I paused to do some research recently on Gematria. It was mentioned in a video I had watched. I have a couple of books on Numerology that I bought years ago, and have still never got to them. Gematria is similar to numerology, if not the exact same thing.

This, according to Wikipedia…

Gematria is an alphanumeric code of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase based on its letters. People who practice gematria believe that words with identical numerical values may bear some relation to each other or to the number itself. A single word can yield multiple values depending on the cipher used.

Gematria originated as an Assyro-Babylonian-Greek system of alphanumeric code or cipher that was later adopted into Jewish culture. Similar systems have been used in other languages and cultures: earlier, the Greek isopsephy, and later, derived from or inspired by Hebrew gematria, Arabic abjad numerals, and English gematria.

A well-known example of Hebrew gematria is the word chai (“alive”), which is composed of two letters that (using the assignments in the Mispar gadol table shown below) add up to 18. This has made 18 a “lucky number” among the Jewish people. Gifts of money in multiples of 18 are very popular.

Some identify two forms of gematria: the “revealed” form, which is prevalent in many hermeneutic methods found throughout rabbinic literature, and the “mystical” form, a largely Kabbalistic practice.

We will probably revisit this at some future time, and I wanted to have a copy of the Hebrew Alphabet here for reference. Note that Hebrew reads from Right to Left, the same way, incidentally, that the Moon waxes.