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In my story, 12 year old Ruth has visions from another place and time which lead her to gather a group of kids for a quest. She is told there will be 18 kids, but she can only find 17 with the specific requirement. They travel together and, upon arriving, discover a stowaway. This boy knows he belongs with the group but he doesn’t tell anyone until well into the book (the reader also doesn’t know). Everyone else thinks he just came along to annoy them. The 18th child is an important character and his journey is pivotal to the story.
Why 18? Because it’s a Jewish-themed book and 18 is an important number in Judaism (it is related to the word for life and is often used for luck).
There is no specific task that requires 18 people and there is no need to highlight the number too much. It's there because it felt right to do so and, at this point, the characters are set. The number comes up a couple of times early in the story and, so far, not since. I'm looking for subtle ways to reference it.
In what ways can I evoke this symbolism and incorporate it into the story?
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Speaking as someone who has to restrain himself from ramming symbols down the readers' throats, maybe you've already done enough. The number will jump out at people who already know its significance, and unless your purpose is to be didactic (probably not a good idea), that's all you need for it to do.
Just find small situations that make the link:
The duck had 18 ducklings.
On the 18th day they found something important
These sorts of things will reinforce the life and luck connection without being too obvious about it (through it may be a bit subtle for kids).
Maybe some tasks come in 18s: Gather 18 olive branches, etc. For kids, you may be able to go a bit heavy handed with that one.
Exposition from The Mentor
If your story has a Mentor, Wise Old (Wo)Man, Role Model, etc. this is a good person to provide hints around symbolism. By nature, these characters are generally assumed to be very knowledgeable, but usual have reasons or personality traits to be vague with the info they give out. Something as simple as commenting "18 of you... That is a lucky number, young ones." would suffice. Make more or less vague as necessary, from them commenting that it symbolizes life in their religion, to simply advising the group to remain whole.
You can use factorization. Some task takes 6 groups of 3, say making camp. Another takes 3 groups of six, say one group of six stands watch while the other two sleep. At some point, they divide into 2 groups of 9; maybe 9 males and 9 females, and in another 9 pairs of two.
You can find ways to emphasize the 18 by the ways in which you can factor 18, and indirectly that is how you can geometrically arrange 18. A group of six can be arranged in a hexagon, for example, as watch-points on a camp perimeter.
Find odd or mystical coincidences. There are 12 months in a year. What if one of the kids notices that they have 1 birthday for every month, and then one more birthday for every other month? So 12 have a partner in their birth month, and 6 do not. What does it mean? It doesn't have to mean anything, it can be just something they have fun with in an idle moment; joking about the partners. But it draws attention to their number. It can have meaning; you could use this early in the story as an excuse to pair some characters that become friends; perhaps two kids with the same birthday. Childhood friendships can originate in coincidental likenesses.
There doesn't have to ultimately be an explicit plot reason for 18, but by playing with the number you can draw attention to 18 and make 18 play a subtle role in shaping the story and the relationships.
I see two parts to your question: signaling that 18 is significant, and signaling why it is significant. Assuming that you'll have Jewish readers too, don't skimp on the first part -- you want to give them something to notice and figure out, too.
Another answer addresses ways to show why 18 is significant. To show that 18 is significant, have it show up in various ways in the vicinity of the kids -- at a meal there's a candelabra with 18 candles; something happens at 18 past the hour; something costs 18 coins; a shelf contains 18 books; an office or hotel room is #18 ; etc. For an example (from TV, not writing) of this sort of thing, consider the TV show LOST, in which the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 24 were significant both together and separately, and some of those references you only notice after the fact, once you're looking for those numbers. You can slip 18s into your story in the same way. Make sure they always have something to do with the kids, and the astute reader will eventually notice that there are 18 kids, too. Avoid having 18 show up in other contexts.
You've said it yourself: 18 = life. It follows that had there only been 17 travellers, they would not have come home alive. Preferably every child, but particularly the stowaway, must have a crucial role to play. Otherwise, they're not necessary, right?
You could play more with the idea. Your 18 travellers might turn out to be somehow necessary for the survival of people around them, making them a "lucky charm" for those nearby. Again, however, all 18 would have to somehow be necessary.
To a Jewish reader, the link 18-life is very very obvious, so it becomes a question of how you employ it. It's not something that might be missed, but readers might wonder how you put that symbol to good use. (Non-Jewish readers would have to google it, I suppose.)
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