What gematria mean

gematria is a system of assigning numerical values to words, names and phrases in order to unlock the hidden wisdom contained within them. It is an ancient practice that has been used by many cultures throughout history, from the Hebrews and the Greeks to the ancient Egyptians and even modern day Kabbalists.

At its core, Gematria is essentially a form of numerology. Every letter in an alphabet has a numerical equivalent, and when you add up the values of every letter in a word or name you can get an overall numerical value. For example, the Hebrew letters aleph (א) through tav (ת) are assigned numbers 1-400 respectively, so Aleph's numerical value would be 1 while Tav's would be 400. Therefore, if you wanted to find the numerical value of a Hebrew word you could simply add up all of its individual letter values and get an overall sum.

The practice goes even further than that however, as these total values can then be associated with various concepts or ideas. This was especially used in Jewish gematria, where words that added up to certain values were linked to various religious teachings or concepts such as 72 being associated with faith or 66 being associated with mercy. The same kind of principle extends to names – for example Hebrew names often had symbolic meanings based on their numerical values – so that if someone's name contained certain letters they would be known as embodying certain traits or characteristics based on their corresponding number.