Math 

In this lesson
students will be able to calculate the latest time they can eat chometz and the
last time they can get benefit from the chometz.

-Calculators
-Pencils
-Paper
Introduction: The teacher will explain the importance of knowing
the correct time of when Jews can’t eat anymore chometz on the eve of
Pesach. The teacher will work through
an example using hypothetical times.
Students will work along with the teacher, using their calculators. This will help the students understand the
process and will be able to do it themselves.
Lesson: The teacher has to supply the students with
two times, sunrise and sunset. To find
out the crack of dawn you have minus 72 minutes from sunrise. For example sunrise this year on the day before
Pesach is 6:41am seventy-two minutes before that is 5:29am. Then to find the time the stars come out,
you take the sunset time, which this year is 8:11pm and adds seventy-two
minutes, which would be 9:23pm. A whole
day is considered from 5:29am till 9:23pm.
Then the student will have to divide the day into 12 equal parts. The child will find out that the day is
divided into 12 parts of one hour and nineteen and half minutes each, for our
example. It is brought down from our
sages that we can only eat chometz till one third of the day. In our example that would be until
10:47am. Our sages also teach us that a
person can only get benefit from the chometz up until one fourth of the
day. In our example that would be until
12:06pm.
The
teacher will provide only two times sunrise and sunset and the students will
have to figure out using the calculations what time can they last eat chometz
and the last time to get enjoyment from the chometz.
Closing
Activity: The students will be
expected to calculate the times of when they can’t eat chometz if Pesach would
come out a week later. They would have
to figure out the times using May 1st as hypothetical beginning of
Pesach. Students will look in the
newspaper for the sunrise and sunset times.
Using that information they will calculate the times and bring the
answer to class.
