Math while listening to the parsha

While I was listening to the Torah reading I did some quick math in my head twice

The first instance was when the Torah was going over the donations, I was wondering how much is a ככר(kikar, talent) of precious metal? So first I thought, well maybe

כד כָּל-הַזָּהָב, הֶעָשׂוּי לַמְּלָאכָה, בְּכֹל, מְלֶאכֶת הַקֹּדֶשׁ--וַיְהִי זְהַב הַתְּנוּפָה, תֵּשַׁע וְעֶשְׂרִים כִּכָּר, וּשְׁבַע מֵאוֹת וּשְׁלֹשִׁים שֶׁקֶל, בְּשֶׁקֶל הַקֹּדֶשׁ.

24 All the gold that was used for the work in all the work of the sanctuary, even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary.

So first I thought: maybe its 1000 shekel. its more than 730. But then:

כו בֶּקַע, לַגֻּלְגֹּלֶת, מַחֲצִית הַשֶּׁקֶל, בְּשֶׁקֶל הַקֹּדֶשׁ--לְכֹל הָעֹבֵר עַל-הַפְּקֻדִים, מִבֶּן עֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה וָמַעְלָה, לְשֵׁשׁ-מֵאוֹת אֶלֶף וּשְׁלֹשֶׁת אֲלָפִים, וַחֲמֵשׁ מֵאוֹת וַחֲמִשִּׁים.	26 a beka a head, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that passed over to them that are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men.
כז וַיְהִי, מְאַת כִּכַּר הַכֶּסֶף, לָצֶקֶת אֵת אַדְנֵי הַקֹּדֶשׁ, וְאֵת אַדְנֵי הַפָּרֹכֶת: מְאַת אֲדָנִים לִמְאַת הַכִּכָּר, כִּכָּר לָאָדֶן.	27 And the hundred talents of silver were for casting the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the veil: a hundred sockets for the hundred talents, a talent for a socket.
כח וְאֶת-הָאֶלֶף וּשְׁבַע הַמֵּאוֹת, וַחֲמִשָּׁה וְשִׁבְעִים, עָשָׂה וָוִים, לָעַמּוּדִים; וְצִפָּה רָאשֵׁיהֶם, וְחִשַּׁק אֹתָם.	28 And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their capitals, and made fillets for them.

Which reminds me of the nice drasha how all the people of Israel were equal and of utmost importance when it came to the very foundation of the משכן(tabernacle). Well turns out, not quite, they really only needed 100 talents so 1775 shekel was used for other things, still a nice drasha so I am sure there is a way to work this out nicely.
Anyway the math
603,550 people (men over 20 of the nation of Israel) give 0.5 shekel which makes 301,775 shekel. Subtract 1775 for the left overs and you are left with 300,000 shekel being equal to 100 talents, meaning one talent was 3,000 shekel. Hmm before I calculated it during the reading I thought it would be 2,000 shekel, I wonder why I thought that?

Then later we have the Golden Altar for the sacrifices of animals, I always think of it as very big and impressive, tall and imposing. Well, it couldn't be that big, it would have to be carried whole.

א וַיַּעַשׂ אֶת-מִזְבַּח הָעֹלָה, עֲצֵי שִׁטִּים: חָמֵשׁ אַמּוֹת אָרְכּוֹ וְחָמֵשׁ-אַמּוֹת רָחְבּוֹ, רָבוּעַ, וְשָׁלֹשׁ אַמּוֹת, קֹמָתוֹ.

1 And he made the altar of burnt-offering of acacia-wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof, four-square, and three cubits the height thereof.

An אמה(bredth) is normally 5 tefachim(handbreadth) but for the משכ ן(tabernacle) it is 6. A handbreadth is taken to be between 8-10cm. So it is between
3 x 6 x 8cm = 1.44 meters (4'8") and 3 x 6 x 10 cm= 1.8 meters (5'11")

I guess I already knew that, but I just usually thought of it as bigger in my mind. Well if you didn't know, now you do

Targum for Pequdei - Engraving in Hebrew and Aramaic

Shabbat, just a few hours ago for me we read Vayaqhel-Pequdei. I made a note to myself to blog about this for Tetzaveh, but I forgot about it, so luckily it completely repeats itself in Pequdei.

What I was interested in was the word גלופה which I became acquainted with when I trying to translate the order forms for the SAVE DARFUR / הצילו את דרפור shirts
which HAeD prints. In modern Hebrew גלפ means
גְּלוּפָה שֵם נ' (printing) block, plate
גִּלּוּף שֵם ז' carving, etching, engraving

What piqued my intrest in the root גלפ is that it for some reason sounded familiar in the context of printing. After a few days of it bothering me, I finally hit on it. גלפ or גלופה (g-l-pf or glufa) sounds exactly like glyph. Here is what glyph means according to Answers.com (Answers.com is actually an Israeli company, that much I knew. But who knew they are right next to the mall in Jerusalem!)

A symbolic figure that is usually engraved or incised or A displayed or printed image. In typography, a glyph may be a single letter, an accent mark or a ligature.

They have some etymology too

Etymology

The term has been used in English since 1727, loaned from glyphe in use by French antiquaries (since 1701), from Greek γλυφη "a carving," from γλύφειν "to hollow out, engrave, carve" (cognate to Latin glubere "to peel" and English cleave). - http://www.answers.com/glyph&r=67

They have some Hebrew translation, but every time I copied it to blogger, it would mess up the whole post reversing the English and messing all the HTML so if you want to see it, take a look its at the very end of the site.

They may be right that glyph reached English though French, Greek and Latin, but I will tkae it a step back and say that it comes from the Aramaic גלפ

Here is where the word appears in the Targum to this weeks Parsha
שמות לט,ו
וַיַּעֲשׂוּ אֶת-אַבְנֵי הַשֹּׁהַם, מֻסַבֹּת מִשְׁבְּצֹת זָהָב, מְפֻתָּחֹת פִּתּוּחֵי חוֹתָם, עַל-שְׁמוֹת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
וַעֲבַדוּ יָת אַבְנֵי בֻּרְלָא, מְשַׁקְּעָן מְרַמְּצָן דִּדְהַב,גְּלִיפָן כְּתָב מְפָרַשׁ, עַל שְׁמָהָת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל

שמות לט,יד
לט,יד וְהָאֲבָנִים עַל-שְׁמֹת בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל הֵנָּה, שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵה--עַל-שְׁמֹתָם:פִּתּוּחֵי חֹתָם אִישׁ עַל-שְׁמוֹ, לִשְׁנֵים עָשָׂר שָׁבֶט

וְאַבְנַיָּא עַל שְׁמָהָת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אִנִּין, תַּרְתַּא עַסְרֵי--עַל שְׁמָהָתְהוֹן: כְּתָב מְפָרַשׁ כִּגְלָף דְּעִזְקָא גְּבַר עַל שְׁמֵיהּ, לִתְרֵי עֲסַר שִׁבְטִין.


Other instances of root גלפ in the targum
שמות כח9
שמות כח11
שמות כח21
שמות כח36

A friend deals with the etymology of Ptil/פתיל with his knowledge of Russian http://kopo.livejournal.com/15941.html

Parshat Ki Tisa - Targum, play on words?

לב,לב וְעַתָּה, אִם-תִּשָּׂא חַטָּאתָם; וְאִם-אַיִן--מְחֵנִי נָא, מִסִּפְרְךָ אֲשֶׁר כָּתָבְתָּ.
Targum :
וּכְעַן, אִם שְׁבַקְתְּ לְחוֹבֵיהוֹן; וְאִם לָא--מְחֵינִי כְּעַן, מִסִּפְרָךְ דִּכְתַבְתָּא.

לב,לה וַיִּגֹּף יְהוָה, אֶת-הָעָם, עַל אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ אֶת-הָעֵגֶל, אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה אַהֲרֹן.
Targum
וּמְחָא יְיָ, יָת עַמָּא, עַל דְּאִשְׁתַּעֲבַדוּ לְעִגְלָא, דַּעֲבַד אַהֲרוֹן.



Moshe asks Hashem to forigve the Jewish People after the sin of the golden calf, and if not he asks that hashem wipe out (Maha) his name from the Torah

Later when Hashem decides to forgive the Jewish people, yet also send a plauge against them, the Torah uses the word Nagaf (meaning strike). While in the Targum the word Maha is used. While it is true the the word Maha is used many times in the Targum as a translation of Nagaf, it doesn't 100% of the time.

Whether accidental or on purpose it is interesting to note that possible answer to Moshe's request that he me wiped out is met by Hashem partially wiping out some of Israel.

Where else do we see the Hebrew word Maha to refer to wiping out a nation?
- Amalek