Gematria

     In several of the prior posts I have been discussing the interesting subject of divinely inserted hidden codes which some believe that God placed into the Talmud, the first five books of the Bible.  Much of this work (or garbage depending on your belief about the subject) depends on the Cabalistic Jewish numerology system known as gematria.  

     The Cabalists believe that the Old Testament is written in a highly coded mathematically based  language.  Gematria, which originated in eighth century BCE Babylonia, is a system of numerology which assigns numbers to each letter of an alphabet (in this case, Hebrew). The numbers are used to decipher the true, hidden meaning of the texts.  It has been used in divination, magic, dream interpretation, and Old Testament interpretation.