“R. Elazar ben Chisma said, “…Astronomy and Gematria are desserts (parperaot) of wisdom.”
Pirkei Avot 3:23
7
- Dag (Fish) – דג
13
- Ahavah (Love) – אהבה
- Echad (One) – אחד
- 13 Middot of HaShem
14
- David – דוד
- Hand – יד
18
- Chai (Life) – חי
- The Amidah has 18 Benedictions, hence it is called Shemoneh Esrei (18).
26
- Havaya – י־ה־ו־ה
32
- Lev (Heart) – לב
- Lamed-Beit – The First and Last Letters of the Torah
- 32 Paths of Wisdom
40
- The Letter Mem – מ
- 40 Weeks of Gestation in the Womb
45
- Adam – אדם
52
- Ben (Son) – בן
- Eliyahu – אליהו
- HaShem-HaShem
58
- Noach – נח
- Chen (Grace) – חן
70
- Gog u’Magog – גוג ומגוג
- Sod (Secret) – סוד
- Yayin (Wine) – יין
- The Letter Ayin – ע
91
- Amein – אמן
- Amein is a notarikon of ‘El Melech Ne’eman’ (God, the Faithful King) – אל מלך נאמן’
- Ephod – אפוד
- Malach (Angel) – מלאך
130
- Kol (Voice) – קל
- Sinai – סיני
- Sulam (Ladder) – סלם
- “This refers to the Throne of Glory” – זה כסא הכבוד
138
- Tzemach (Branch) – צמח
- Menachem (Comforter) – מנחם
- Nes Gadol Haya Poh (A Great Miracle Happened Here, the Four Letters on a Dreidel within the Land of Israel) – נגהפ
144
- Kedem (Ancient, East) – קדם
153
- Betzalel – בצלאל
- Bnei HaElokim – בני האלהים
- HaPesach (The Passover) – הפסח
- There are 153 verses in Parashat Noach.
156
- Yosef – יוסף
- Zion – ציון
207
- Ohr (Light) – אור
- Ein Sof (Infinity) – אין סוף
240
- Amalek – עמלק
- Safek (Doubt) – ספק
248
- Abraham – אברהם
- There are 248 words in the Shma Yisrael prayer.
314
- Metatron – מטטרון
- Shaddai – שדי
345
- Moshe – משה
- Shiloh – שילה
358
- Eved Ivri (Hebrew Servant) – עבד עברי
- Choshen (Breastplate) – חשן
- Ohr HaOlam (Light of the World) – אור העולם
- HaShem Melech, HaShem Malakh, HaShem Yimlokh (HaShem reigned, HaShem reigns, HaShem will reign) – י־ה־ו־ה מלך, יּ־ה־ו־ה מלך, י־ה־ו־ה ימלך
- Mashiach (Messiah) – משח
- Nachash (Snake) – נחש
- Nes Gadol Haya Sham (A Great Miracle Happened There, the Four Letters on a Dreidel outside the Land of Israel) – נגהש
- Yavo Shiloh (Shiloh will come) – יבא שילה
- Yismach (Will be Joyous) – ישמח
376
- Esav – עשו
- Shalom (Peace) – שלום
386
- Yeshua – ישוע
- David ben Yishai – דוד בן ישי
613
- Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our Teacher) – משה רבינו
- Et HaOhr (et ‘The Light’) – את האור
741
- Keren yeshuah (horn of salvation) – קרן ישועה
- Mashiach ben Ephraim – משיח בן אפרים
747
- Moshe ben Amram – משה בן אפרים
1034
- “And the Spirit of God hovered over the waters” – ורוח אלהים מרחפת
- “This refers to the spirit of the King Messiah” – זה היא רוחו של מלך המשיח
METHODS
- Mispar Hechrachi – (absolute value) that uses full numerical value of the 22 letters. Sometimes it is also called Mispar ha-Panim (face number), as opposed to the more complicated Mispar ha-Akhor (back number).
- Mispar Gadol – counts the final forms (sofit) of the Hebrew letters as a continuation of the numerical sequence for the alphabet, with the final letters assigned values from 500 to 900. The same name, Mispar ha-Gadol, is also used for another method, which spells the name of each letter and adds the standard values of the resulting string.
- Mispar Katan – calculates the value of each letter, but truncates all of the zeros. It is also sometimes called Mispar Me’ugal.
- Mispar Siduri – (ordinal value) with each of the twenty-two letters given a value from one to twenty-two.
- Mispar Bone’eh – (building value, also Revu’a, square) is calculated by walking over each letter from the beginning to the end, adding the value of all previous letters and the value of the current letter to the running total. Therefore, the value of the word achat (one) is 1 + (1 + 8) + (1 + 8 + 4) = 23.
- Mispar Kidmi (triangular value) uses each letter as the sum of all the standard gematria letter values preceding it. Therefore, the value of Aleph is 1, the value of Bet is 1 + 2 = 3, the value of Gimmel is 1+2+3=6, etc. It’s also known as Mispar Meshulash (triangular or tripled number).
- Mispar P’rati – calculates the value of each letter as the square of its standard gematria value. Therefore, the value of Aleph is 1 × 1 = 1, the value of Bet is 2 × 2 = 4, the value of gimmel is 3 × 3 = 9, etc. It’s also known as Mispar ha-Merubah ha-Prati’.
- Mispar ha-Merubah ha-Klali – is the square of the standard absolute value of each word.
- Mispar Meshulash – calculates the value of each letter as the cube of their standard value. The same term is more often used for Mispar Kidmi.
- Mispar ha-Akhor – The value of each letter is its standard value multiplied by the position of the letter in a word or a phrase in either ascending or descending order. This method is particularly interesting, because the result is sensitive to the order of letters. It is also sometimes called Mispar Meshulash (triangular number).
- Mispar Mispari – spells out the standard values of each letter by their Hebrew names (“Echad” (one) is 1+8+4=13 etc.), and then adds up the standard values of the resulting string.
- Mispar Shemi – (also Millui letter “filling”), uses the value of each letter as equal to the value of its name.For example, the value of the letter Aleph is (1 + 30 + 80) = 111, Bet is (2 + 10 + 400) = 412, etc. Sometimes the same operation is applied two or more times recursively.
- Mispar Ne’elam – (hidden number) spells out the name of each letter without the letter itself (e.g. “Leph” for “Aleph”) and adds up the value of the resulting string.
- Mispar Katan Mispari – (integral reduced value) is used where the total numerical value of a word is reduced to a single digit. If the sum of the value exceeds 9, the integer values of the total are repeatedly added to produce a single-digit number. The same value will be arrived at regardless of whether it is the absolute values, the ordinal values, or the reduced values that are being counted by methods above.
- Mispar Misafi – adds the number of the letters in the word or phrase to their gematria.
- Kolel – is the number of words, which is often added to the gematria. In case of one word, the standard value is incremented by one.
- Cheshbon Gadol – (greater calculation), the sum of each letter in a word multiplied by its own numerical value. The Cheshbon Gadol of Av אב would be 5; (1×1) + (2×2) = 5.
NOTARIKON – נוטריקון
A method of deriving a word, by using each of its initial (Hebrew: ראשי תיבות) or final (Hebrew: סופי תיבות) letters to stand for another, to form a sentence or idea out of the words. Another variation uses the first and last letters, or the two middle letters of a word, in order to form another word.
Rashi uses notarikon seven times in his pirush (“explanation”) on Chumash:
- Bereishith (Genesis) 15:2 “וּבַגְּמָרָא שֶׁלָּנוּ דָּרְשׁוּ נוֹטְרִיקוֹן, דּוֹלֶה וּמַשְׁקֶה מִתּוֹרַת רַבּוֹ לַאֲחֵרִים”
- Bereishith (Genesis) 17:2 “כִּי אַב הֲמוֹן גּוֹיִם. לְשׁוֹן נוֹטְרִיקוֹן שֶׁל שְׁמוֹ”
- Bereishith (Genesis) 30:2 “וּמִדְרַשׁ אַגָּדָה יֵשׁ רַבִּים בִּלְשׁוֹן נוֹטָרִיקוֹן”
- Bereishith (Genesis) 49:22 “אֶבֶן יִשְׂרָאֵל. לְשׁוֹן נוֹטְרִיקוֹן אָב וּבֵן, ’אֲבָהָן וּבְנִין‘, יַעֲקֹב וּבָנָיו”
- Shemoth (Exodus) 20:12 “אִם תְּכַבֵּד יַאֲרִיכוּן יָמֶיךָ וְאִם לָאו יִקְצְרוּן. שֶׁדִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה נוֹטְרִיקוֹן הֵם נִדְרָשִׁים, מִכְּלָל הֵן לַאו וּמִכְּלָל לַאו הֵן”
- Bamidbar (Numbers) 11:8 “דָּבָר אַחֵר, ‘לְשַׁד’ לְשׁוֹן נוֹטָרִיקוֹן לַ’יִשׁ שֶׁ’מֶן דְּ’בַשׁ, כְּעִסָּה הַנִּלּוֹשָׁה בְשֶׁמֶן וּקְטוּפָה בִדְבַשׁ.”
- Bamidbar (Numbers) 22:32 “כִּי יָרַט הַדֶּרֶךְ לְנֶגְדִּי. רַבּוֹתֵינוּ חַכְמֵי הַמִּשְׁנָה דְּרָשׁוּהוּ נוֹטָרִיקוֹן, יָרְאָה, רָאֲתָה, נָטְתָה”
CHILUFEI OTIYOT
- Atbash – exchanges each letter in a word or a phrase by opposite letters. Opposite letters are determined by substituting the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet (Aleph) with the last letter (Tav), the second letter (Bet) with the next to last (Shin), etc. The result can be interpreted as a secret message or calculated by the standard gematria methods. A few instances of Atbash are found already in the Hebrew Bible. For example, see Jeremiah 25:26, and 51:41, with Targum and Rashi.
- Albam – the alphabet is divided in half, eleven letters in each section. The first letter of the first series is exchanged for the first letter of the second series, the second letter of the first series for the second letter of the second series and so forth.
- Achbi – divides the alphabet into two equal groups of eleven letters. Within each group, the first letter is replaced by the last, the second by the tenth, etc.
- Ayak Bakar – replaces each letter by another one that has a 10-times-greater value. The final letters usually signify the numbers from 500 to 900. Thousands is reduced to ones (1000 becomes 1, 2000 becomes 2 etc.)
- Ofanim – replaces each letter by the last letter of its name (e.g. “Fe” for “Aleph”).
- Akhas Beta – divides the alphabet into three groups of 7, 7 and 8 letters. Each letter is replaced cyclically by the corresponding letter of the next group. The letter Tav remains the same.
- Avgad – replaces each letter by the next one. Tav becomes Aleph. The opposite operation is also used.
These notes on the different methods are taken from Wikipedia on Gematria, and Notarikon.
