PARSHA-PIX

Parsha Pix

Top-left is Yaakov with his lentil stew.
Next to him is one of Yitzchak's workers on a break from digging wells. Or, perhaps, it is Eisav coming in from the field exhausted.
Continuing across the top, we come to a Seder plate. Rashi tells us that it was the first night of (the future) Pesach that Yaakov presented himself to Yitzchak for the bracha. Rivka told Yaakov to bring her two goats. Just to feed Yitzchak, you need two goats? Rashi answers that one was for the main dish and the other for Korban Pesach. Similarly, commentaries mention the wine that Yaakov gave to Yitzchak as being part of a "Seder", and that his cleverness (mentioned in Rashi) was feeding Yitzchak Korban Pesach, so he could not eat Eisav's food also. Realize that these ideas exist on a different level of Torah from the P'SHAT, the plain meaning.
Upper-right is a king on his father's back. The hand is pointing to the father, who would be AVIMELECH. This is not the only pun in this week's ParshaPix, as you will see.
The rain cloud is part of the bracha that Yaakov received.
The sword is part of the bracha to Eisav.
The lion cub on the map of Israel is another pun - GUR BAARETZ HAZOT. Actually, live in this Land...
The tow truck is another pun - Yitzchak lived in GERAR.
The passport is for Yaakov who is being sent abroad by both Yitzchak and Rivka. Yitzchak never needed a passport, but Yaakov did.
The teddy bear is holding aloft the number 7 in one paw and an upraised hand in the other. There are two meanings to the name Be'er Sheva. One is from the seven sheep that Avraham gave Avimelech as a token of the covenant between them, and the other is for the oath(s) that were taken in that agreement. SHEVA has both connotations.
Lower-right is the Davka Judaica Graphic of Yaakov, the studious ISH TAM, dweller in the tent of Torah study, and Eisav, the ISH SADEH, the man of the field, the hunter.
Straus and Keren HaYesod are the streets on which the Israel Center was and is. They are Rechovot, as in the name of third well that Yitzchak dug and the one that was not contested by Avimelech's crowd.
C is 100 in Roman numerals. With a gate inside the C, you get ME'AH SHE'ARIM.
Above the truck is the emblem of NAHAL, a part of IDF. Combined with the truck it reads NACHAL GERAR, the place where Yitzchak settled after Avimelech kicked him out of Gerar.
From the back of the tow truck is an arrow pointing to the computer icon for a DOS prompt. Together it gives the Ashkenazit pronunciation of the sedra, TOW-L' (as in "to", that's the arrow) DOS.
The emblem of Ben Gurion University stands Be'er Sheva, the city in which it is located.
Next to it is the emblem of the city of Rehovot - with micro- scope, book, and orange - is for the well of the same name.
To its right is a photo of a hand holding a Pygmy Marmoset, the smallest of all monkeys... represents the small KUF (monkey is KOF - KUF/KOF, get it?) in the word kATZTI, that Rivka said in expressing her disgust if Yaakov were to marry a local K'naanit.
At the bottom of the PP is a secretary bird, a large African raptor (Sagittarius serpentarius), the only living bird of prey that hunts on foot. Its Latin name suggests the Mazal of Kislev.

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

Honors for impressive solution sets for this week's TTriddles go to MM/Bklyn (last week too) and HC who has returned to the Challenge of TTriddles in a big way this week.

Last issue's (Chayei Sara) TTriddles:

[1] Czarist Russian Parliament or an Irish cemetery
This could have been separate TTriddles, each with the same solution, so we decided to put them together. DUMA was "a Russian national parliament during czarist times". DUMA is the name of one of the sons of Yishma'el, as enumerated at the end of Chayei Sara. DUMA is also "An Irish word for burial-ground". We were also going to do a TTriddle about the Drake University Museum of Art, but decided, enough of this Duma guy.
[2] We do it 4 times, three of which on the word that thereby has a double meaning - except when done to camels
During the Amida, we bend our knees and bow our heads at the beginning and end of the first bracha and the Modim bracha. Three of the four times, we bend our knees at the word BARUCH, which means blessing, but also has the same root as KNEE and KNEELING. If kneeling is an act of humility and subjugation, then it first to share a root with blessing and bracha. VAYVARECH, and he blessed, occurs 17 times in the book of b'reishit. One other time, in Chayei Sara, the same letters with different vowels and a different meaning occur. VAYAVREICH, and he caused the camels to kneel, let the camels rest on their knees. Hobbling or hamshackling an animal is to tie it up in such a way that it cannot stand or run away. Aside from B'reishit, the sequence of letters occur only 9 more times in Tanach, with 8 times being related to blessing and once to kneeling.
[3] He, his father, and his prophet - all pals
This would have been a lot easier, had we not shortened a certain word to "pal", giving the impression (intentional misdirection) that it meant friend. In this TTriddle, the word pal was short for palindrome - a word, number, or sentence that reads the same backwards as it does forwards. LEVEL is a palindrome. So is the number 38455483 and so is the sentence MADAM, I'M ADAM. So is DAVID, YISHAI his father, and NATAN, prophet at the time of David HaMelech. NATAN is the only one of the three to be bilingually palindromic. The names OTTO and AVIVA are not only palindromes, but each is a mirror image of itself.
[4] After the Torah reading, find the filling in the BINAYAHU sandwich
Right after each parsha in many Chumashim, we find the number of p'sukim in the sedra and a SIMAN for it. This being a word that has a gimatriya equal to the number of p'sukim. The SIMAN for Chayei Sara with its 105 p'sukim is YEHOYADA. His name is mentioned in the haftara of Chayei Sara (from the first chapter of Melachim Alef). He was the father of BINAYAHU, a loyal general of David's army. Divrei HaYamim records a YEHOYADA ben BINAYAHU. After the Torah portion of Chayei Sara, we find YEHOYADA p'sukim and with a father and son both named BINAYAHU, he (YEHOYADA) is the filling of a BINAYAHU sandwich.
[5] The big roof celebrates the wheel holiday with a pair of fish
Here's HC's solution: If we add up the gimatriya of BIG ROOF (GAG GADOL), which is 49, WHEEL HOLIDAY (CHAG GALGAL), 77, A PAIR OF FISH (SH'NEI DAGIM), 407 (spelling DAGIM without a YUD), we get 533, the gimatriya of CHAYEI SARA. Not at all what was intended. Not at all. Besides, ditching the YUD in DAGIM is not exactly kosher. None of the 7 occurrences of DAGIM in Tanach are missing that YUD. So what is the solution to this silly-sounding TTriddle? HAGAG HAGADOL CHOGEIG (celebrates) CHAG GALGAL IM ZUG DAGIM have a total of 10 GIMMELs. That would be ASARA GIMELIM (pretty close to Eliezer's ASARA G'MALIM). You may groan now.
[6] The gamut of letters, 3 above, one in, two below
This is one that HC nailed perfectly. He are his words (some of them): Gamut means "range" so the "range of letters" is the alphabet. One of the words in the parsha is AT (the feminine form of YOU)... consists of the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet and represents the "gamut of letters". This word has three (dots) above it (for the SEGOL trop), one (dot) in the TAV (a DAGESH), and two (dots) below it (for the SH'VA vowel).
[7] Yishmael's sharpest son
is CHADAD, related to CHAD, sharp, and to M'CHADEID, sharpener.
[8] She'd lead off the third if her team went down in order in the first 2 innings
Can't resist a baseball based TTriddle. Have been taken to task in years past for Americanizing TTriddles to much with baseball and the like. And, most recently, a TTreader Survey comment was that I seem to favor the SF Giants and do not present baseball in TTriddles in a more even-handed way.
A team goes down in order when three batters each make an out without anyone getting on base. To do that two innings in a row would mean that the first six batters got out and the batter in the seventh position in the line-up would lead off the third inning. The TTriddle mentioned "she", so we're talking women's baseball. Who would bat seventh in the order? BAT SHEVA, of course. (And she does go to bat on behalf of her son Shlomo in the haftara.)
[9] He dealt with his son and had a great-great-grandson with the same name
Avraham Avinu dealt with EFRON son of TZOCHAR in his negotiations for a burial place for Sara. One of Avraham's great-great-grandsons was TZOCHAR, son of Shimon, son of Yaakov, son of Yitzchak son of Avraham.
[10] Unexplaineds in the ParshaPix
The pencil sharpener - we've mentioned that in TTriddle [7] - Yishmael's son CHADAD.
Above the Terem logo is the logo of MASA, an Israeli non-profit organization that enables thousands of Jewish youth to spend a semester or a year in Israel in any of over 160 programs, helping them build a life-long relationship with Israel and a firm commitment to Jewish life. MASA is also a brother of DUMA, sons of Yishmael. Different spelling, but very close in sound (especially if you don't pronounce an AYIN gutturally.
Then we have an L and a kite. Kite is also a raptor (preditory bird) in the same biological family as eagles and hawks. Kite in Hebrew is probably the DA'A, listed as a non-kosher bird. ELDA'A was a son of MIDYAN, born to KETURA from Avraham.
[11] Pasuk on Front Page
Every week, there is a pasuk (or phrase) that either comes from the sedra or the haftara, or is related to the calendar. This time (in TT883), we added the words, TTriddle: Why? asking why that particular pasuk was used for Parshat Chayei Sara. The answer is MINCHA. Eliyahu's "victory" over the 450 false prophets of Baal led the people of Israel to proclaim their belief in G-d and in Him alone. Eliyahu's success came at Mincha time, something that the Navi makes a point of. At the end of Chayei Sara, Yitzchak goes into the field before evening to commune (with G-d). We attribute the establishment of Mincha (the afternoon service) to Yitzchak.
[12] The MazalPic of the month
What you see is a kitten with the letter S above it. Putting them together, we get S-kitten. With a slight vowel switch we get SKYTTEN which is Swedish for ARCHER or Sagittarius, the Zodiac sign of Kislev. In Hebrew, the name is KESHET, for the archer's bow, rather than the archer himself. This lends to a double meaning of RAINBOW.

This week's TTriddles:

[1] Please have a seat near the b'eir
[2] US Sec of D, his wife, 10 sons & wives, 52 grandsons half of whom are married
[3] Herb sits down.
[4] What the aggessive mouthwash was to him in its pursuit of odor-causing bacteria?
[5] Yaakov & Eisav; Some say Peretz & Zerach
[6] Who said: I'll go in the sea?
[7] Yitzchak was more literal than Pinchas and Kalev

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