Vayishlach Numbers

PARSHA MATH

In Bereshis 32, 14, Yaacov gives Eisau 220 goats ("two hundred she goats and twenty he goats") as a gesture of friendship. The Pythagoreans, those math lovin' dudes from ancient times, identified 220 as a "friendly" number. What made it friendly? Well, 220, unlike most numbers, has a close friend, 284. Namely, each are equal to the sum of the proper divisors of the other (what?). Proper divisors are all the numbers that divide evenly into a number, including 1 but excluding the number itself. The proper divisors of 220 are 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 20, 22, 44, 55, and 110. Add all those numbers and you'll get 284. Likewise, the proper divisors of 284 are 1, 2, 4, 71, and 142 and they sum of those numbers are 220. 284 is the sum of the gematria of ‫( רדף‬pursurer), the action of Eisav that Yaacov was attempting to counter. __________________________________________________________________________________ Ask someone to name any digit greater than 30, and you will make a “magic” square for that digit, so 'every' sum in the square gives you that digit. The square will be 4 X 4. There are ways to do it bigger, but I will leave that to find for yourself. What you have to remember (or have somewhere secretly written) to do this trick is the following: 7

10

13+

0

12+

1

6

11

2

15+

8

5

9

4

3

14+

What are the plus signs for? Read on... Now, let's say someone says 47. First, you have to use this little formula: (x-30) / 4 Plug 47 into the formula. So we get: (47-30)/4 = 17/4 = 4 with remainder 1. Remember those two numbers. Now back to the 4 x 4 grid above So now, to get the digits of our magic square, we simply add the 4 we got from our formula to each of the numbers. For those digits with the + sign, add 4 plus the remainder 1 (4 + 1 = 5). After doing that, you should have a full 4 x 4 magic square for 47 in each row and column 11

14

18

4

17

5

10

15

6

20

12

9

13

8

7

19

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