"Every first issue of the womb of any flesh that they offer to Hashem, whether of man or of animal, shall be yours; but you shall surely redeem the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of an impure animal shall you redeem. And those that are to be redeemed- from one month shall you redeem according to the valuation, five silver shekalim by the sacred shekel; it is twenty geirah." ~Bamidbar 18:15-16
Towards the end of this week's parsha, we read of what items are set aside to be given to Aaron and the Kohanim. Within this section, we learn that firstborn male infants and firstborn animals are part of what is to be given to the Kohanim. However, we also learn that firstborn children and impure firstborn animals are to be redeemed at the age of one month. The value for redeeming them is 5 silver shekalim, and we are told that one silver shekel is equivalent to 20 geirah.
Activity Suggestions related to Monetary Equivalence:
Learning equivalencies of monetary values can be confusing for young children. Opportunities for hands-on acting out with manipulatives, repetition, and practice help them become proficient in working with monetary conversions.
- Students can convert between geirahs and shekalim.
Given that 1 shekel = 20 geirah:
- Representing the conversion-
- Younger students could calculate how many geirahs would be in 5 shekalim, by using manipulatives for representation. They could have cups to represent 1 shekel, and small chips or counters representing a geirah. Students could work together to create shekel value cups, each filled with 20 geirah. Once they have the cups set up, they can then go back and count out 5 shekalim. 5 cups would represent 5 shekalim.
- Students who are ready could draw representative circles or boxes for shekalim and show 20 tally marks within each one to represent the geirahs in each. In this case, 5 circles or boxes would represent the 5 shekalim.
- Making the calculations-
- Youngest students can work together (or as a class) to count out how many geirahs there are all together in the 5 shekalim.
- Slightly older children could use their knowledge of "skip counting" or addition of simple large numbers to add the twenties together and make the calculation.
- Older students can use their knowledge of multiplication to problem solve and calculate how many geirahs would be in 5 shekalim.
- Follow-up calculations:
- Can students (young and old) figure out how many shekalim would be needed to redeem multiple firstborns? If 7 families redeem their firstborns, how many shekalim would be given to the Kohanim all together? How many geirahs would be given to the Kohanim all together?
- If you chart the redemption values in shekalim and geirahs for different numbers of firstborns, can you identify any patterns?
- For upper elementary or middle schoolers- can they convert the patterns that they find into functions? How would these functions look when graphed?
- Older students can also research conversion values to current day currencies. Based on the researched conversion rates, what is the value today of a geirah? of a shekel? How much would families need to pay to redeem firstborns in different countries today? Can they write a function to calculate redemption values for multiple firstborns using current currencies?
For younger students:
"Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying, 'Send forth for yourself men, and let them spy out the Land of Canaan that I give to the Children of Israel; one man each from his fathers' tribe shall you send, every one a leader among them.'" ~Bamidbar 13:1-2
"...Your children will roam in the wilderness for forty years and bear your guilt, until your carcasses shall cease to be, in the wilderness. Like the number of the days that you spied out the land, forty days, a day for a year, a day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities- forty years- and you shall know what parting from me [is]." ~Bamidbar 14:33-34
I've addressed the idea of one-to-one correspondence a couple of times in the past (see Parshat Haazinu and Parshat Ki Tisa). In this week's parsha, we have 2 instances that deal directly with this idea.
At the beginning of the parsha, Hashem instructs Moshe to have one leader from each tribe assigned to go out and visit the land of Canaan to see what the Children of Israel were to expect upon entering the land.
- If there is one man from each tribe, how many men were sent? Since we know that there are 12 tribes, if each tribe sends one man, there will also be 12 men.
- Acting it out- Students can be separated into 4 or 5 groups ("tribes"). Within each group, a "leader" can be chosen. Students can count how many groups/tribes there are. Based on this, ask students how many leaders there will be. Have the leaders come to a separate area in the room and have the class count the leaders. Were there predictions correct? Are the students all making the one-to-one connection?
In the middle of the parsha, Hashem becomes upset with the spies' report of Canaan, which led to fear-mongering amongst the Children of Israel. As punishment, Hashem decides that the Children of Israel will wander in the desert one year for each day that the spies were out in Canaan.
- If we know that the spies were in Canaan for 40 days, how many years would the Children of Israel wander the desert? If the spies were there for 40 days, then 1 year for each day would mean that they would wander the desert for 40 years.
- Extrapolation discussion- [Sample questions] If you received one present for every birthday that you've had, how many presents would you have now? (5yo would have 5, 6yo would have 6, etc.); If there are 10 classes in school, and each class makes a poster to put in the hallway, how many posters will be in the hallway? (10 classes = 10 posters)
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Multi-level:
"Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying, 'Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: When you will come to the land of your dwelling places that I give you, and you perform a fire-offering service to Hashem- an olah-offering or a [peace-offering] sacrifice by articulating a vow or a free-will offering, or on your festivals, to produce a pleasing fragrance to Hashem, from the cattle or from the flock- the one who brings his offering to Hashem shall bring a meal-offering of a tenth [of an ephah] fine flour, mixed with a quarter-hin of oil; and a quarter-hin of wine for a libation shall you prepare for the olah-offering or the [peace-offering] sacrifice for each sheep. If it is a ram- you shall prepare a meal-offering, two-tenths [of an ephah] fine flour mixed with a third-hin of oil; and a third-hin of wine for a libation shall you bring as a satisfying aroma to Hashem. When you prepare a young bull as an olah-offering or a [peace-offering] sacrifice, because of an articulated vow, or a peace-offering to Hashem, one shall bring with the young bull a meal-offering: three tenths [of an ephah] fine flour mixed with a half-hin of oil. You shall bring a half-hin of wine for a libation, a fire-offering, a pleasing fragrance to Hashem...'" ~Bamidbar 15:1-10
At the end of this week's parsha there is a list of information regarding different sacrifices. In this section, depending on the animal offered as part of the sacrifice, the specifications of the meal-offering ingredients differ. There are a number of activities that can be arranged around this information.
- The first step is to organize the information- I recommend charting the information based on the animal that each different meal-offering is assigned to. For younger students, you can have the information pre-charted for them, including pictures of ingredients for pre-readers.
- Comparing information:
- Which sacrifice has the most flour? Which has the most oil? Which has the most wine?
- Order them from least to greatest (or greatest to least) amounts of flour. Order by amounts of oil. Order by amounts of wine.
- Are there any patterns that you see? Between the different sacrifices? When they are ordered by amounts?
- Conversions- Using current day equivalencies for ephah and hin, how much of each ingredient would be used for each sacrifice?
- Note: For conversion reference, I posted a chart with conversions including ephah for Parshat Beshalach and Wikipedia has a page with Biblical measurements, including hin under liquid measures; as I wrote in Parshat Shelach last year, a se'ah is usually calculated between 2.25 and 4 gallons in current measurements.
- Interesting conceptual thought:
- For younger students- When you convert from Biblical units to modern day units, does the amount that you have change? Another way of thinking about it- if you measure a table using inches and then using feet, does the size of the table change, or just the measurement you're using to think about the item?
- For older students- When you convert the measurements, will they still compare in the same ways when you order them? What about patterns? If there is a relationship between the measurements, will the relationships remain the same when you have converted into modern day measurements?
In this week's parsha, there were a number of smaller activity ideas that caught my attention. Different activities apply to different learning levels, and some are more easily modified up or down for varying age learners. Below I've listed each passage pertaining to the activities, with the specific activity ideas summarized directly below the applicable passage.
"Hashem spoke to Moshe, in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the second year from their exodus from the land of Egypt, in the first month, saying: 'The Children of Israel shall make the pesach-offering in its appointed time. On the fourteenth day of this month in the afternoon shall you make it, in its appointed time; according to all its decrees and according to all its laws shall you make it.' Moshe spoke to the Children of Israel to make the pesach-offering. They made the pesach-offering in the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month, in the afternoon, in the Wilderness of Sinai; according to everything that Hashem had commanded Moshe, so the Children of Israel did." ~Bamidbar 9:1-5
"In the second month, on the fourteenth day, in the afternoon, shall they make it; with matzot and bitter herbs shall they eat it." ~Bamidbar 9:11
- Calendar activity- In the above passage we are given dates for when the Israelites first offered the pesach offering in the desert, and then when they offer the secondary pesach offering for anyone who was impure at the time of the first offering. Using a calendar, students can map out the dates given in this passage, and they can also compare them to the dates listed on modern-day Jewish calendars to make the connection between the dates listed in the passage and the dates on which we now celebrate Pesach and Pesach Sheni.
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"Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying, 'Make for yourself two silver trumpets- make them beaten out, and they shall be yours for the summoning of the assembly and to cause the camps to journey. When they sound a long blast with them, the entire assembly shall assemble to you, to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. If they sound a long blast with one, the princes shall assemble to you, the heads of Israel's thousands. When you sound short blasts, the camps resting to the east shall journey. When you sound short blasts a second time, the camps resting to the south shall journey; short blasts shall they sound for their journeys. When you gather together the congregation, you shall sound a long blast, but not short blasts. The sons of Aaron, the Kohanim shall sound the trumpets, and it shall be for you an eternal decree for your generations.'" ~Bamidbar 10:1-8
- Codes- The above passage gives directions for Moshe to make two silver trumpets and use different combinations of blasts to indicate different messages to the groups of Israelites. Students could first map out the different blasts and what they indicate- long blasts? short blasts? combinations of long and short? number of each type of blast? Younger students could role play having the teacher sound a trumpet or call out a sound in a certain way and following different directions (move to the front of the room, sit down in a circle, sit down at the project tables,...) based on the sounds made. Older students could use this as a launching point into a discussion of other coding that is used- morse code, for example- and create a code of their own to then share with the group.
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"Moshe said, 'Six hundred thousand foot soldiers are the people in whose midst I am, yet You say I shall give them meat, and they shall eat for a month of days!...'" ~Bamidbar 11:21
- Rounding numbers & Comparing numbers- Rashi on this passage wrote about how when Moshe is complaining about having to provide meat for the Israelites after they complained about the manna, he lists the foot soldiers at an even 600,000 men, yet when we read about the census in Bamidbar 1:46, there were 603,550 soldiers counted. What happened?
- Rashi offers 2 explanations:
- Moshe was not focused on the detail of the specific numbers. Thinking about it, this makes sense- when you are upset or excited about something, you are focused on the big picture or larger situation, not the very specific details.
- Students can talk about how we round numbers mathematically. Find the greatest place value that we want to round to, and then look at the next smaller place value. If the number in that place is 5 or greater, then we round our desired place value up by one number; if the number in that place is 4 or less, then we round down by keeping our desired place value at its current number. In Moshe's excitement, did he round accurately according to the rules of mathematics?
- Moshe was only referring to the men who left Egypt, who were the ones who complained, since only those who left Egypt had something to compare their experience to and say that this was worse.
- Students can refer back to Shemot 12:37 to compare the numbers. Students can calculate that, based on this comparison, there were therefore 3,550 men who were born and raised in the desert.
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"Moshe left and spoke the words of Hashem to the people; and he gathered seventy men from among the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent. Hashem descended in a cloud and spoke to him, and He set aside some of the spirit that was upon him and gave it to the seventy men, the elders; when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, but did not continue to do so. Two men remained behind in the camp, the name of one was Eldad and the name of the second was Medad, and the spirit rested upon them; they were of those who had been written, but they had not gone out of the Tent, and they prophesied in the camp." ~Bamidbar 11:24-26
- Probability- In the passage above, Hashem instructed Moshe to gather 70 elders to help in the spiritual guidance of the Israelites. Rashi explains that there were supposed to be 6 elders from each tribe (12 x 6 = 72) who were to gather and draw lots. The lots would indicate 70 spiritual leaders and 2 who were not able to attain prophetic status. Eldad and Medad, however, assumed that they would not achieve prophetic status, so they did not join the group. When the lots were drawn, 2 of the present elders drew blank lots, and the lots for Eldad and Medad were left undrawn. A few questions to begin thinking about this statistically:
- What was the probability of each elder drawing a prophetic lot? What was their probability of drawing a blank lot?
- Was their probability changed in any way by Eldad and Medad abstaining from drawing lots?
- What percentage/fraction of the elders achieved prophetic status? What percentage/fraction of the elders did not achieve prophetic status?
