Haskeil

Mission

This website can serve as a useful tool to create innovative and novel gematrias no human would find on their own. However, while haskeil was built with utility in mind, it was also built to make a point: While gematria is a useful mental exercise, we should not use gematrias to "prove" facts about the world or halakha. Gematrias abound in Rabbinic literature, from the fact that their are 613 commandments in the Torah to the (connected) discussion about the number of strings and knots necessary for tzitzit. However, we must be careful not to draw spurious connections, since, in truth, gematria can relate any two words.

Gematria Calculation Methods

Mispar Hechrachi (absolute value)

The standard method. It assigns the values 1-9, 10-90, 100-400 to the 22 Hebrew letters in order. Sometimes it is also called mispar ha-panim (face number), as opposed to the more complicated mispar ha-akhor (back number).

Mispar Gadol (large value)

Counts the final forms (sofit) of the Hebrew letters as a continuation of the numerical sequence for the alphabet, with the final letters assigned values from 500 to 900. The name mispar gadol is sometimes used for a different method, Otiyot beMilui.

Mispar Siduri (ordinal value)

Each of the 22 letters is given its ordinal value from 1 to 22.

Mispar Kidmi (preceding value)

Uses each letter as the sum of all the standard gematria letter values preceding it. Therefore, the value of aleph is 1, the value of bet is 1+2=3, the value of gimel is 1+2+3=6, etc. It is also known as mispar meshulash (triangular or tripled number).

Mispar Prati

Calculates the value of each letter as the square of its standard gematria value. Therefore, the value of aleph is 1 x 1 = 1, the value of bet is 2 x 2 = 4, the value of gimel is 3 x 3 = 9, etc. It is also known as mispar ha-merubah ha-prati.

Mispar Merubah

Squares the standard absolute value (in Mispar Hechrachi) of the word.

Mispar Meshulash

calculates the value of each letter as the cube of their standard value. The same term is more often used for Mispar Kidmi.

Mispar HaAkhor

The value of each letter is its standard value multiplied by the position of the letter in a word or a phrase in either ascending or descending order. This method is particularly interesting, because the result is sensitive to the order of letters. It is also sometimes called mispar meshulash (triangular number).

Mispar Mispari

Spells out the standard values of each letter by their Hebrew names ("achad" (one) is 1+8+4=13 etc.), and then adds up the standard values of the resulting string.

Oyitot BeMilui (filled letters)

Uses the value of each letter as equal to the value of its name. For example, the value of the letter aleph is 1+30+80=111, bet is 2+10+400=412, etc. Sometimes the same operation is applied two or more times recursively. In a variation known as otiyot pnimiyot (inner letters), the initial letter in the spelled-out name is omitted, thus the value of aleph becomes 30+80=110.

Mispar Kattan (small value)

calculates the value of each letter, but truncates all of the zeros. It is also sometimes called mispar me'ugal.

Mispar Neelam (hidden number)

Spells out the name of each letter without the letter itself and adds up the value of the resulting string.

Transformation Methods

Atbash

Exchanges each letter in a word or a phrase by opposite letters. Opposite letters are determined by substituting the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet (aleph) with the last letter (tav), the second letter (bet) with the next to last (shin), etc. The result can be interpreted as a secret message or calculated by the standard gematria methods.

Albam

The alphabet is divided in half, eleven letters in each section. The first letter of the first series is exchanged for the first letter of the second series, the second letter of the first series for the second letter of the second series, and so forth.

Achbi

Divides the alphabet into two equal groups of 11 letters. Within each group, the first letter is replaced by the last, the second by the 10th, etc.

Ayak Bakar

Replaces each letter by another one that has a 10-times-greater value. The final letters usually signify the numbers from 500 to 900. Thousands is reduced to ones (1,000 becomes 1, 2,000 becomes 2, etc.)

Ofanim

Replaces each letter by the last letter of its name (e.g. peh for aleph).

Akhas Beta

Divides the alphabet into three groups of 7, 7 and 8 letters. Each letter is replaced cyclically by the corresponding letter of the next group. The letter Tav remains the same.

Avgad

Replaces each letter by the next one. Tav becomes Aleph. The opposite operation is also used.