In this week’s parsha, Rivka did the amazing act of chesed of watering all of Eliezer’s camels. Did you ever think about the total distance Rivka ran back and forth to the well? This is what we know or can estimate:
- Eliezer had 10 camels with him (Breishit 24:10).
- A camel can drink about 30 gallons at a time.
- Rivka’s jug held half a gallon.
- Eliezer was 30 feet from the well.
- There are 5,280 feet in a mile.
How much did she run back and forth? (Remember to count both directions.)
Solution:
The total number of gallons of water Rivka needed to bring was 10 x 30, which is 300 gallons.
Rivka needed to make two trips to the well to bring a total of one gallon of water.
Therefore, Rivka needed to make 600 trips to the well.
Rivka ran 30 x 600 x 2 feet to get from Eliezer to the well and back to water all of the camels. That’s 36,000 feet.
36,000 / 5,280 is about 6.8.
This means that Rivka ran a total of 6.8 miles. Let’s follow her example and run to do more mitzvot.
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. For more information, visit https://www.math4masses.com. Ari can be reached at [email protected].
