Learn Your Israel Facts! Chippus Matmon: Scavenger Hunt

Dorit Graiver of Jerusalem, Lilach Gottfeld of Moshav Hatzevah, Orion Calderon of Petach Tikva and Gila Stone of Petach Tikva (photos below) are the master planners, designers, architects, and organizers of the wonderfully interactive Learn your Israel Facts! Chippus Matmon (Scavenger Hunt) that covers all of Tzad Bet.

 

This clever, massive undertaking involves every edah throughout the day.  Each group is given a list of riddles, and they branch out in teams in this friendly, educational scavenger hunt.  As each riddle was solved, the solution revealed the location of the next riddle.  All of the Tzevet Tarbut Yisraelit (Israeli Culture staff) are involved in chaperoning the groups as they scavenge around.  This tzevet sure set the bar appropriately high for a fun, interactive, team-building, educational activity. All the groups surely met their Meah Milim (100 Hebrew words) challenge and beyond!

The clues involved (in no particular order but with great significance to each correct answer; and if you wish to receive the full set of instructions in Hebrew they are available upon request): Gematria, matching professions in Hebrew with the tools of that profession in Hebrew, write 10 words that begin with Chet, how many tablets did Moshe receive, how many Jews are required for a minyan, what year was the Temple destroyed, how many children did Sarah have, how many days till the brit milah, how many days in the week, how many matriarchs are there, what month is Tishrei in the Jewish calendar, how many years has it been since Jerusalem was reunified, how many years did we celebrate on Israel Independence Day, how many books of the Torah are there, what year was the peace treaty with Egypt, what year was the peace treaty with Jordan, what year was Waze (Israeli GPS) invented, and what year was the first Israeli astronaut sent into space?

All of the numerical answers were then multiplied, divided,  added and subtracted with other numbers, until the chanichim uncovered the hidden answers that are revealed only in the inner recesses via their Gematria…and at each successive location of the hunt, 3 puzzle pieces were collected, the riddles were solved, and this culminated in the chanichim assembling the entire puzzle together as a team.