Kabbalistic Numerology
Kabbalistic numerology traces back to Hebrew gematria, the tradition of treating each Hebrew letter as also being a number. Western adaptations translate this into English letter values — often a 22-number table rather than reducing everything to 1 through 9 — and unlike most numerology systems, the classic method reads only the name, leaving the birth date out of the analysis.
Related terms
Common questions
- Does Kabbalistic numerology use a birth date?
- Traditionally no. The classic method reads only the letters of the name, unlike systems such as Pythagorean numerology that combine name and birth date.
- What is gematria?
- Gematria is the ancient Hebrew practice of assigning a numeric value to each letter of the alphabet, so that any word or name can also be read as a number.
- Why do some Kabbalistic charts use 22 values instead of reducing to a single digit?
- The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters, and some Western adaptations keep that broader table instead of collapsing every letter down to 1 through 9.
Last reviewed: August 12, 2026