In this week’s parsha, Moshe Rabbeinu was called by Hashem through the burning bush to lead the Jews out of Egypt. Moshe begged Hashem to choose someone else. The pasukim and midrashim say this lasted for seven days until Moshe finally accepted the leadership position.

But was it really seven days?

If we look at Tehillim 90 we get a different answer. The fourth pasuk teaches how Hashem sees time: “For a thousand years in Your eyes are like yesterday, like a watch in the night.” This means that from Hashem’s perspective, every 1,000 years is like just one day. If we apply this ratio to the 7 days at the burning bush, how long (in seconds) did it take from Hashem’s perspective?

Solution:

We can multiply ratios:

(7 days) x (1 year/365 days) x (1 day/1,000 years) x (24 hours/1 day) x (60 minutes/1 hour) x (60 seconds/1 minute) = 1.66 seconds. Shabbat Shalom.

Ari Blinder is a math educator living in Highland Park and the owner of Math for the Masses, an innovative math tutoring and consulting company. For more information, visit www.math4masses.com. Ari can be reached at [email protected].