Bethsheba Ashe, at The Blogs

Jun 2, 2025, 11:26 PM

Do Gaza and the West Bank really belong to Israel?

Ambassador Friedman visit to Sderot "Yeshivat Sderot’s" hesder yeshiva. October 08, 2017. From U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv - _DSC5685, under the Creative Commons License 2.

Is there an ideological basis in the Torah for the encroaching settlements in the West Bank? Is there a valid scriptural basis for the unfolding plans of Religious Zionists to "cleanse" Gaza of ethnic Palestinians? This is something I answer...

Aug 23, 2024, 5:48 PM

Calculations on the back of an envelope

I'm taking a departure from gematria in this post to use regular math, because I keep reading comments in the TOI regarding the current war which say things like "Hang in there and don't stop until you get them...

Aug 14, 2024, 12:43 AM

Gematria Quiz

So it's THAT day again, and you need a distraction from yourself, or himself, or one of the kids? I've got you. Take five, make a brew, and see if you can solve this gematria quiz. I'll post the...

Jul 2, 2024, 6:13 PM

Exodus: Myth, Symbolism, and Reality

By Edward Poynter - Art Renewal Center, Public Domain.

The story of the Exodus never explicitly reveals the identity of the Egyptian Pharaoh confronted by Moses and YHWH, and for good reason. In biblical rhetoric mathematics, the word "Pharaoh" has a value of 200, corresponding to the letter...

Jun 22, 2024, 2:07 PM

The mathematics of abomination: the forgotten calculations of war

Abstract: A plain (peshat) interpretation of the Hebrew Bible may give us an impression that the ancient Israelites were a warlike people whom at times committed genocide upon other nations with the full approval and encouragement of their God...

Jun 16, 2024, 11:56 PM

Let’s destroy the Canaanites again!

Let's play a game today. I'm going to call this game "Let's destroy the Canaanites!" "Only in the cities of these peoples that YHWH your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes....

Apr 22, 2024, 7:47 AM

The Promised Land: a Spiritual or Physical territory?

"The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise" by Benjamin West (1791).
Public Domain.

Political Zionism has always been enough for me. It made sense for Jews to have a Jewish homeland in 1948, and it still makes sense to me today, although if wishes were fishes I would wish for a two...

Nov 30, 2023, 10:37 PM

‘Not shall you murder’

Through gematria we see that Exodus 20:13 is an absolute law. This commandment was received by Moses from God himself, and it is just two words: לא תרצח "Not shall you murder" By the conventions of biblical gematria, the word לא (not) means...

Nov 28, 2023, 7:07 PM

Settler Gematria

Years ago I watched a TV program which interviewed an Israeli settler, and he carefully explained why he believed living on the land was his duty to God. He explained that he'd moved to his kibbutz because of gematria...

Sep 3, 2023, 7:38 PM

Night and Day of Genesis 1-2 – an old arrangement?

The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise, by Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia (1445): Public Domain.

In the Talmud there is a discussion among Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Joshua, and Rabbi Akiva, regarding when the Adam was created. One said the first day, another the second day, and Rabbi Akiva said the Adam was created on...

About Me

Bethsheba Ashe stumbled upon the correct gematria ciphers for the Bible in 2015, and after a lot of research she realized that what we might think of as "gematria" was actually a formal system of rhetoric mathematics. What's more, she discovered that there was a lot more "gematria" in the bible than anyone previously suspected. She created the popular online Shematria Gematria Calculator in 2018 to promote more research and raise awareness of this lost scribal art and practice. She lives a happily reclusive lifestyle in a place where "squirrels" is an entire explanation.

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