Parsha Pix How do we know that Yaakov Avinu wore a Kipa? Vayeitzei Yaakov, and Yaakov went out... Would he go out without a kipa?! Old (corny) joke represented by the KIPAThe road sign could have been at the side of the road that Yaakov traveled at the beginning of Vayeitzei, with Be'er Sheva behind him and Charan still to come. En route, Yaakov encounters THE Place where he spent the night and had his famous dream. Speaking of which, there's the rock he put by his head... The rock is also the one that covered the well that Yaakov removed so that Rachel (and the other shepherds) could water their sheep. It also stands for the rock that Yaakov set up as a MATZEIVA to mark his agreement with Lavan (GAL-EID). and the ladder standing on the ground climbing heavenward. UFARATZTA, and you shall spread out in all directions, is represented by the compass. (accent, by the way, is on the last syllable - ufa-ratz-TA) Yaakov promised to give G-d (so to speak) MAASER, one tenth, .1 There are 10 baby boys in a column on the right side of the ParshaPix representing Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda, Dan, Naftali, Gad, Asher, Yissachar, and Zevulun. And an 11th one on its own (sort of) representing Yosef. The "It's a Girl!" balloon is for Dina. The plant on the left is a man- drake, the DUDA'IM that Reuven collected for his mother. ("A native plant of SE Europe. Its mystical and magic properties date back into the mists of time, where aphrodisiac and fertility qualities were accorded to it... The root is rather toxic... so-called "mystical" properties were attributed to it mainly because of the form of the parsnip-like root system, which usually divides to give "arm and leg" limbs to a human body form...") There are two of the sticks Yaakov used to induce the production of... the striped, speckled, and plain sheep and goats - upper left Ice cream, G'LIDA, which is the Targum of KERACH in Yaakov's tirade about his cold nights spent watching over Lavan's flocks. (So too the bullets of these ParshaPix explanations) The Torah Tidbits logo with a thumbs up signal is for Lavan's endorsement, when he said to Yaakov: TOV T.T. The sine wave is a GAL (not the English gal, the Hebrew for wave), as in the pile of rocks at the end of the sedra. Philadelphia Phillies cap. That team has the ignoble honor of being the losingest team in MLB (despite last year's WS victory and this year's post season successes - but not the ultimate one). And it goes one step further. They are the losingest team in major league sports (in the US, counting baseball, football, basketball, and hockey.) Perhaps, then, they are the modern incarnation of the teams that did play in LUZ. [To be fair to the town of LUZ (Beit El), it is only in TTriddlese that there is an association with the English word LOSE. LUZ is the hazel tree, one of the sticks that Yaakov used in Vayeitzei at the behest of the angel... LUZ is also the name of the vertebra at the top of the spinal column that is associated with the starting point of T'chiyat HaMeitim. Staying with sports, we also have a South Park figure playing dodgeball. (We know it's hard to tell what he's doing.) This is similar to the game MACHANAYIM, as in the concluding word of Parshat Vayeitzei, referring to the twin camps of angels that Yaakov saw upon his return to Eretz Yisrael. There is a matador waving his red cape at - not a bull, but a pair of lips. As in the haftara, UNSHA- L'MA FARIM S'FATEINU, and our lips (voices in prayer) will replace the bulls (sacrifices). The oil can stands for Yaakov's anointing the stone at the beginning of the sedra... Yogi bear and the Xed out Cubs cap represent DOV SHAKUL, a bear without offspring. Nothing personal, Yogi. 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 (TO-L'DOT) TTriddles: [1] Please have a seat near the b'eir The wording of the TTriddle mixes Hebrew and English. This is something typical of kids from English-speaking families who learn both languages at the same time. [Personal favorite: HINEI my nose PO.] This particular sentence is almost all English, with only the word B'EIR replacing well. We are looking for an English-Hebrew hybrid that means "Please have a seat" and is also the name of a well dug by Yitzchak. SIT-NA. [2] US Sec of D, his wife, 10 sons & wives, 52 grandsons half of whom are married Robert Gates is the current US Secretary of Defense. He and his wife are two gates. If he had ten sons and they were all married, and none of the wives opted to retain their maiden name, we'd have another 20 gates - total so far, 22 gates. 52 grandsons bring the total gates to 74. If half of the grandsons are married, that would add another 26 women named Mrs. Gates. Making a total of 100 Gates, as in MEI'A SHE'ARIM, as mentioned in the sedra. [3] Herb sits down. This is a sentence of three words with four letters each. In Parshat Toldot, we find a three word pasuk with four letters in each word: VAYEISHEV YITZCHAK BIG'RAR. The shortest p'sukim in the Torah are of three words. There seems to be some kind of issue - either a SEGULA or something like that - to these three-word p'sukim. Siddur T'filat Kol Peh (perhaps other siddurim) lists them for recitation on Motza'ei Shabbat. This, together with a few other collections of p'sukim, such as p'sukim that begin and end with the same letter. (Not all the letters; just some of them.) The list contains 14 p'sukim, but one of them is really part of a pasuk (at least in our Chumashim), but is the end of a parsha in the midst of a pasuk. The other 13 are all full p'sukim. Why are these 3-word p'sukim collected for a special reading on Motza'ei Shabbat? Maybe someone reading this knows. If so, please tell us. The 14 3-word readings are followed by the prtial pasuk in Kohelet: ...a threefold cord is not quickly broken. [4] What the aggressive mouthwash was to him in its pursuit of odor-causing bacteria? Corny, but you know how it goes sometimes. Yitzchak loves Eisav, KI TZAYID B'FIV, either meaning that Eisav hunted and provided food for Yitzchak, or because deceived Yitzchak with his mouth by pretending to be interested in religious and spiritual matters. For this TTriddle, another explanation of TZAYID B'FIV, hunting in his mouth, which is what the aggressive mouthwash did to the bacteria. [5] Yaakov & Eisav; Some say Peretz & Zerach Yaakov and Eisav were twins, as were Peretz and Zerach. For Yaakov and Eisav, the word used is TOMIM, TAV-VAV-MEM-MEM. For Peretz and Zerach, the word is T'OMIM, TAV-VAV-ALEF-MEM- YUD-MEM. Rashi brings the Midrash that says the word describing the twins Yaakov and Eisav is written CHASEIR, missing letters, because one twin was a Tzadik and the other a Rasha. With Peretz and Zerach, the word is MALEI, full, because both were righteous. The missing letters are YUD and ALEF, which is an abbreviation (actually, an initialism or Rashei Teivot, in Hebrew) for YEISH OM'RIM, "some say". The TTriddle solution is Y&E, TOMIM. Add a "some say", a YUD and ALEF and you get the word that describes P&Z. [6] Who said: I'll go in the sea? I"ll go - EILEICH, in the sea - BAYAM. Who said it? He must have been confused when he said it, so scramble the letters of EILECH BAYAM and you get AVIMELECH. [7] Yitzchak was more literal than Pinchas and Kalev Pinchas and Kalev were the two spies (scouts) that Yehoshua sent to check out the land and the Yericho area. They were sent LACHPOR to search out, lit. to dig (out information). Yitzchak, in Parshat Toldot, was more literal. In his case, VAYACHPOR actually means to dig (for water). [8] One Unexplained from the ParshaPix A bottle of wine labeled A DRY. In French - as is used on wines and other spirits, DRY is SEC. A-SEK was the name of the first well that Yitzchak dug. This week's TTriddles: [1] Paris street named for Franklin [2] Apparently, she didn't show [3] what, angels, G-d, and I? [4] Came true sort of, 86 p'sukim later [5] to... Chava, Avra(ha)m, Yitzchak, Lavan, each other. What and who? [6] Mothers 1 & 3; mother of other twins [7] flocks is to the mother as what is to what? [The Parshat Vayeitzei Homepage] |
