How does jewish gematria work

jewish gematria is an ancient method of using numerical values to represent words in the Hebrew language. It has been known and used throughout the Jewish community for centuries, with some sources suggesting its usage originates back to the time of the Babylonian captivity.

The practice of Jewish gematria involves assigning each Hebrew letter a unique numerical value. Letters are then added up to form a word's gematria number. Each word has multiple possible gematria numbers depending on which letters or partial words are used in its spelling. So far, four common systems of assigning numeric values are thought to have been employed, making calculations rather complex and open to interpretation as there is no universal agreement on which system to use.

One popular example of Jewish gematria dates back to the 12th century where Rabbi Judah Ibn Quraysh calculated the phrase 'the olive branch' (al-zaytun) to be equal to the number 372. This figure was believed to represent Messiah, who would bring peace and understanding into this world (Isaiah 11:1-3).

Jewish Gematria can also be used for divination purposes, and some believe it can be used to better understand sacred texts like the Bible by connecting certain text lines numerically. The common practice is finding two verses with similar gematric values, or potentially more advanced techniques that include searching for corollary meanings between words when their gematric value is altered slightly by one letter or even a small part of a word.