Shelach- Activities with One-to-One Correspondence and Measurements

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)

*****

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?