Do Jews Use Letters for Numbers--or Aleph-Bet Math?

 Dear Tanta Golda,

I’ve heard that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet also stand for numbers. How does this work? I mean if I want two fish do I ask for bet dag? How would I write the number 21? 

A budding Hebrew scholar

Scholar, Oye, a mother’s dream, a Hebrew scholar…well okay, a Hebrew scholar who’s a doctor, for this I’d kvell!

You ask such a wonderful question! Yes, each letter has a numeric value. However, you must bear in mind that any family letters share the same value. This means that both bet בּ and vet ב are symbolic of the number 2, pey פּ and fey פ are both worth 80, and shin שׁ and sin ש 300. Final letters have the same value as their non-final counterparts (mem מ and final mem ם are both worth 40) The numeric  values go from 1 (aleph א) to ten (yud י), then increase by tens (kaf כ is 20, lamed ל 30) until 100 (kof ק) with the rest going up in increments of 100. For a chart you can go to: www.jewfaq.org/alephbet.htm This is at Judaism 101, a wonderful site for many of your Judaic questions.

When written this way they have a cumulative value. That is to write the number 21 you would write from right to left kaf aleph - 20+1. You would not just write bet aleph. Usually the number with the highest value is written first, followed by the number of the next highest value, and so on. So, 248 - the number of positive mitzvot that God gave us - is written רמח resh mem chet  200+40+8. (There are two exceptions to the rule of using the letters of the highest value when writing numbers: 15 & 16 are written with as 9+6 and 9+7 respectively, since using the highest possible value letters - 10+5 & 10+6 would each be a name of God.)

 In modern Hebrew even in erezt Yisrael (the land of Israel) the decimal system of Hindu-Arabic numerals (1,2,3) are used. Hebrew numbers are used mainly for writing the days and years of the Hebrew calendar (not the secular one we all use), for references to Jewish texts, for numbering lists - much in the same way we use Roman numerals, and in numerology. You may notice in many Tanachs that the line references use the aleph-bet number system.

Now my scholar, you asked about how you would ‘ask’ for two fish. For speaking counting numbers are used. For example: Ehad - one (you may remember hearing this in the Shema) shenayim - two, shelosha - three. If you ever sang ehad a mi o deya  in Hebrew during Passover, you sang these numbers!

Now, there is a system of Jewish mysticism called the Gematria which delves into the ‘hidden’ meaning of words based on their numerical value. Tanta Golda isn’t going to go into this other than to point out that the letters in the word ‘chai’ - life, are chet yud which added together are 18. This is why many gifts are given in denominations of 18!

And, while you didn’t ask, the number 13 has no negative connotation in Jewish tradition. Thirteen is the age of B’nei mitzvah, we have Rambam’s 13 principles, and the 13 attributes of Mercy are mentioned in Exodus!

Keep up your scholarly pursuits! Love - TG