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What is Gematria? Where can I obtain a course in it?
Gematria is a system of numerical values and mystical significance for each letter, word, phrase, chapter, and parsha of the Torah, Prophets and Writings. It is something that occasionally goes along with a Talmudic study topic as brought down by our Sages. There isn’t much else one can do with Gematria with any accuracy. The reason for this is because you can rearrange the letters in many words, and make words with totally different meanings and yet the Gematrias will be the same. Meanwhile you can mix words to come up with just about anything you want to come up with. Gematria is therefore not something to be studied independently, and not toyed with, because unless properly supported, it is a highly inaccurate venture.
Regards, Eliahu Levenson
I read a book by Hugh J. Shonefield and he said that he discovered a Gematria called the Atbash in some of the Prophetic books, specifically Jeremiah, is this true?
There is nothing new about atbash, but it is something that is not for independent experimentation. It is exceedingly unlikely that something, working on his own, will find something using atbash that has value to one’s life, and is not misleading or erroneous. What we do have is information which has been transmitted to us by the sages of previous generations. Those transmissions have reliability.
Comment by ATR — July 16, 2007 @ 4:07 pm