Last Week's PPP (Yitro)

TT352PPP - YITRO

Part of getting a perfect solution to last week's PPP was realizing that the top four elements in it were part of one puzzle. Upper-left is a book called Coma, which is a NOVEL. Upper-right is the letter T made of bowling pins, or a T-BOWL. Under the book is the Greek letter GAMMA, and the strange thing to its left is aCELL, or in Hebrew - TA. String them together and we get NAVOL (corrupted pronunciation) TI-BOL GAMM ATA... As in what Yitro said to Moshe about both the people and Moshe getting disgusted with waiting from morning to night to be heard in judgment by Moshe.

Across the bottom we have the days of the week; all except for Tuesday are misspelled. As in HEYU N'CHONIM LA' YOM HASHLISHI, a play on the word N'CHONIM, meaning be prepared or correct.

TT352PPP REPORT

Before reporting on the solutions received, let me give you the two radio riddles from last Thursday's Torah Tidbits Audio on Arutz-Sheva - 98.7FM, 711AM, and their website - www.a7.org. I'll give the answers at the end of the report, so if you want to give them a go, you can stop reading here.

The first riddle is: 10 which are 10 which are 13 which are 14 or 15.

The second one is: Yes to the Light, No to the Fire. (In Hebrew it sounds nicer - KEIN LA'OR, LO LA'UR.

Alef-vav-reish has two pronunciations and two connotations. Pronounced with a CHOLOM (dot above the vav) it means light. With a SHURUK (dot in the middle of the vav) it means fire.

Zvi R. had a typical attempt. He got Tuesday correct, but solved only the T-BOWL part to get that reference. Same for DM. Chaim E. got elements B,C,D but missed the novel. And Tuesday. The Far Rockaway Neufelds had a perfect solution (except that they live in Chutz LaAretz). The Rehovot Klavans also had a perfect score,and they thought it was too easy. Sorry. Benji, Esti, and Chani got Navol... and suggested that the choice of novels was based on one of Rashi's explanations of NAVOL, one whose strength has ebbed. As in a coma? Nice addition. But, alas, they didn't get TUE. David Esan got N-T but didn't follow thru with G-T, his epiphanyand duplicate entries not withstanding. He did get TUE. Tanya & David had a perfect sol'n. Steinhart had a near perfect solution, failing only to identify the biologically accurate diagram of the cell.

And so it looks like Album of the Week CDs (see next page) to Far Rockaway Neufelds, Rehovot Klavans, Tanya & David.

This week, I think I'm finally back on the PPP track. You will be the judge of that, but I think that veteran solvers will agree.

TT353PPP - Mishpatim

And now the answers to the radio riddles.

10 which are 10 which are 13 which are 14 or 15.

10 Commandments which are 10 parshiot (not the same since commandments 1 & 2 are a single parsha and commandment 10 is two parshiot) which are 13 p'sukim, which are 14 or 15 mitzvot (14 from Yitro and V'LO TIT'AVEH from Va'etchanan, so it depends how you want to answer the question, How many mitzvot of the 613 are in theAseret HaDibrot.)

The answer to the second riddle is STEPS. Yes, the kohen stepped up to the Light of the Menora (although the Torah does not specifically mention it, Tradition teaches us that there was a set of steps that the kohen used to give him an extra measure of height when tending the Menora. I seem to remember learning that thiswas especially important for the Kohen Gadol, who was not allowed to raise his hands above the level of the TZITZ. Although the Menora was not very tall, the steps helped in this respect. On the other hand, the Torah specifically forbids ascending the Mizbei'ach with steps, therefore LO LA'UR, not to the fire of the Mizbei'ach.

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