The Knesset Kolumn

TTriddles

Last issue’s (Vayigash) TTriddles:
[1] “big snow there will be, and cold”
This TTriddle is paired with [3] below - Way back - a little more than 50 years ago, my rebbe for 7th and 8th grade was R’ Chaim Segal z"l. If my memory serves me correctly - and I might even have a source before this goes to print - he told us a forwards and backwards Rashei Teivot for the word VAYIGASH. VAV YIHYEH GIMEL SH’VAT - if Friday will be the third of Sh’vat (which it will be this year), then (backwards now) SHELEG GADOL YIHYEH VAKOR, there will be a lot of snow and cold. I have no idea whether this is supposed to be just on that Friday (we’ll see), or the whole winter, or where this is supposed to happen. I also have not checked any meteorological records. I did, however, check the calendar statistics. HOLD THAT! My brother came through with a source: The statement is attributed to the ELIYA RABA (Eliya b. Binyamin Wolf Shapira, 1660-1712) and is quoted in later sources as well. Apparently, it is the whole winter that’s supposed to be cold and snowy, but no details as to where. Back to the calendar. Of the 14 different year-types of the Jewish Calendar, only one has the third of Sh’vat falling on a Friday. However, it is the most common year-type, occurring with a frequency of just over 18%. On the other hand, a PEI-HEI-KAF year (P’shuta, plain, 12 months; Rosh HaShana beginning on a Thursday; and the months K’SEDER, meaning Marcheshvan has its regular 29 days and Kislev has its regular 30 days) which this year 5772 is, hasn’t occurred since 5758 (1998) - 14 years ago. The winter is still young - we shall see what happens. Mean- while, find your gloves and warm scarves. Maybe you’ll need them; maybe not (I don’t think that we are talking about prophecy).
For your further calendar information - the 59 days of Tevet (29) and Sh’vat (30) do not follow the LO ADU-like patterns that most of the calendar dates follow. For these 59 days, each can fall on five different weekdays and have only two days of the week that they do not fall on. For 3 Sh’vat, it can be a Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Shabbat. Not a Sunday or a Tuesday.
[2] A goat in its mother’s milk - Why not two days?
G’DI BACHALEIV IMO = 3+4+10 + 2+8+30+2 + 1+40+6 = 106, the number of p’sukim in Vayigash. So too, LAMA LO (why not?) = 30+40+5 + 30+1 = 106. And YOMAYIM (two days) = 10+6+40+10+40 = 106.
[3] This year, the third of Sh’vat is on a Friday. Why are we telling you this specifically this week?
See [1] above
[4] Was Yosef an ALF?
ALF is an acronym for alien life form, as was the character ALF from the TV series by the same name, and E.T. of E.T. phone home fame, the extraterrestrial. Yehuda, in the beginning of Vayigash, tells Yosef that Yaakov, when talking about Yosef and Binyamin, mentioned VAYEITZEI HA-ECHAD MEI-ITI, one (meaning Yosef) went away from me… And one went out from E.T. could indicate an ALF.
[5] 151 times with one; 16 times with two
The name BINYAMIN is usually spelled with only one YUD in Tanach - BET-NUN-YUD-MEM-NUN (sofit). 16 of the 167 occurrences of the name BINYAMIN have 2 YUDs. BET-NUN-YUD-MEM-YUD-NUN.
[6] Find the sedras, the letters of whose names are in alphabetical order
Not a real TTriddle; just a challenge. The idea came from the What’s special about this number? site that is quoted in a box in Vayigash’s TT (page 19). On that list of numbers, it was pointed out that FORTY is the only number, the letters of whose name are in alphabetical order. Finding that interesting, we tried it on the list of 54 sedras. The only ones whose spellings are in alphabetical order are EMOR (thanks to its being spelled without a VAV), B’HAR, CHUKAT (no VAV), and BALAK. This is a fun challenge to issue to your (grand)children and Shabbat guests. It works best without recourse to a Chumash. Obviously, with people who know the names of the sedras by heart. Try it too with the months of the year. Only ADAR, IYAR, and AV are spelled in alphabetical order. And only GAD and DAN among the sons of Yaakov or the Tribes. Have fun. That’s what TTriddles and the TTriddles reports are for.
[7] One Unexplained from the ParshaPix
The Kiddush cup was not for the cup that was used to frame Binyamin - that was at the end of Mikeitz, not in Vayigash. Instead, we go to the Yiddish word for a Kiddush cup - BECHER, second listed son of Binyamin. Assuming the list of sons is in birth-order, Binyamin or his wife missed the chance to name their B’CHOR BECHER, rather than BELA. On the other hand, BECHER, spelled BET-CHAF-REISH is made up of second letters: BET = 2, KAF = 20, the second of the tens, and REISH = 200, second of the hundreds in the ALEF-BET. Appropriate for a second child.
[8] Old business
In last issue’s ParshaPix there was a photo of Maj.-General Orde Charles Wingate, “a British Army officer and creator of special military units in Palestine in the 1930s and in World War II. A highly religious Christian, Wingate became a supporter of Zionism, seeing it as his religious and moral duty to help the Jewish community in Palestine form a Jewish state. Our reason for his appearance in the ParshaPix was his name ORDE, sounding very close to the Ashkenazi pronunciation of Binyamin’s youngest son. Someone in shul added that the Yemin Orde Youth Village in the Carmel Mountains, near Haifa - named after Wingate - is further connected TTriddle-wise to Vayigash in that YAMIN is one of Shimon’s sons mentioned in the sedra. It is appreciated when people add to the meanings of PP elements and TTriddles, beyond our intention.

This week’s TTriddles:
[1] In the beginning, Yehuda are coming
[2] We end B’reishit here
[3] CARCAJES
[4] & [5] Two Unexplaineds from the ParshaPix
[6] The footer dingbat to the right of the page number of each page of the hard copy (and PDF files)

• Other The Knesset Kolumn
• TTriddles
• A D'var Torah from MK Rabbi Haim Amsalem