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What is gematria?

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or those who find
square roots an
absolute delight,
understanding
gematria should pose no
difficulty.
For the rest of us — the
mathematically challenged
— this intriguing, but corn-
plex, system of matching
numbers and Hebrew letters
will prove anything but
simple.
The word gematria comes
from the Greek language,
and indeed equating num-
bers with letters of the
alphabet most likely started
with the Greeks.
The first known example
of gematria comes from
around 7000 B.C.E., in an
inscription about Assyrian
King Sargon II building a
wall whose length matched
the numerical equivalent of
his name. At this time,
gematria was largely used
both by Greeks and
Babylonians.
In Judaism, gematria
makes its first appearance in
written literature in the sec-
ond century C.E. It wasn't
until the 12th and 13th
centuries C.E., however,
that gematria became popu-
lar especially among a num-
ber of Ashkenazi Chasidim,
in conjunction with their
studies of the Kabbalah, or
Jewish mystical texts.
The basic premise of
gematria is simple: each let-
ter has a numerical value.
After that, however, it
becomes very, very compli-
cated.
But first, two important
features concerning gema-
tria:
Halachah, or Jewish law,
places little importance on
gematria. The few excep-
tions when Halachah men-
tions gematria are quite

obtuse, only of interest for
serious scholars.
Second, gematria almost
never was used to create
new biblical commentary,
to make new discoveries.
Instead, its purpose was to
echo what is already extant.
"No one may calculate a
gematria in order to deduce
from it something that
occurs to him," wrote the
famed scholar Rabbi Moshe
ben Nachman, also known
as Nachmanides or Ramban
(1194-1270).
There is an
intriguing excep-
tion to the rule
about creating
with gematria.
In Judaism,
there are names of
God that we do
not know. Yet,
some students of
Ramban
Kabbalah in
Germany, in the
12th century, were con-
vinced that they could learn
these names using gematria.
(Whether they succeeded is
a mystery; to this day, we
regard the names as ineffa-
ble.)
With the passage of time,
people continued to study
gematria, but it waned in
popularity over the cen-
turies. Then in the 17th
century, Nathan Bata ben
Solomon Spira composed
his Megalleh Amukot, which
became the classic text on
gematria.
Nathan, well known for
his passion for and skill
with numbers, was so thor-
ough that he offered 252
different gematriot for only
one passage in Deuteronomy.
Not surprisingly, a num-
ber of Judaism's false messi-
ahs appropriated gematria
to substantiate their claim.
Shabbtai Zvi (1626-
1676)-, who in 1648
announced that he was the
messiah (and who later con-
verted to Islam), used gema-

tria to "prove" that he was
indeed holy, while one of
his followers wrote an entire
book simply about the
gematria of the Shema.
Not just one, but a num-
ber of forms of gematria,
exist. For example, there is a
highly organized system in
which letters are substituted
for other letters. The most
popular forms of gematria,
however, use numbers.
But even here, various
ways of interpreting these
numbers exist.
Just to give you
a taste, here are a
few samples of the
way gematria
works:
1. Finding words
that have the same
numerical value.
2. Noting when
the square roots of
certain numbers in
words add up to
other words. For example
(and this is complicated, be
prepared):
One of God's names is
spelled yud, hey, vav, hey.
Square the numerical value
of each letter in that name
and you arrive at the num-
ber 186. This is the same
numerical value as the let-
ters found in Makom,
another of God's names.
3. Adding together the
numerical values of all let-
ters preceding another let-
ter.
Thus, dalet is the fourth
letter of the alephbet
(Hebrew alphabet). Instead
of simply holding the value
of 4, however, dalet would
be valued at 10, because the
first letter of the alephbet,
aleph is 1, while bet is 2,
gimmel is 3, and dalet is 4
(1+2+3+4=10).
Now if you're still craving
more, check out just about
any kabbalistic text. And
don't forget your basic math
book. ❑

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