Shemot- Mathematical Language

"The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the first was Shifrah and the name of the second was Puah-" ~Shemot 1;15

"[Pharaoh decreed] '...But the total of the bricks that they were making yesterday and before yesterday you shall place upon them- do not reduce it- for they are becoming lax; therefore they cry out saying, "Let us go and bring offerings to our G-d." Let the work weigh heavier upon the men and let them engage in it; and let them not engage in words of falsity.' The taskmasters of the people and it's guards went out and spoke to the people, saying, 'So said Pharaoh, I am not giving you straw. You, go, take straw for yourselves from whatever you find, for nothing is being deducted from your work.' So the people spread out through the entire land of Egypt to gather a gathering for straw. The taskmasters were pressing, saying, 'Complete your work, each day's quota on that day, as when there was straw!'..." ~Shemot 5;8-13

Math is the foundation of the universe. It exists all around us and permeates our lives, mostly on a subconscious level. How much we connect with that math is dependent on how tuned into it we are at any given time. When reading through Parshat Shemot, you could easily read through the storyline of the parsha without any thought towards mathematics. However, if you read carefully, you can actually see that the parsha includes grammatically correct, mathematical language in at least two places. I'm not talking about throwing numbers into the storyline, I'm talking about actual mathematical wording when discussing information.

Ordinal Numbers:
In our day to day lives, we have 3 different types of numbers that we use- ordinal numbers, cardinal numbers, and nominal numbers.

Ordinal Numbers are numbers that indicate the order of a group of items (eg. first, second, third,...).
Cardinal Numbers are numbers that tell us the quantity or value of something (eg. 7 apples, $4.15, 17 years)
Nominal Numbers are numbers that don't have a numerical meaning, but just have a number as a label (eg. zip codes, bank routing numbers, telephone numbers)

Parsha connection- In Shemot 1;15, we learn about the Hebrew midwives whom the king of Egypt appointed to oversee the Jewish births. When they are introduced to us, they aren't just listed as "one was Shifrah and one was Puah". Rather, we learn that the first was Shifrah and the second was Puah. For whatever reason, the Torah uses ordinal numbers to give them a specific ranking or order.


Arithmetic Vocabulary:
Just as in any other area of our lives, in order to understand mathematical data that is part of our daily lives, there is certain vocabulary that has mathematical meaning with which we must familiarize ourselves. Some basic examples are understanding that when we want more of something, we need to add to the quantity; when we want less of something, we need to subtract from the quantity. We need to understand that when equally sharing a quantity, it means to divide evenly amongst the group. We even have commonly used suffixes that indicate comparative value of items: -er, -est. For example: "I ran faster than him. She ran the fastest." These sentences both indicate comparative speeds, and we need to understand from this language who was faster than whom.

Parsha connection- In Shemot 5, we learn of the decree for reduction of materials without adjustment in the quota requirement for the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. As we read through this perek, it is filled with mathematical vocabulary that indicates to us the severity of the intense work that was expected of the slaves. Below, I will recopy the excerpt from Perek 5, but with emphasis on the mathematical vocabulary.

"[Pharaoh decreed] '...But the total of the bricks that they were making yesterday and before yesterday you shall place upon them- do not reduce it- for they are becoming lax; therefore they cry out saying, "Let us go and bring offerings to our G-d." Let the work weigh heavier upon the men and let them engage in it; and let them not engage in words of falsity.' The taskmasters of the people and it's guards went out and spoke to the people, saying, 'So said Pharaoh, I am not giving you straw. You, go, take straw for yourselves from whatever you find, for nothing is being deducted from your work.' So the people spread out through the entire land of Egypt to gather a gathering for straw. The taskmasters were pressing, saying, 'Complete your work, each day's quota on that day, as when there was straw!'..." ~Shemot 5;8-13

We all use math, all the time- even those of us who are scared of it. We just don't always process it as math. What math have you been taking for granted in your daily life?