How gematria works

gematria is a form of Jewish numerology in which each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a numerical value. The word itself comes from the Greek word for "geometry" and can be used for various purposes, including finding hidden meaning in words, interpreting texts or connecting religious teachings to concepts.

The numerical values assigned to the Hebrew letters vary depending on the type of Gematria system used. For example, some systems assign starting numbers from one to twenty-two instead of one to twenty-six like traditional Hebrew numbers. Other systems use letters with a written value only, such as the number two instead of representing two individual letters for a single number. Additionally, some gematria systems utilize gematria values that are different compared to regular numerology.

To use gematria effectively, it's important to identify which system is being utilized and then translate the text accordingly into numerical values. Once you have the numerical values you can compare them with other known values or create equations and hypotheses based on what's observed. For example, if we look at one famous Orthodox formula called Chesed (חֶסֶד) which stands for loving kindness we can observe that when three words are put together their numeric value equals 18 (חֶ 8 סֶ 60 ד 4 = 72).