PARSHA-PIX

Parsha Pix

No explanations this week

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 (SUKKOT) TTriddles:

[1] Inside White House maid Margaret Rogers
Margaret 'Maggie' Rogers was a maid at the White House who served for 30 years (1909-1939), during the administrations of Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and part of FDR's, eventually rising to head housemaid. Her years of service were memorialized in the book My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House by her daughter, Lillian Rogers Parks, who worked as a seamstress, also in the White House. The story was later produced as a TV miniseries.
All of which is interesting trivia (if you are into trivia) but is useless information for this TTriddle. We are interested only in the last two letters of her first name and the first three letters of her last name. This will give us the word ETROG, which is what is "inside" Margaret Rogers.
[2] What's in Honolulu lava?
This is the same kind of TTriddle as [1]. Taking the last letters of the first word and the first letters of the second word, we find LULAV is what is inside Honolulu lava. FYI, the dormant volcano, Mauna Kea is one of five volcanoes which together form the island of Hawaii. Mauna Kea means "white mountain" in the Hawaiian language, a reference to its summit being regularly covered by snow in winter... peak is 4207m above mean sea level but 10,203m above its base on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. It is the world's tallest mountain by this measure, taller than Mount Everest, which is the highest mountain above sea level.
[3] CHAF top; HEI the whole thing
If you take a SAMACH and a KAF, and add a CHAF (SOFIT) to it, you get S'CHACH, the top covering of a Sukka. If you add a HEI to the SAMACH-KAF, you get SUKKA, the whole thing.
[4] Koshe helicopter etiquette
Similar to [1] and [2], but this time, you take the first letters of each word (2, 3, and 2) and spell the name of the Megila that we usually read on Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot, but this year - without a Shabbat Chol HaMoed - we read on the first day of Sukkot and our Chutz LaAretz brothers and sisters read on Shmini Atzeret (probably at the same time on the clock that we were busy doing Hakafot).
[5] Danny T's wife's outer garment
This one was for those who know Danny T and his wife - or at least, her name. Her name is Susan, or Sue (even if no one calls her that). Her outer garment - like all of ours - is a coat. In her case: SUE COAT (Sukkot).
[6] Also: Israeli fruit, Binyamin, and a bundle of hyssop
The command to take the Lulav & Etrog (with Hadasim and Aravot) begins with the word ULKACHTEM, and you shall take. That word occurs three other times in the Torah. Once, when Moshe Rabeinu gives instructions to the Meragilm to take samples of fruit in the Land. Earlier, when Yaakov Avinu is refusing to release Binyamin to be taken down to Egypt in fulfillment of the demand of its second in command (Yosef), he says, and if you will take him too... And, part of the mitzvot of Pesach Mitzrayim (not part of the mitzva of Korban Pesach throughout the generations), waqs to take a bundle of hyssop, dip it in the blood of the KP and smear the blood on the doorposts and lintel of the homes of the Jews in Egypt. The word appears two more times in Tanach and refers to taking the ARON and putting it on a wagon to help its being returned to Jerusalem. (Mistake.) And to the ban on taking from the CHEIREM, the forbidden spoils of war of Yericho, for personal use.
[7] Mary had a little lamb... How many were required throughout to the Chag?
We're talking about the full 8 days of Sukkot. On each day of the seven, 14 lambs were part of the Musaf offerings. That's 98. On Shimin Atzeret, there were 7. 105 so far. Two daily sacrifices adds another 16. 121. At least one Shabbat will add two more for the Musaf of Shabbat. Two Shabbatot will add another two. Answer to this question (not really a TTriddle) is 123 or 125 lambs.

This week's TTriddles:

[1] When did they do this in 1977 - Indians (13) & Redsox (6)?
[2] The anagram kings are m'chutanim
[3] Adam, Mahalaleil, Avraham, Yaakov
[4] Initial preview of Name switch
[5] 7, 3, 3, 3 or 5, 7 - What?

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