Hebrew numerals
Before Arabic digits, Hebrew wrote numbers with letters, and it still does for dates, chapters and verses. Gematria rests on this system.
In Hebrew letters
ה׳תשפ״ו
The rules
- Add, largest first. Write the hundreds, then the tens, then the units, from right to left: 248 is ר (200) + מ (40) + ח (8) = רמ״ח.
- Stack ת for large hundreds. 500 is תק and 900 is תתק.
- 15 and 16. These are written ט״ו (9 + 6) and ט״ז (9 + 7), not יה and יו, because those letter pairs spell a form of the divine name. The rule applies inside larger numbers too, so 115 is קט״ו.
- Mark it as a number. A single letter takes a geresh (׳), as in ה׳. Two or more letters take gershayim (״) before the last letter, as in י״ח.
- Thousands. A letter followed by a geresh counts thousands: ה׳תשפ״ו is 5 × 1000 + 786. In everyday use the thousands are usually dropped, so the year 5786 is written תשפ״ו.
Examples
| Number | Hebrew |
|---|---|
| 1 | א׳ |
| 11 | י״א |
| 15 | ט״ו |
| 16 | ט״ז |
| 18 | י״ח |
| 26 | כ״ו |
| 99 | צ״ט |
| 248 | רמ״ח |
| 365 | שס״ה |
| 400 | ת׳ |
| 613 | תרי״ג |
| 770 | תש״ע |
| 999 | תתקצ״ט |
Numerals and gematria
Reading a word as a numeral and taking its gematria give the same total. The only difference is intent. The year תשפ״ו has the gematria 786, and חי is both the word “alive” and the number 18.