Last Week's PPP (Ekev)

l...ANDANTAPSAQRAGLARAARIAURBOOCAECA MCNCCVNCMACMICAPCARCASCENCEPCETCH ACIRCOLCOMCRACRBCRVCRTCRUCYGDELDO RDRAEQUERIFORGEMGRUHERHORHYAHYIIND LACLEOLMILEPLIBLUPLYNLYRMENMICMONMUS NOROCTOPHORIPAVPEGPERPHEPICPSCPSAP UPPYXRETSGESGRSCOSCISCTSERSEXTAUTEL TRITRATUCUMAUMIVELVIRVOLVUL

TT378PPP - Eikev

It wasn't labeled as a PPP, but that's what it was. Solvers needed to do two things - to identify the mass of letters following the I..., and then to put the whole thing in the context of Parshat Eikev. One reader noticed that every third letter formed a sequence of letters in alphabetical order. Several readers correctlyidentified the three-letter abbreviations of the 88 constellations of stars in the sky. Here is the list of names of the constellations:

Andromeda, Antlia, Apus, Aquarius, Aquila, Ara, Aries, Auriga, Bootes, Caelum, Camelopardalis, Cancer, Canes Venatici, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Capricornus, Carina, Cassiopeia, Centaurus, Cepheus, Cetus, Chamaeleon, Circinus, Columba, Coma Berenices, Corona Austrina, Corona Borealis, Corvus, Crater, Crux, Cygnus, Delphinus,Dorado, Draco, Equuleus, Eridanus, Fornax, Gemini, Grus, Hercules, Horologium, Hydra, Hydrus, Indus, Lacerta, Leo, LeoMinor, Lepus, Libra, Lupus, Lynx, Lyra, Mensa, Microscopium, Monoceros, Musca, Norma, Octans, Ophiuchus, Orion, Pavo, Pegasus, Perseus, Phoenix, Pictor, Pisces, PiscisAustrinus, Puppis, Pyxis, Reticulum,Sagitta, Sagittarius, Scorpius, Sculptor, Scutum, Serpens, Sextans, Taurus, Telescopium, Triangulum, Triangulum Australe, Tucana, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Vela, Virgo, Volans, Vulpecula

Originally, a constellation was a group of stars that seemed to form a picture of some sort (even if one needed a tremendous amount of imagination to see them). That group of stars that looked (to some ancient shepherd) like a lion became the constellation LEO. A sequence of stars that seemed to meander throughout a certain region of the sky was designated the River Eridanus. And so on. Other stars in the area of the constellation LEO, for example, were considered part of the constellation, even if the stars were not part of the shape of the lion. Relatively recently, the entire celestial sphere has been mapped with portions of the sky assigned to each of 88 constellations. The boundaries of the constellations have been agreed upon by international convention, and every known, observed star in the sky "belongs" to one of the 88 constellations.

Therefore, the sequence of 264 letters in the PPP represent "all the stars of the heavens".

I, that is the letter I (some would-be solvers saw it as the numeral one, which fits, but not as nicely as the letter I), is both "one" (as in the singular pronoun and in Roman numerals), and - by a play on words - I = eye = AYIN = 70, representing the 70 souls who went down to Egypt, who G-d has made so numerous as themultitude of the heavenly stars.

TT378PPP represents D'varim 10:22.

The one can be Avraham Avinu, or Yaakov Avinu, but the intention was for 70, as in the pasuk.

No one really solved it to my liking. The closest anyone came was the Steinhart Gang, who went for The nation starting with one (Avraham) and growing numerous as the stars of the heavens.

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