We have a lot to look for with Rosh Hashanah coming up! We get to hear the shofar, have simanim—the foods that hint to positive outcomes throughout the next year. Most of all we get to enjoy spending the extra time with friends and family.

You know what I enjoy most—apples with honey! But I have a problem this year. I really really like apples and honey, but I cannot figure out if I will have enough honey for all of the slices of apples I plan on cutting up. Here’s my information:

I have 5 apples.

I cut each apple into 6 slices.

I have one bottle of honey with 20 teaspoons of honey in it.

I spread each slice with one teaspoon of honey.

Do I have enough honey to spread on all the apple slices? If I don’t have enough honey, how many apple slices will be left without honey?

Solution: Unfortunately I don’t have enough honey. There will be 10 slices left without honey. Each of the 5 apples is cut into 6 slices. That gives a total of 30 slices since 5 x 6 = 30. But there are only 20 teaspoons to go around, and I put one teaspoon of honey on each slice. This means tha 10 slices cannot get honey. That is, 30 minus 20 = 10.

That’s OK, even without honey, apples are great! Shabbat Shalom.

Ari Blinder is a math educator living in Highland Park, New Jersey and the owner of Math for the Masses, an innovative math tutoring and consulting company. He can be reached at [email protected].