This week’s parsha lists the many blessings Hashem sends our way if we do His mitzvot, as well as all of the challenges we face if we don’t follow them. One of the blessings is:

“Hashem shall cause your enemies that rise up against you to be struck down before you: they will come out against you along one path, and run away from you on seven different paths.” (Devarim 28:7)

In other words, if the Jewish people are keeping mitzvot and enemies try to attack, not only will the enemies fail, but they will also panic so much that they will run in seven different directions!

Here is a math question for you. Suppose an army with 35,000 soldiers attacks the Jewish people when they are keeping mitzvot. According to Hashem’s blessing they run away in seven different directions. If an equal number of soldiers runs away for each of the seven directions, how many soldiers run along each path?

Solution:

This is a division problem because the army with 35,000 soldiers divides into seven equally sized groups when it runs away. The division problem is 35,000 / 7 = 5,000. This means that 5,000 soldiers run along each path. 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. He can be reached at [email protected].