Published February 11, 2010
This week’s TTriddles:
[1] They should be cut on the 8th; they can be cut on the 8th
[2] 6 (48) but not entitled yet
[3] What some called the territories, under themselves
[4] Sign in for Uncle Eki
[5] The eye anchor and the general basin
[6] The least necessary, but we don’t differentiate
[7] sort of like MODEH
Last issue’s (YITRO) TTriddles:
[1] This week, not 5 but 6 times!
In the haftara for Parshat Yitro, which is from the 6th perek of Yishayahu, we find the famous pasuk: KADOSH, KADOSH, KADOSH… One any Shabbat, we recite this pasuk as part of the brachot before the Sh’ma, in the Kedusha of Shacharit, in the Kedusha of Musaf, in UVA L’TZION of Mincha and in Kedusha of Mincha. That’s five times. On Shabbat Parshat Yitro, it was said a 6th time by the Maftir who read the haftara.
[2] Gold: HaShem (by far!); Silver: David; Bronze: Moshe, Shaul (tie)... also ran: Yitro
In doing a search through Tanach for the word VAYISHMA, which opens Parshat Yitro, we find many people whose names follow the word. VAYISHMA YITRO, REUVEN, ZERUBAVEL, BEN HADAD, SANVALAT… to mention just a few. Tabulating the VAYISHMAs of the 86 that occur in Tanach - but only those followed by a name, we have awarded medals appropriate to the frequency of those who hear/listen. Gold medal goes to HaShem, whose Name follows 14 occurrences of VAYISHMA. The silver medal goes to David HaMelech - some- times spelled with a YUD and mostly without, with 8 occurrences. Third place finds a tie between Moshe Rabeinu and Shaul HaMemech - the latter being an ironic awardee since his BIG mistake was not listening. Many occur only oncew with VAYISHMA, but we mentioned Yitro as an “also ran” because it’s his sedra that created this TTriddle in the first place.
[3] male and female form are both female
The word TZIPOR for bird, is in a masculine form but is treated as a feminine word grammatically, regardless of which sex bird is being referred to. The feminine form of the word is TZIPORA, who was, of course, female.
[4] tav HEADS 60%
In the printed Torah Tidbits, the word TAV was printed in subscript, that is, LOW down. It represented the word LO (as in Thou shalt not) followed by the letter TAV (TUFF, as we used to call it, the last letter in the ALEF-BET). 60% of the 10 Commandments are “headed” by LO TAV-something. LO TISA, LO TIR- TZACH, LO TIN’AF, LO TIGNOV, LO TAANEH, and LO TACHMOD. In the presentation of the TTriddle here, we used the LOWercase letters for the word TAV. In the text version of the TT, the TTriddle was not clearly presented.
[5] He did it without CHET; he without REISH. Who with both?
The full word is VAYECHERAD, and he trembled. Without the CHET, we get VAYEIRED, and he descended. Both HaShem and Moshe are mentioned with that word in Parshat Yitro. HaShem descends onto the mountain and Moshe descends from the mountain. Without the REISH we get VAYICHAD. That is what Yitro did when he heard all that Moshe told him about what had been happening to Bnei Yisrael. The full word applies to all the people and to Har Sinai itself. (We won’t mention the anger represented by the word without the DALET.)
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