Mattot/Masei- Activity Suggestions for Creating Charts with Guided Calculations to Understand Information

Calculate and Divide the Plunder: 

"Hashem said to Moshe, saying: 'Calculate the total of the plunder of the captives, of people and animals, you, and Elazar the Kohen, and the heads of the fathers of the assembly. Divide the plunder in half, between those who undertook the battle, who go out to the army, and the entire assembly. You shall raise up a tribute to Hashem from the men of war who go out to the army, one living being of five hundred, from the people, from the cattle, from the donkeys, and from the flock. You shall take it from their half and give it to Elazar the Kohen, as a portion of Hashem. And from the half of the Children of Israel you shall take one drawn from fifty, from the people, from the cattle, from the donkeys, from the flock- from all the animals- and you shall give them to the Levites, the guardians for the charge of the Tabernacle of Hashem.'" ~Bamidbar 31:25-30

Itemization of Division of the Plunder: 

"Moshe and Elazar the Kohen did as Hashem commanded Moshe. The plunder, beyond the spoils that the people of the army took as spoils was: the flock, six hundred seventy-five thousand; and cattle, seventy-two thousand; and donkeys, sixty-one thousand; and human beings, and of the women who had not known lying with a male, all the souls, thirty-two thousand. The half which was the share of those who went out to the army, was: the count of the flock, three hundred and thirty-seven thousand, five hundred- the tribute of Hashem from the flock was six hundred and seventy-five; and the cattle, thirty-six thousand- and their tribute to Hashem, seventy-two; and the donkeys, thirty thousand, five hundred- and their tribute to Hashem, sixty-one; and the human beings, sixteen thousand- and their tribute to Hashem, thirty-two people. Moshe gave the tribute that was raised up for Hashem to Elazar the Kohen, as Hashem had commanded Moshe."

From the half of the Children of Israel that Moshe had divided from the men who went to the army, and the half of the assembly was: of the flock, three hundred and thirty-seven thousand, five hundred- and the cattle, thirty-six thousand; and the donkeys, thirty thousand, five hundred; and the human beings, sixteen thousand. Moshe took from the half of the Children of Israel the one drawn from the fifty, from the people and the animals, and gave them to the Levites, the guardians of the charge of Hashem's Tabernacle, as Hashem had commanded Moshe." ~Bamidbar 31:31-47

This week's parsha is a double-parsha (we read two parshiot). For this post, I will focus on a portion from parshat Mattot. In this section, we have Hashem directing Moshe as to how the plunder of the Israelites' war with Moav was to be divided and donated. Following this, we have a section that itemizes what plunder was collected and exactly how they were divided. This set-up offers an opportunity for students to first organize the information related to how to divide the plunder and then test out their calculations on their own to see if their calculated divisions and donations match what is listed for the itemization of divisions and donations.

Some guiding questions for organizing and calculating:

• To begin, how many groups was the plunder to be divided into? 
• Was this an even division? 
• What/who were the groups?
• What were the categories of plunder that was being divided?
• How many were there?
• What exactly were they?
• Where was the donation from each group to be given?
• What was the calculation for donations from each group? Were there different calculations for the subgroups from each group?
• How did the calculations for donations compare within groups (looking at subgroups) and between groups?
• Can you use these questions to organize the basic set-up into a chart that will be usable for charting the actual division and donation of the plunder?

Using the chart created above, if you organize the information about the actual plunder that was collected, how do your calculations for division and donations match with the calculations given in the second quoted section above?

Problem Solving For Younger Students:
While younger students might not be able to organize a chart or perform the calculations necessary, some possible activities could be:

• As a group, with teacher guidance, identifying where information would fit into a pre-structured chart.
• Testing out donation samples for "1 out of 500" and "1 out of 50" using manipulatives.
• Note that counting out such large groupings would likely be too drawn out and tedious for most young students, but if they have pre-prepared sample groups already counted out into sub-groups of 500 and/or 50, then they can use these groups to model donating 1 from each group. Students could then use skip counting to show that, for example, 3 groups of 500 means that there were 1,500 paperclips and 3 of them would be donated.

Extension thoughts for Older Students:

• This type of information can be expressed using fractions, ratios, and percentages. How could you express the information using each of these forms?
• How might this information be displayed using graphs?