Parsha Pix Three ParshaPixes this issue. First, the Yom Kippur one: 5 & 5 are for the 5 INUYIM (eating & drinking, washing/bathing, use of lotions and cosmetics, wearing leather footware, marital relations) and the 5 davenings - Maariv, Shacharit, Musaf, Mincha, Ne'ila. Any other fives associated with Yom Kippur? (at least one, can you find it and perhaps more? - send in your answers for a prize CD) Davka Judaica Graphics Kol Nidrei scene, with Chazan and two Torah-carrying members of the congregation, all three in kittel and talit. The flanking of the Chazan with two men with Torahs forms sort of a Beit Din, which is appropriate for Kol Nidrei, a voiding of certain vows - which is a function of a Beit Din. (When else do we do something like this - and why?) The Kohen Gadol with two identical goats. Above one of the goats is the logo of Mif'al HaPayis, Israel's national lottery. Here it represents the lots that the Kohen Gadol drew to determine which goat becomes a Korban Chatat and which one gets sent out into the wilderness accompanied by the ISH ITI. Lower-right is the big fish which housed Yona for three days and is seen here disgorging him. (Davka graphics) The balance scale has one pan loaded with mitzva-objects which successfully outweigh the demerits in the other pan. The Luchot are the second set, presented to us on the original Yom Kippur. The Xed out shoe is for one of the INUYIM. And one of the T'filot! Memorial candle is for Yizkor. The rose, the planet Venus, and a graphic of a rainbow. A particularly beautiful and favorite part of the Yom Kippur Musaf repetition is the description of the radiance of the Kohein Gadol after successfully emerging from Kodshei Kodashim b'Shalom and b'li pega - in peace and without injury. EMET MA NEHDAR HAYA KOHEIN GADOL - Truly, how splendid was the KG, B'TZEITO MIBEIT KODSHEI HAKODASHIM, as he emerged from the Holy of Holies... This introductory remark is followed by an alphabetical, poetic description of MAR'EI KOHEN. The DALET sentence: Like the form of the rainbow in the midst of the cloud... The VAV sentence: Like a rose placed (planted?) in a beautiful garden... The KAF sentence: Like the star (planet) NOGA (Venus, at least in modern Hebrew - maybe that's what the poet was referring to also) at the eastern boundary (of the sky)... [Venus is sometimes the morning star and is truly a beautiful sight before dawn in the eastern sky.]
Haazinu Haazinu has the sky and ground with ears, as in Haazinu HaShamayim and v'tishma HaAretz. The note is for the Song (Haazinu). Rain compared to lessons of Torah. Father answering his son's questions (Ask your father and he will tell you...) Like an eagle... Apple of the eye (K'ISHON EINO). Prohibition of consecrated wine. Yeshurun - here, the shul; in the sedra, it is another name for the nation of Israel. Megilat Esther for Hester Panim, which is considered a REMEZ in the Torah to Esther. Milk and butter, mentioned in the sedra. TNUVA symbols (plural) makes T'NUVOT, as in the sedra YO-YO, a.k.a. a returning top, represents T'shuva, return to G-d. Particularly appropriate is the fact that a Yo-Yo returns often, not just once. A sinner can repent, back-slide, and repent again. This is the greatness of the Divine gift to us called T'shuva. It is a second chance from G-d. And a third chance. And a fourth... And even though this year Haazinu is not Shabbat Shuva, it is still right in the middle of the T'shuva period, with Hoshana Rabba still to come
Sukkot The reading for the first day of Sukkot begins by saying: "When an ox, sheep, or goat is born..." So we have a stork delivering the Zodiac symbols for Taurus (bull), Aries (ram), and Capricorn (goat). Upper-left - OTO V'ET B'NO, the prohibition of slaughtering a cow and its offspring on the same day. The Torah uses the masculine form OTO (and also B'NO), although in practical terms, it is more common to know who the mother cow of a calf is than to know who sired it. Nonetheless, the ISUR applies to both male and female cows and male and female calves. BTW, this prohibition applies even if the cow and calf are owned by different people. The Mishna teaches us that if one comes to buy a calf, for instance, from a dealer who had sold the mother of that calf earlier that day, and the day is pre-Yom Tov, let's say, when it was very common for people to bring animals to a shocheit (which can explain why this was included in the Yom Tov reading), then the seller has to tell the buyer of the calf that its mother was just sold and likely to be on its way to slaughter. The buyer may not slaughter the calf without checking on the status of its mother. The main part of the PP is/are the symbols of the Chagim. For Pesach, a Seder plate, then a S'firat HaOmer counter, Luchot for Shavuot, Shofar for Rosh HaShana. The Shofar is Xed out. Ask your children and guests why they think that was done. Answer: in Emor, the term used for RH is Zichron T'ru'a, considered a reference to Shabbat when we don't blow the Shofar, we only remember it. Yom Kippur, the scales, tipped, hopefully, towards Good Life. Sukkot, three ways: In the parsha, it is first called Chag HaAsif, the harvest festival. That's the fellow in the lower-right; he's bringing in the harvest. Then the topic of Sukkot is brought up again, this time in the context of the Four Species and the Sukka. The Torah open on the top of the PP is right-side heavy, indicating V'zot HaBracha (hold it up to a mirror for the B'reishit Torah). Migdal David is for Jerusalem, mentioned prominently in the first day's haftara. Remember, ParshaPix is a good generation-gap closer for reviewing the Torah readings. 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] What bug spray did people at Hakhel use? Personal (Phil): I remember from when I was a kid, spending summers in the Catskills (Garfinkel's Bungalow Colony, to be specific)... we used to use a mosquito repellant cream or spray. The brandname was 6-12. Searching the internet, I think I discovered reference to the varieties of 6-12 plus insect repellant - must be the same - that seems to have had their US brand registration canceled. No matter, 6-12 is still the solution to this TTriddle. And, why, do you ask, is 6-12 the insect repellant of choice at the septennial gathering during Sukkot following Sh'mita year? The answer is to be found in the Sefer HaChinuch, where the mitzva of Hak-hel is number 612, the penultimate mitzva in the Torah. Rambam, BTW, would disagree, since he counts the prohibition of Yayin Nesech from Parshat Haazinu. At least the Chinuch would push for 6-12. [2] This Sunday is really sunday This referred to the Sunday after Parshat Nitzavim - since TT 830 was a multiple issue covering more than one Shabbat, we should have specified. Anyway, Sunday before Rosh HaShana this year corresponded to the fourth day of Creation, since our Tradition puts our Ropsh HaShana as the anniversary of the sixth day of Creation, the day Adam HaRishon was created. Since the Sun was placed in the sky on the fourth day of Creation, the Sunday in question was really sun-day. Technically, of course, it was also moon-day, but that would have spoiled the TTriddle. [3] Good name for the NFL's championship game, to distinguish it from the many major post-season collegiate football games. We have different categories to which many TTriddles belong. (Many TTriddles will be categorized as Misc. but we still have some specific types.) There are Footer TTriddle, Mazal TTriddles (we'll get to that one later), wordplay, association, and others. This one is a Groaner. So it is mostly for punsters (our very own MP being a master among the best of the punsters). Others are asked to be kind and groan politely. The various post-season collegiate (American) football games include the Rose Bowl, which is the oldest, dating back to 1902 (when Michigan beat Stanford 49-0); the Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Sun Bowl... with several others being added over the years. Of course the major professional National Football League championship is called the Superbowl. Since it is played by pros rather than collegiates, it could be called the PROSBOWL, as in the Hillel-instituted document executed at the end of the Sh'mita year. Try not to groan - we dare you! (There really is a Pro Bowl, which is an All-Star football game played after the Superbowl.) [4] Sheva brachot on Friday night The haftara for Parshat Nitzavim starts with the words SOS ASIS... TAGEIL NAFSHI... words which are part of the fourth or fifth of the Sheva Brachot - depending upon whether you are counting under the Chupa or after Benching. YASIS ALAYICH ELOKAYICH and M'SOS CHATAN AL KALA are also from the haftara and were borrowed by the author of L'cha Dodi. So Sheva Brachot on Friday night is connected to the haftara of Nitzavim. [5] Call Cactus Jack Cactus Jack was the nickname of John Nance Garner, the Vice President of the United States during Franklin Roosevelt's first two terms. He was born in Red River Texas, which is where his moniker came from. He lived much of his life (when he wasn't in Washington) in nearby Uvalde and actually began his 46 year career as a Uvalde County judge. His home in Uvalde is now a museum. To call Cactus Jack you would have to use the areacode - 830. So this was a Footer TTriddle. [6] Britt Reid's Kato This one's sort of a groaner also. Britt Reid was the alter ego of the Green Hornet, a fictional radio series character... he was a debonair newspaper publisher by day, crime-fighting masked hero at night... his CHAUFFEUR/bodyguard/enforcer, who was also Reid's valet, Kato... Britt Reid is a blood relative of The Lone Ranger (grand-nephew). All this for Kato's job - CHAUFFEUR, which, if you don't pronounce it too carefully, or if you are from Brooklyn, sounds just like SHOFAR. [7] The mink coat on display is this Partner groaner TTriddle to the previous one, maybe worse... a mink coat is a FUR. When it is on display is for SHOW, making the coat a SHOW-FUR. [8] Invite a flower to lunch on Shabbat Partner TTriddle with [2]. Shabbat (of Parshat Nitzavim, the one right before Rosh HaShana) this year corresponded to the third day of Creation. That was the day that the Plant Kingdom came into existence, thereby making the day the birthday of flowers (among many other members of the plant world). Since flowers grace many a Shabbat table, many people will have taken flowers to lunch on their birthday, but it would have been nice to say Happy Birthday or something. [9] Mazal TTriddle (Word of Month pic) The building in the picture is that of the New York Public Library, the largest city public library in the U.S. and one of the great libraries of the world... more than 10 million books and more than 10 million manuscripts, as well as large collections of pictures, maps, books for the blind, films, and microfilms. LIBRAry conceals (as in BAKESEH) the word LIBRA in it - mazal of Tishrei. This week's TTriddles: [1] The onomatopoeic choice among the additional sacrifices [2] He connected 5710 to 5728 [3] The big lonely 5 [4] f(n) = 102+n for n=1,2 [5] friends go hand in hand [6] Concerning ultimate p'sukim... Neat how the one is read on Shabbat and the other (according to the GR"A) is said only when it isn't Shabbat. [7] write apart; read together [8] fire and religion need a bit of separation [9] Lowest TAV to NUN ratio [The Parshat Ha'azinu Homepage] |
