I was not popular in college. Some reasons are still evident five decades later, others are no longer relevant. In any case, one day I finally mustered the courage to ask out a freshman (I was a junior and still younger than her; one of the reasons I was not popular). In a moment of weakness, she said yes. She regained her sensibilities before I picked her up, so when I arrived she told me she had an exam to study for, and so had to cancel our date. She felt badly enough to invite me in for some popcorn before shooing me off. I wasn't so dense as to be oblivious to what just happened, but I had no better option, so I took her up on it. I wasn't there for more than 15 or so minutes. She asked me why I chose to be a physics major. I struggled to explain, and then said, "I mean, haven't you ever wondered why the sky is blue?" She got a puzzled look on her face and said, "No." I don't know if there is a punctuation mark for her tone. Kind of a mixture of mild shock, disdain, and pity. Just to not leave you hanging; no, we never went out.
But I do wonder. Have you ever wondered why the number of bits in a computer word -- such as 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit -- are always a power of two? There is actually no compelling reason, but lots of anecdotal and historical reasons. Feel free to ask me or just explore with your favorite AI search tool.
Here's something I have been wondering recently and asking around: Why are there 24 משמרות/watches? Here's some background: Everyone knows that kohanim work in the Beis HaMikdash -- may it be built soon and in our lifetime. There are areas that are only open to kohanim. There are parts of the service that can only be performed by kohanim. Have you ever wondered where these kohanim come from and where they go after work? After all, you can't have random kohainim just going in and doing avoda. It requires preparation, there is the cool uniform, sharp knives; you know, stuff. Also many parts of the offering -- meat, hides, flour, oil -- go to the kohain. Who gets those and how is the distribution made equitable?
The short answer is that the kohanim live all over Eretz Yisrael, and the kohanim are divided into 24 משמרות/watches. Each משמר/watch goes to Yerushalayim for its assigned week; Sunday through Shabbos, then goes home till it's next turn. (There are associated leviim and yisraelim with various tasks; not for now, but you should know there is more going on.) On Yom Tov, because of the abundance of offering, it is all hands on deck. There are lotteries and stuff to assign job. What caught my attention was that the mishna in Sukkah that details how the daily holiday offerings are distributed makes it very clear that Chazal wanted the special offerings to be distributed equitably. On each day of Sukkos, there are 14 lambs, one lamb/goat sin offering, two rams, and the daily quota of bulls. Recalls that there are 13 bulls offered on the first day, 12 on the second, and so forth, down till seven on the last day. That means there are a total of 24 special offerings on the last day of Sukkos, so each משמר/watch gets one.
That's pretty cool, I thought. Is that why there are 24 משמרות/watches? The mishna (5:2) details all the rest of the days and makes a point of mentioning that whichever offers a bull on one משמר/watch is out of the running until every משמר/watch gets to offer a bull. So fair distribution is a real thing. The whole fifth perek, in fact, discusses topics of equitable distribution.
I started asking around. It has created a bit of a buzz, mostly people saying... hmm... I never thought about it. I asked someone today who asked someone else -- in Yiddish. I don't understand very much Yiddish, but I understood enough to make out that he was telling him, "I don't want s'varas, I want a source."
I did hear one possible source (he heard in a shiur a long time ago and doesn't remember the sources; in my mind this person is too young to claim "I heard it too long ago" 👶 ). Here it is: the usual lunar year has 50 weeks. It is "all hands on deck" for the weeks of Sukkos and Pesach; which leaves 48 weeks to split up. That makes 24 a reasonable number; each group only had to travel twice a year to Yerushalayim. Also, due to leap years, it means that each משמר/watch will get to experience all the seasons over a 40-ish year cycle.
Anyway, it is fun to think about. I'd just like to end with another date who asked me about my major. She replied with an answer that had never before been uttered in the history of the world and I don't think ever will be. I said my major was physics and she said, "Whew!" (Turns out she had dated two Political Science majors and they were both disasters. So when I started saying my major, she panicked because it sounded enough like poly-sci that she was ready to jump out of a moving car.) In any case, I was instantly in love; and still am.
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