Definitions for "Gematria"
The method of interpreting the Bible by drawing inferences from the numerical value of the Hebrew letters. For example, the fact that the Bible begins with the letter bet, the second letter of the alphabet, indicated for the Zohar the idea that creation occured on two levels, the physical level of this world and higher divine realm.
A method of Torah interpretation which involves assigning numercal values to words and names, and looking for correspondences between words or passages which have the same value. This method was used in mystical interpretations of the Scripture. The techniques are a little dense and twisted, but they do result in a variety of interesting coincidences...or are they
Jewish numerology. There are many methods of reducing Hebrew words to numbers with the most common being to add up the numerical equivalences of each letter.