What gematria mean

gematria is an ancient Jewish practice which assigns numerical values to words and phrases. The term comes from the Greek "γεωμετρία" meaning "geometry". Gematria was used to draw meaningful connections between the name of God and various philosophical concepts. This form of numerology has been adopted by various groups, including some forms of modern Kabbalah, traditional Judaism, and Christianity.

In gematria each letter of the alphabet has a corresponding numerical value, which provide clues as to how words and phrases carry certain connotations determined by their numerical values. These values are combined to create a word's overall numerical weight or "gematria value". For example, in Jewish tradition, the word for "God" (Elohim) has a total of 86, the same number as the word for 'to judge', 'din'. This illustrates how God is also seen as a judge in traditional Jewish belief.

Many religious and philosophical studies draw connections using gematria as well. An example is the study of Psalm 119 from the Bible - traditionally regarded as one of the longest single chapters in the entire Bible. It contains 176 verses composed from 22 Hebrew letters corresponding to 22 lines in an acrostic poem created by assigning successive letters to each line beginning with aleph (א). These letters can be rearranged such that each verse creates new words with new meanings through gematria techniques called "word rearrangements." This helps illuminate deeper meanings and relationships behind Scripture passages by providing further perspectives beyond merely reading them at face value. When taken together, all of these different intricacies allow us to gain an understanding of spiritual concepts within religious texts when deciphered through rigorous use of gematria analysis.