Published March 18, 2010
This week’s TTriddles:
[1] when 123 = 213
[2] Crocsperson yes, heart corps no
[3] Natural clothing on all
[4] Father of 6th day’s presenter
[5] First course: Fruit salad with apples, bananas, kiwis, necterines, oranges, and raspberries
Last issue’s (V/P-HaChodesh) TTriddles:
[1] Announce the anniversary of the 7th
The 7th refers to the 7th aliya of the double sedras of Vayakhel-P’kudei. That portion begins with a date - the first day of Nissan, the day that the Mishkan is to be inaugurated. Further in the portion, the Torah again tells us the date - this time, that of when the command was carried out.After Torah reading last Shabbat, we “benched” Rosh Chodesh, which contains an announcement of the first day of Nissan.
[2] Sadir Scissors, Keva Paper, and ?
Soldiers in the IDF come in three flavors: SADIR are the regular conscripts, most commonly those who begin their regular service at age 18. KEVA are those who sign up for continued service beyond the requirements of SADIR. And then there are the reservists - MILU’IMniks. Three types of CHAYALIM, for this TTriddle, paired off with a different famous trio - ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS. With Sadir Scissors and Keva Paper, we are left with AVNEI MILU’IM - actually, the stones that were set in the CHOSHEN of the Kohein Gadol.
[3] CHAGIM UZMANIM L’SASSON
Gimatriya: 8+3+10+40 (61) + 6+7+40 +50+10+40 (153) + 30+300+300+6+50 (686) = 900, as in Torah Tidbits issue #900.
[4] The kohanim aren’t the only clothed ones
Three types of B’GADIM (lit. clothing) are described in the M’LECHET HAMISHKAN. BIGDEI HAS’RAD, BIGDEI HAKODESH L’AHARON HAKOHEIN, and BIGDEI VANAV L’CHAHEIN. The second and third types are for the kohanim. But they aren’t the only ones “clothed” in the Mishkan. According to Rashi, BIGDEI HAS’RAD refers to the special woven cloths that were used to cover the ARON, SHULCHAN, MENORA, and golden MIZBEI’ACH before the Leviyim were admitted to the Mishkan to carry out those vessels.
[5] Poker hand? 3 sovereigns and 2 aces
Looks like a full house in poker. Sovereigns are the kings and queens. But for this TTriddle, the kings and queens are combined under the designation of sovereigns and are marked with the letter S rather than a K or a Q. ESSES and ACES alludes to the many occurrences of the Hebrew word ALEF-TAV, the ALEF of which sometimes is voweled with a SEGOL (ESS) and sometimes with a TZEIREI (ACE). This, of course, is in the Ashkenazic pronunciation. The ParshaPix had an ET and EIGHT pair too for the S’faradic pronunciation, although many Israelis (and others) so not distinguish (too much) between the SEGOL and the TZEIREI.
[6] Cookie Monster and chocolate milk
[7] Eat one cubic meter of chocolate mousse and become a Member of the Order of Canada. Checkmate!
These two TTriddles have the same solution. The key is the initials of the words or phrases. Cookie Monster (CM). So too chocolate milk. And cubic meter as well. Also, chocolate mousse. A member of the Order of Canada is called a CM. And an abbreviation for checkmate is CM. Let’s add the chemical element named after the discoverer of Radium, Madam Marie Curie. Symbol for Curium is Cm. Okay, so what’s CM? In Roman numerals it is 900!
[8] Unexplained from the ParshaPix
In the lower-left corner of last week’s ParshaPix was a TZADI SOFIT (known by Sofrim as TZADI P’SHUTA, meaning straight, in contrast to the TZADI K’FUFA, mening bent.) In regular, standard gimatriya, the 5 different final letters have the same numeric value as their beginning and middle of the word partners. MEM is 40. So is MEM SOFIT. Etc. But there is a variant gimatriya system that assigns different values to the five final letters. Following TAV at 400, CHAF SOFIT is 500, MEM SOFIT is 600, NUN SOFIT is 700, FEI SOFIT is 800, and TZADI SOFIT is 900.
[9] MazalPic
Once upon a time (actually, more than once), we had a recognized symbol for the mazal of each month. Then, several years ago, we started using a MazalPic that needed “solviong” (somethings it was easy, sometimes not) to connect to the Zodiac sign of the month. Nissan is the T’LEH, the Ram, Aries. Last year, for example, there was an auto, a candle, and a Scrabble tile with an O on it. CAR-NER-O is Spanish for RAM. The year before, we used a picture of the Asus M530w PDA, a.k.a. the Asus Aries. Before that, a Dodge Ram pickup truck. Before that was a computer card of RAM. And we’ve had a Los Angeles Rams helmet. It doesn’t get easier year by year. This year we feature Barney, the loveable (some would not use that term!) purple dinosaur. For Nissan, we intend another meaning of Barney from the world of mining engineering. A barney is small car or truck, attached to a rope or cable, used to push cars up a slope or an inclined plane. Also known as bullfrog; donkey; groundhog; larry; mule; ram; truck. There it is. A barney is a.k.a. a RAM, as in the mazal of Nissan.
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