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Gematria (Rabbinic Hebrew גימטריה gēmaṭriyā, from the Greek γεωμετρία; English since the 17th century) is the numerology of the Hebrew language and Hebrew alphabet, and is used by its proponents to derive meaning or relative relationship. Several forms can be identified: the "revealed" form, which is prevalent in many forms of Rabbinic Judaism, and the "mystical form," a largely Cabbalistic practice. The word itself comes from the Greek word 'geometry' and the concept or system is the same as the Greek isopsephy and the Arabic Ḥisāb al-Jummal. There is also a gematria of Latin-script languages, dating from the early Middle Ages, and very possibly back into Roman times, too. Recent times have also seen an emergence of new gematrias, though these lack a length of exploration that more ancient versions have seen.

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The most common form of gematria is used occasionally in the Talmud and Midrash and elaborately by many post-Talmudic commentators. It involves reading words and sentences as numbers, assigning numerical instead of phonetic value to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. When read as numbers, they can be compared and contrasted with other words. A commentary almost completely dedicated to gematria is Baal ha-Turim by Rabbi Jacob ben Asher.

Gematria is often used by the Maharal of Prague and hasidic Torah commentators (such as the "Sefath Emmeth" from Gur).

One fascinating application of gematria is its use by exegetes to suggest that authors of certain biblical texts were keenly aware of specific mathematical principles and properties. For example, gematria has been employed to contend that the author of Kings, who according to traditionalists is Jeremiah, was aware of the approximate value of Pi. A plain reading of 1 Kings 7:23 suggests that its author believed that 3, rather than 3.14159..., is the value of Pi. The verse describes the molten sea that was made in the Temple as being 10 cubits from brim to brim (diameter) and as being encircled completely by a line of 30 cubits (circumference). Although the Hebrew system of numeration had no way to express fractions,^{[citation needed]} the circumference could have been given as closer to 31 cubits. On the other hand, if the molten sea was about 9.55 cubits from brim to brim, this would indeed approximate to 10 and make the circumference exactly 30 cubits.

However, gematria may be used to counter the argument that this verse is an example of biblical error. In Jewish tradition, words appearing in portions of the Books of the Prophets are occasionally read (Kri) differently than they are written (Ktiv). Some biblical scholars, such as Rabbi Judah Loew, the 16th century Maharal of Prague, trace the provenance of the Kri/Ktiv dichotomy all the way back to the authors of the Books of the Prophets. In its written form (Ktiv), the verse uses the word KaVaH (Kuf, Vav, Hey) for the molten sea's circumference. Yet, the word is read (Kri) as KaV (Kuf, Vav). The numerical value of KaVaH is 111 (Kuf = 100, Vav = 6, Hey = 5), while that of KAV is 106 (Kuf = 100, Vav = 6). The ratio of these two numbers (111/106 = 1.047169) closely approximates the ratio between Pi and 3 (1.047197), giving an assumed value of 3.141507 for Pi, which is approximately 99.997% of the known value. The Vilna Gaon, a Rabbinic luminary of the 18th Century known for a remarkable mathematical prowess, is often credited with this discovery.

This may be contrasted with the Greek 'gematria' taken from the Pythagorean motto "God is a Geometer", or in Greek ""Αεί Ο Θεός Ο Μέγας Γεωμετρεί" which, in the length of its words just happens to encode the first six digits of Pi.

Gematria is a system of recognizing a correspondence between the ten sefirot, or fires of God, and the twenty two letters in the Hebrew alphabet. This system is elaborated in many mystical Jewish writings such as the Zohar.

One example of gematria are the twenty-two solid figures that are composed of regular polygons. There are five Platonic solids, four Kepler-Poinsot solids, and thirteen Archimedean solids. Since there are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, a correspondence can be inferred between these two disparate categories. The art of gematria is knowing which solid is associated with which letter.

Another example is that of Hebrew numerals. Although there are twenty-two letters, there are twenty-seven numerals necessary to express each number up to 999 (one through nine, ten through ninety, one hundred through nine hundred). The mystical Hebrew numeric system notes that the missing final five letters of the numeral system match exactly with the five 'sofit (word-final) alternate forms of the Hebrew letters.

Another use is that words which have the same numerical value, share the same qualities, and reveal still other aspects of the Divine.

Yet another form, albeit reversed from the conventional, involves finding words that use or are similar to the letters which representing the current calendar year, and associating those words with predictions for the year.

The basic translation code is as follows:

Some Kabbalistic uses of gematria recognize differing values for the final forms and assign multiples of 1000 for letters that are drawn larger than those adjacent to them.

Kabbalah Portal

• WebGim - An interactive gematria calculator, which includes results from Torah verses. (Hebrew)
• Peter's Gematria Site - examines the application of gematria to the European languages from the Medieval period onwards, particularly in respect to esoteric communities, such as the Freemasons.
• Gematria Synonymous Calculator - Hebrew gematria calculator that finds synonymous phrases.
• Letters of several alphabets and their numerical amounts
• Gematria calculator, finds match to Biblical verses (in Hebrew)