Introduction to Gematria

Gematria is a system of assigning numerical values to letters of the Hebrew alphabet. One can then add these values together to get the total numerical value of a word. Hebrew does not traditionally use Arabic numerals so this system is also used to express numbers.

While there are many kabbalistic or other meanings attributed to these types of calculations, gematria is useful for Hebraica librarians in two main ways:

1. Determining the year of publication of a book

   1. The Jewish year is traditionally expressed using Hebrew letters. Thus when using the traditional numerical values, the Jewish year 5786 (which spans September 23, 2025 to September 12, 2026) would be written out as תשפ”ו. When added up, this equals 786 - the common practice is to omit the initial ה (representing 5000), in a system called לפרט קטן. So the year would probably be most accurately rendered as [5]786. (There is also a system called לפרט גדול, where the ה is included, so the year would be written התשפ״ו. This is less common.)

   2. The use of chronograms is especially common in early Hebrew printing. A chronogram is a phrase or quotation that is used to indicate the year, with specific letters enlarged or bolded to indicate that they should be included in the calculation. (The chosen verses were often related to the contents of the book, the circumstances of printing, the name of the author or printer, or other information that the reader would understand.)

2. Pagination

   1. Hebrew books, especially early Hebrew printing, will often express the pagination using Hebrew letters rather than Arabic numerals, so being familiar with gematria can be helpful to know how to calculate how many pages there are in a book.

Gematria Chart

These are the traditional values of the Hebrew letters. Note that final forms of the letters are not included - they are traditionally calculated as the same as their non-final forms (e.g. מ and ם both indicate 40).

Online Gematria Calculators

A quick note about online gematria calculators: many of them seem to have some underlying religious or mystical agenda. They can still be useful tools! But users should just be aware of that fact. For online calculators specifically geared towards calculating the Jewish year, please see https://yalelibrary.atlassian.net/wiki/x/tYGVP

• Gematria Calculator Page