Mattot 5782

Question: Why is the one-fiftieth of the spoils given to the people not spelled out in number format (in contrast to the 1/500th of the soldiers)?


Approach: it would seem that the initial numbers of the spoils are deliberately rounded to the nearest hundred. Therefore the 1/500th of the half of the soldiers works out as presented. But perhaps the 1/50th of the people’s half was actually slightly different as the rounding differences would not work out when rounded to hundreds and tens.

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