6] From the ark he went into the lottery [7] Pinchas identifies with this place or that place [8] Eliyahu was not a descendant of Yosef [9] This tribe allowed this family of another tribe to live in their territory, because of the family name. [10] Not biologically, but he counts as a son of Yosef [11] Yitzchak, Hagar, and the Well [12] Won't catch fish, but in its context, it is whole [The Parshat Pi-n'chas Homepage] |
