Significance of numbers in Judaism

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Numbers play an important part in Judaic ritual practices and are believed to be a means for understanding the divine. A Mishnaic textual source, Pirkei Avot 3:23, makes clear that the use of gematria is dated to at least the Tannaic period. This marriage between the symbolic and the physical found its pinnacle in the creation of the Tabernacle. The Hebrew word for symbol is ot, which, in early Judaism, denoted not only a sign, but also a visible religious token of the relation between God and man. It is largely held by Jewish leadership that the numerical dimensions of the temple are a "microcosm of creation ... that God used to create the Olamot-Universes."^[1]

Contents
1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 22 · 23 24 · 25 · 26 · 27 · 28 · 29 · 30 · 33 · 36 · 40 42 · 44 • 49 · 50 · 54 · 60 · 63 · 70 · 80 90 · 100 · 120 · 147 · 150 · 175 · 180 · 200 216 · 245 · 248 · 300 · 365 · 374 · 400 · 430 480 · 586 · 600 · 601 · 613 · 702 · 930 · 950 969 · 304,805 See Also · Notes · References

1

• The gematria (numerical value) of the Hebrew letter א
• The Oneness of G-d

2

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ב
• The Two Tablets of the Covenant (i.e., the Ten Commandments) --- shnei luchot habrit

3

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ג
• Indicative of a spiritual struggle or journey, especially 3 days/3 nights. See the Akkadian myth of Inanna's descent into the underworld.
• The three Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob)

4

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ד
• The four Matriarchs (Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah)

5

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ה
• The books of the Pentateuch
• The sections of the book of Psalms
• The number of knots in the tzitzit
• Number of aliyot on Yom Tov that does not coincide with Shabbat
• Date in Iyar of Yom Ha'atzmaut
• Number emphasized during Mimouna

6

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ו
• The six "orders" (top-level sections) of the Mishna (shisha sidrei mishna)
• The six working days of the week
• The six days of Creation

7

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ז
• The number 7 is the Divine number of completion
• A covenant promise (in Hebrew, the expression literally translated as "to seven oneself" means "to swear a covenant")^[2]
• The general symbol for all association with God; the favorite religious number of Judaism, typifying the covenant of holiness and sanctification, and also all that was holy and sanctifying in purpose
• The Seventh Day, the Sabbath

8

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ח
• The day on which a Jewish boy is circumcised
• Total number of days of Yom Tov in a year in Israel
• Number of days of Chanukah
• Number of days of Pesach (Diaspora)
• The number of strings in each corner of the tzitzit

9

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ט
• The nine months of pregnancy (tisha yemei leida)

10

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter י
• The Ten Commandments (aseret ha-dibrot, literally "Ten Utterances")
• The ten Plagues of Egypt

11

• Stars in Joseph's dream
• Date in which the Fast of Esther is observed when Purim falls on Sunday

12

• There were twelve loaves of show-bread on the shulchan (table) in the Beit Hamikdash
• Sons of Jacob^[3]
• Tribes of Israel^[3]
• Stones of the Hoshen
• Age at which Bat Mitzvah is attained (Orthodox tradition)
• Number of springs of water at the Israelites' encampment following the incident at Marah

13

• Thirteen Attributes of Mercy
• Jewish principles of faith according to Maimonides
• Age at which Bar Mitzvah is attained
• Number of days of Yom Tov in a year (Diaspora)
• Months in a leap year on the Hebrew calendar
• Date in Adar (or Adar II in leap years) of the Fast of Esther

14

• The number of steps in the Passover Seder
• Date in the month of Iyar when Pesach Sheni occurs
• Date in the month of Adar (Adar II in leap years) when Purim occurs
• The number of books in the Mishnah Torah

15

• One of two numbers that is written differently from the conventions of writing numbers in Hebrew in order to avoid writing the name of God.^[4] The other is 16.
• Date of the Hebrew month on which the full moon occurs. Several holidays occur on this date: Pesach, Tu B'Av, Sukkot, Tu B'Shevat, and Shushan Purim.

16

• One of two numbers that is written differently from the conventions of writing numbers in Hebrew in order to avoid writing the name of God. The other is 15.

17

• Date in the month of Tammuz when the fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz occurs

18

• Gematria of "CHAI" חַי, the Hebrew word for life. Numbers evenly divisible by this number are considered good luck.
• The maximum number of minutes matzah is allowed to bake in order to be considered kosher for Pesach
• Date in the month of Iyar when Lag Ba'omer occurs

19

• The number of years in a cycle in which the date on the lunar calendar matches the date on the solar calendar
• Blessings in the weekday Amidah

20

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter כ

22

• The letters in the Hebrew alphabet
• Years in which Jacob and Joseph were separated

23

• Number of judges needed to carry out a trial for capital punishment in Judaism

24

• Total number of books in the Tanakh
• twenty-four kohanic gifts

25

• Date in the month of Elul on which creation began
• Date in the month of Kislev Chanukah begins

26

• Gematria of the Tetragrammaton

27

• Date in Nisan of Yom HaShoah

28

• Frequency in years of Birkat Hachama
• Date in Iyar of Yom Yerushalayim
• Value associated with "Koach" meaning strength, commonly used in the saying "Yasher Koach"

29

• The number of days in some months of the Hebrew calendar

30

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ל
• The number of days in some months of the Hebrew calendar

33

• Celebrated day during the Counting of the Omer known as "Lag BaOmer"
• Number of years King David reigned from Jerusalem [I Kings 2:11]

36

• Number of hours Adam & Eve spent in the Garden of Eden.
• Number of sins which carry Kareth
• The Tzadikim Nistarim (Hebrew: צַדִיקִים נִסתָּרים, hidden righteous ones) or Lamed Vav Tzadikim (Hebrew: ל"ו צַדִיקִים, 36 righteous ones), often abbreviated to Lamed Vav(niks)^[a], refers to 36 Righteous people, a notion rooted within the more mystical dimensions of Judaism. The singular form is Tzadik Nistar (Hebrew: צַדִיק נִסתָר). The source is the Talmud itself, explained as follows:

  As a mystical concept, the number 36 is even more intriguing. It is said that at all times there are 36 special people in the world, and that were it not for them, all of them, if even one of them was missing, the world would come to an end. The two Hebrew letters for 36 are the lamed, which is 30, and the vav, which is 6. Therefore, these 36 are referred to as the Lamed-Vav Tzadikim. This widely held belief, this most unusual Jewish concept is based on a Talmudic statement to the effect that in every generation 36 righteous "greet the Shechinah," the Divine Presence (Tractate Sanhedrin 97b; Tractate Sukkah 45b).^[5]

The Lamed-Vav Tzaddikim are also called the Nistarim ("concealed ones"). In our folk tales, they emerge from their self-imposed concealment and, by the mystic powers which they possess, they succeed in averting the threatened disasters of a people persecuted by the enemies that surround them. They return to their anonymity as soon as their task is accomplished, 'concealing' themselves once again in a Jewish community wherein they are relatively unknown. The lamed-vavniks, scattered as they are throughout the Diaspora, have no acquaintance with one another. On very rare occasions, one of them is 'discovered' by accident, in which case the secret of their identity must not be disclosed. The lamed-vavniks do not themselves know that they are one of the 36. In fact, tradition has it that should a person claim to be one of the 36, that is proof positive that they are certainly not one. Since the 36 are each exemplars of anavah, ("humility"), having such a virtue would preclude against one’s self-proclamation of being among the special righteous. The 36 are simply too humble to believe that they are one of the 36.^[5]

It is also said that one of these 36 could potentially be the Jewish Messiah if the world is ready for them to reveal themselves. Otherwise, they live and die as an ordinary person. Whether the person knows they are the potential Messiah is debated.

• The term lamedvavnik is derived from the Hebrew letters Lamed (L) and Vav (V), whose numerical value adds up to 36. The "nik" at the end is a Russian or Yiddish suffix indicating "a person who..." (As in "Beatnik"; in English, this would be something like calling them "The Thirty-Sixers".) The number 36 is twice 18. In gematria (a form of Jewish numerology), the number 18 stands for "life", because the Hebrew letters that spell chai, meaning "living", add up to 18. Because 36 = 2×18, it represents "two lives".

40

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter מ
• The number of days the spies were in the land of Canaan
• Years in the desert—a generation^[6]
• Days and nights of rain during the flood that occurred at the time of Noah
• Isaac's age at marriage to Rebecca
• Esau's age at marriage to his first two wives
• Number of days Jonah prophesies will pass before Nineveh is destroyed. They repent in the interim.
• Number of se'ah (volume measurement of water) in a mikveh (ritual bath)
• Number of years of the reign of David, Solomon, and the most righteous judges in the book of Judges
• Number of lashes for one who transgresses a commandment
• Number of days which the Torah was given
• Number of weeks a person is formed in his mother's womb
• Number of curses on Adam
• Minimum age at which a man could join the Sanhedrin

42

• Letters in one of God's Divine Names
• Number of lines of text written in each column of a Torah scroll

44

• Total number of candles lit during all 8 nights of Hanukah^[7]
• The Merkabah is associated with the four wheels and four faces in Ezekiel's vision. The word Merkabah is also found 44 times in the Old Testament.^[8]

49

• Number of nights of counting of the Omer
• Seven sevens
• Seven sabbatical years before the Jubilee year

50

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter נ
• Frequency of the Yovel year
• Shekels of silver paid by King David for the threshing floor of Araunah (Jerusalem)[II Samuel 24:24]

54

• Total number of parashahs

60

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ס

63

• Total tractates in the six books of the Mishnah

70

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ע
• Members of the Sanhedrin
• Life of King David
• Years between the destruction of the first and construction of the Second Temple
• Year (CE) of the Destruction of the Second Temple
• Number of scribes who translated the Septuagint
• Number of date-palms at the Israelites' encampment following the incident at Marah
• Number of people who went to Egypt with Jacob

80

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter פ

90

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter צ

100

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ק
• Total number of times the shofar is sounded on each day of Rosh Hashanah

120

• Life of Moses

147

• Life of Jacob

150

• Number of psalms

175

• Life of Abraham

176

• Longest parshshah in the Pentateuch (Naso)
• Longest chapter of Psalms (Chapter 119)
• Longest tractate in the Talmud (Tractate Bava Basra)

180

• Life of Isaac

200

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ר

216

• Number of letters in the Shemhamphorasch
• Gematria of Lion^[9] (בורה) and Gevurah (גבורה)

245

• Words in the Shema prayer

248

• Total number of positive mitzvot
• Gematria of Abraham (אברהם)
• Organs in body
• Total words in Shema

300

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ש

365

• Length of the solar calendar (which has significance in Judaism)
• Total number of negative commandments

374

• Total number of years the First Temple stood

400

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ת

430

• The time that the people of Israel dwelt in Egypt.^[10]

480

• The number of years between the time the people of Israel came out of Egypt and the laying of the foundation of the Temple in the 4th year of the reign of King Solomon.^[11]

500

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ך

586

• Total number of years the Second Temple stood

600

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ם
• Gematria of the word Tzitzit
• Age of Noah at time of flood

601

• Age of Noah at time flood ended

613

• Total number of mitzvot

669

• Total number of parshiyot (open or closed) in the Five Books of Moses

700

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ן

702

• Gematria of שַׁבָּת

800

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ף

900

• The gematria of the Hebrew letter ץ

930

• Life of Adam

950

• Life of Noah

969

• Life of Methuselah, the longest lived person according to the Book of Genesis

304,805

• Total number of letters in the Torah

See also

• Echad Mi Yodea ("who knows one?"), a Passover song based on the religious meanings of the first thirteen numbers
• Bible code, a purported set of secret messages encoded within the Torah.
• Biblical and Talmudic units of measurement
• Chol HaMoed, the intermediate days during Passover and Sukkot.
• Chronology of the Bible
• Counting of the Omer
• Gematria, Jewish system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase.
• Hebrew calendar
• Hebrew numerals
• Jewish and Israeli holidays 2000–2050
• Jewish symbolism
• Lag BaOmer, 33rd day of counting the Omer.
• Notarikon, a method of deriving a word by using each of its initial letters.
• Sephirot, the 10 attributes/emanations found in Kabbalah.
• Weekly Torah portion, division of the Torah into 54 portions.

Notes

References

• Kaplan, Rabbi Aryeh (1990). Sutton, Abraham, ed. Inner Space. Brooklyn, NY: Moznaim. p. 254. ISBN 0-940118-56-4. Retrieved 2010-09-19. 
• Ganz, Yaffa (1981). Who Knows One?: A Book of Jewish Numbers. Nanuet, NY: Feldheim Publishers. p. 32. ISBN 0-87306-285-X. Retrieved 2010-09-19. 
• Samuel, Gabriella (2007). The Kabbalah Handbook: A Concise Encyclopedia of Terms and Concepts in Jewish Mysticism. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher. p. 467. ISBN 1-58542-560-5. Retrieved 2010-09-19. 
• Dosick, Wayne (1995). Living Judaism: The Complete Guide to Jewish Belief, Tradition, and Practice. New York: HarperCollins. p. 155. ISBN 0-06-062179-6. Retrieved 2010-09-19. 
• Kaplan, Aryeh (5-1-1997). Sefer Yetzirah. New York: Weiser Books. p. 424. ISBN 0-87728-855-0. Retrieved 2010-09-20.  Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Coleman, Wade (2008). Sepher Sapphires, A Treatise On Gematria The Magical Language. Fraternity of the Hidden Light. ISBN 0981897703. 

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