Last Week's PPP (To'l'dot)

TT340PPP TO'L'DOT

[1] Upper-left. The hammer is a TOOL. The girl in the picture is Judy Garland as Dorothy in The Wizard of OZ. That's Toto she's holding. The name Dorothy is often shortened to the nickname DOT. Which gives TULDOT, which is NOT a  bad pronunciation of the sedras name, but an accurate  pronunciation of the Aramaic, as in Onkeles.

[2] Upper-right. Dice showing a total of SEVEN. They are on the candy CANE, which gives ...SHIV'A, AL KEIN... as in B'reishit 26:33.

[3] Last week there was the emblem of the California Angels; this week we have a cap of the Minnesota TWINS, as in Yaakov and Eisav. (This one was the give- away, for those who recognize the emblem on the cap... or guess  well.)

[4] The envelope, please. I like this one. But it's kind of  complicated. The stamp doesn't say much, except to help identify the white rectangle as an envelope.  The other three elements are important. The addressee is E. SOFER; his address is irrelevant. The name and address of the sender   are not important; just that theletter comes FROM JERUSALEM. And the content is indicated by the E/c2. Okay, let's continue. Einstein's famous equation is E =  mc2. Solving the equation for m gives us E/c2. m is mass; so is E/c2. Mass in Hebrew is MASSA. The  letter being FROM JERUSALEM makes it D'VAR HASHEM, as in Ki  MiTzion... U'DVAR HASHEM MIRUSHALAYIM.The addressee's full name is EZRA HASOFER, whom   commentaries identify as the prophet MAL'ACHI. Put it all  together and you have the first pasuk of the Haftara of To'l'dot: MASSA D'VAR HASHEM (el Yisrael)   B'YADMAL'ACHI. Had the address shown that E. SOFER was in Israel, I would have had the whole pasuk. Missed that part.

[5] The name Ginsberg is almost lying down, as in Avimelech's words to Yitzchak after discovering that Yitzchak and Rivka were husband and wife, B'reishit 26:10 - KIM'AT SHACHAV ACHAD HA'AM... Achad Ha'Am was the  pen name of Asher Hirsch Ginsberg. I like this one too. (I really like them all, but...)

THE PPP-SOLUTIONS REPORT...

Last week's computer freeze-up erased some PPP solvers, including Havdala Harati. Sorry about that (who?). PPP solutions come in by email, fax, occasionally by snail mail (that's regular mail, in case you didn't know that email term), phone, and on hand-delivered bits of paper. It is likely, in any given week, that someone'ssolutions will be overlooked.

This week, we have a nice flow of solutions already. Let's start with the Stermen (is Sterpeople more politically correct?). A neat [2,3,5]. The 4R had a novel solution for [1] with a play on Judy GAR (as in GUR, live) LAND, in Eretz Yisrael. And a play on hammer and OMAR. Nice. Plus [2,3,5] and a partial [4]. MM Bklynhit [2,3,5] and had a nice  try on [4] referring to an episode in Ezra 10. Zvi Roth with help hit [2,3,5] and partial credit for [1,4]. DM called in a modest solution. M. Ramach submitted a full set of other solutions, the closest to the "official" solution being [4]. The Ofra haven't-heard-from-you-in-a-while Shelnitzes submitted a modest [3,5]. The ChiGoldbergs came through with a [2,3,5] and a cute Dorothy & Toto - "There's no place like home" - G-d's message to Yitzchak in warning him not to leave the Land of Israel. It also is a message for the departing Yaakov. Tifferet Avot had a [2,3,5] with a nice try at [4], finding some of thewells' names.

This Week's PPP (Vayeitzei)

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