What does gematria mean in hebrew

gematria is a system of Jewish numerology that assigns numerical values to Hebrew words and letters. The practice of Gematria dates as far back as the time of the ancient Greeks, though it is most commonly associated with the Hebrew Bible and Kabbalah. Gematria is used mainly to interpret passages in the Torah and create artistic or spiritual interpretations thereof. It is traditionally believed that the use of numerology can offer insight into the hidden levels of meaning in sacred texts.

The word "Gematria" derives from the Greek word for "geometry," which itself comes from a root meaning "measurement" or "calculation." It can be broken down further into two Hebrew words: gimel (meaning "to measure") and tav (meaning "word" or "letter"). The combination of these two words reflects how Gematria works—as a way to measure the numerical values assigned to Hebrew letters or words in order to interpret their encoded meaning.

To calculate a word's gematria value, each letter of a word is assigned a numerical value based on its Hebrew spelling—for example, both "Aleph" (א) and "Yud" (י) could have a value of one, while "Tet" (ת) could have a value of nine. The sum of all the letters' values then gives us a single numeral which corresponds to some meaning unique to that particular word or phrase.

In addition to being used for interpretation purposes, gematria can also be used for writing acrostics; poems are sometimes written where each successive line begins with the next consecutive letter in alphabetical order, each one having its own numerical value as part of gematria.