In describing the way the Jewish people approached Mount Sinai, the pasuk Shemot 19:2 has the format: “They journeyed… They arrived… They camped in the desert. It encamped opposite the mountain.”
Whoa, that’s weird. Why does the Torah use “They” three times in a row to mean the Jewish people and then use “It” the final time, treating the Jewish people like one unit?
Thankfully, Rashi helps us out with the answer. He writes that when the Jewish people camped next to Mount Sinai, they were “Like one person with one heart.” In other words, the Jewish people’s unity at that time was so strong that they literally experienced sharing the same heart. That unity is what enabled them to receive the Torah. We must all try to get back into that zone filled with love and devotion to each other, and not just when we sing “Acheinu” at Jewish unity events.
But wait a minute. When the Jewish people had one heart at that time, it must have been one really, really big heart! All of the Jews’ hearts combined into one heart somehow. How big was that heart? Once you get the answer, try to put it in perspective by comparing it to the volume of a hot air balloon. Here are some numbers for you to work with.
The volume of an average human heart: 0.3 liters
The approximate number of Jews camped next to Mount Sinai: 2,000,000
The approximate volume of a small hot air balloon: 1,600,000 liters
Solution: Before I explain the solution to this week’s Mitzvah Math question, I want to apologize to you, my dear readers. Up until now, I just focused on making the weekly scenario and question fun but not the solution as well. In fact, people have told me recently that the solutions totally confuse them! Therefore, I hope this week’s solution and moving forward can make up for it. I’d love some readers’ feedback to see if I’m on track now. Thank you.
- We need to multiply the volume of an average human heart by the number of Jews camped right by Mount Sinai. With the given information, the multiplication problem is.
0.3 liters per person x 2,000,000 people.
The leading number of the answer is 6 because 3 x 2 equals 6. But what about the rest of the number? That is, how many zeros do we put after the 6? Well, since the number 2 has six zeros after it, we can do that cool trick of letting the decimal point in front of the 3 have some fun and jump down and up six times to the right. That means that the 6 is followed by five zeros since the decimal point had to first jump under the 3.
In summary, our answer is 600,000 liters.
So it looks like a hot air balloon wins out since 1,600,000 (the volume of a hot air balloon) is about two and a half times 600,000 (the volume of the Jewish people’s big heart)
Challenge question: I just wrote “about two and a half times” What is the exact multiplier? (Hint: 16/6 equals some number.)
I know it seems sad that a hot air balloon won out over the Jewish people’s big heart. However, that’s not really the case. A hot air balloon can only fly up so high in the sky. When the Jewish people are united, there are no limits to how high up we can soar together.
Shabbat Shalom and thanks again for sticking with my column even though my solutions have just been so-so.
Ari Blinder is a math educator living in Highland Park. He is the owner of Math for the Masses, an innovative tutoring and consulting company. Visit www.math4masses.com for fun activities and helpful worksheets. Ari can be reached at [email protected]. Never think you are “not a math person.” You are very much one already, but no one has shown you how.
