Beha'alotcha- Mixed Bag of activity suggestions

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: 
1. 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?
2. 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?

Beha'alotcha- Directionality and Proprioception

"Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying, 'Speak to Aaron and say to him: When you kindle the lamps, toward the face of the Menorah shall the seven lamps cast light.'" ~Bamidbar 8;1-2

Rashi on 8;2 says:
Toward the face of the menorah. This means toward the middle lamp, which is called "the Menorah" because it is not on the branches, but rather, on the body of the Menorah, i.e., on its central shaft.
Shall the seven lamps cast light. Of the six lamps that are on the six branches, the three of them on the east, the wicks in them turn toward the middle [lamp], and similarly, the three of them on the west, the ends of their wicks turn toward the middle [lamp]. Why? So that [people] should not say "He needs its light."

proprioception- the unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the body itself (dictionary.com)

Direction or orientation is a concept that develops over time. Understanding of directions like up and down develops early on in children- often before children are even toddlers; babies demand "Up!" when they want to be picked up or "Down!" when they want to be let down to play with or reach something. Understanding of forward and backward also develops by a young age. Proficient use of left and right takes much longer to develop and remains difficult for many people even into adulthood. The understanding of left and right is part of proprioception. This is different from up, down, front, back, etc., which are based on a person's understanding of the outside world in relation to themselves, rather than the understanding of one part of their body in relation to another part.

Parsha Connection:
When reading the portion that tells about Aaron lighting the menorah, it struck me that the Torah doesn't give specific direction; rather, it says that the lamps should be lit "toward the face of the Menorah". Interestingly, Rashi's explanation also refers to the lights using external directions- i.e. east and west. While east and west might also be confusing, since you first need to orient yourself in relation to the cardinal directions (North, South, East, West), once you identify one direction, it's easier to figure out where the other directions are in relation to your orienting direction. Left and right would have been much harder to figure out or understand, since left and right are always based on the relationship of the specific person or the object being referred to. For example, if the Torah (or Rashi) mentioned the wicks on the left compared to the wicks on the right, how would we know if it was referring to them based on the perspective of the person lighting or the perspective of the Menorah itself?

Everyday Connection:
Differentiating left from right is always difficult. Practicing referring to the left and right of someone else is even more difficult. Putting left and right labels and then turning around in different directions to see where the left and right end up can start to help children develop an understanding of how left and right move around as an object changes location. For example, if you're talking about your right or left and a child's right or left, when you're facing each other it's very hard for a child to understand why your left and their left are diagonally across from each other. Turning to face the same direction, identifying your left hand with a label or by raising it up and then turning around while keeping it raised can help the child actually see how your left changes its location as you turn around.

One trick that many people use to remember left from right is to put their index fingers and thumbs on each hand into an "L" shape. With the back of your hand facing you, your left hand will make a proper "L", while your right hand will make a backwards "L".

Interesting note- when dealing with stage directions, to avoid confusion the director always refers to directions from the perspective of the actors standing on stage and facing the audience. This means that the director (when facing the stage) actually needs to reverse all of their innate directions in order for the actors to understand in which direction they need to move.