Gematria!

August 1, 2005 5:57 PM

Gematria! Mentioned in this post in the context of a "good or evil" algorithm, gematria (גימטריה) is actually Jewish numerology, assigning values to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and establishing mystical correspondences. It's basic to kabbalistic works like the Zohar, and you can get detailed analysis here. But we both know what you really want to do is plug words into a text box and get the result instantly, right? Here you go. And to start you off, METAFILTER = 299 [מטאילטר] according to the traditional system; according to The Gematria of Nothing, it's 31. Take your pick.
posted by languagehat (13 comments total)

interesting. but it seems that the transliterator left out the 'F' in metafilter. oy.
posted by gnutron at 6:03 PM on August 1, 2005

517= YAHWEH IS POOR

You hit your target audience.
posted by 517 at 6:07 PM on August 1, 2005

My first name translates to the date of my birth, as well as "the mouth which devours".

Just so you know.
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:46 PM on August 1, 2005

מטאפילטר
posted by ori at 8:34 PM on August 1, 2005

heh. ori. i thought that something was odd there :)
posted by dhruva at 2:47 AM on August 2, 2005

i don't get it. my last name = 3

now what am i supposed to do with that
posted by poppo at 3:59 AM on August 2, 2005

I'm huge, 261, huge. But that's my real name. I can't start studying my MeFi name until I turn 40.
posted by OmieWise at 8:15 AM on August 2, 2005

language = שׂפה
hat = כובע

שׂפה = 385
כובע = 98

483 = אב לילית = "father of Lilith"

Clearly someone is holding out on us.
posted by felix betachat at 8:46 AM on August 2, 2005

All I'll say is: stay away from my daughter, you cad!

Gnutron, ori: I noticed the omission and concluded the English-to-Hebrew transliterator ignores all letters that don't have direct equivalents in Hebrew, so that you have to enter "Metapilter" to get the pe. I decided I'd rather have it look weird in Hebrew than in English.
posted by languagehat at 12:47 PM on August 2, 2005

Guys I finally figured out why I felt special all my life.

My name: Aleksandr = 366

האמאשיאח/The Messiah = 366
posted by vodkadin at 7:05 PM on August 2, 2005

But she came on to me!
posted by felix betachat at 6:20 AM on August 3, 2005

Ori: Thanks for the correction.
posted by ParisParamus at 7:39 AM on August 3, 2005

Oh lordy, gematriah. This brings back some bad memories. To most of youse guys, its an amusing waste of time. I on the other hand spent many of my early school years listening to idiot teachers who actually believed in this shit.
posted by Edible Energy at 8:05 PM on August 8, 2005