Gematria is employed as one of the thirty-two rabbinic rules for interpreting the Torah. It consists of explaining a word or group of words according to the numerical value of the letters, or of substituting other letters of the alphabet for them.
The first use of gematria occurs in an inscription of Sargon II (eighth century B.C.E.), which states that the Babylonian king built a wall 16,283 cubits long to correspond with the numerical value of his name. This “methodology” was utilized among interpreters of dreams in the Hellenistic world.
In the world of Kabbalah the classic works on gematria are credited to Eleazar of Worms. Eleazar discovered through these Hebraic numerical manipulations the mystical meditations on prayers that may be evoked during the actual repetition of the words. His commentaries on the books of the Bible connect midrashic legends with words of the biblical verses via gematria, and some that reveal the mysteries of the world of the Merkabah (“fiery chariot”) and the angels in the same way. A salient example of this technique may be found in the gematria equivalent of the Song of Songs verse (6:11), “I have gone down into the nut garden.” The numerical interpretation reads: “This is the depth of the chariot (Merkabah).”
As usual, opinions varied as to the legitimate use of gematria in rabbinic and kabbalistic interpretation of sacred texts. Moses Cordovero (1522-1570) presented his entire system without recourse to gematria, but gematria found strong support from the Lurianic kabbalists. In the Shabbatean movement, gematriot (plural form) were produced to support the messianic claims of Shabbetai Zevi.
Here are a few of the methods in which gematria is used:
1) The numerical value of one word (the arithmetical sum of its letters) is equal to that of another word.
2) The squared number in which the letters of the word are calculated and added together and equated with another word. For example, when each letter of the Tetragrammaton is squared, the sum equals 186, which is the equivalent of the word Makom (“Place”), another name for God.
3) The adding up of the value of all the preceding letters in an arithmetical series. Thus the Hebrew letter dalet, the fourth letter in the Hebrew alphabet, equals 1+2+3+4=10.
4) The “filling”; the numerical value of each letter itself is not calculated, but the numerical values of all the letters that make up the names of the letter are calculated. Thus bet is comprised of bet (2), yod (10), and tav (400), and equals 412.
Intriguing and flexible, the system of gematria, although it has had its share of detractors, has always been employed in the rabbinic and kabbalistic worlds as an instrument to derive deeper understanding and mystical meaning from the biblical text.