The mathematics of abomination: the forgotten calculations of war

Background
Open-text and plain-text are terms in cryptography that refers to a text that has been written without embedding code, algorithms, or any other source of information within it. The Hebrew Bible is not an open-text. It has been written using a formal system of ancient Hebrew rhetoric mathematics. To break that down a little for the layperson; a formal system is one that uses a set of standardized rules and conventions that govern its use. Rhetoric mathematics is the practice of mathematics using no notation. This ancient formal system in the Bible was used to provide extra context to the knowledgeable reader.

The sums constructed with the formal system were often corresponded to macrocosmic categories of creation described in Genesis 1-2, which was split into sections that were represented by the letters of the alphabet and by a diagram called the Merkabah (Chariot) or Seven Hekhalot (Palaces).[i] When they were not used to reference one of these categories, they were compared with calculations from other verses and other books of the Bible, or to well known prominent names – especially those of God. At times, special attention is given to certain keywords that have been manipulated via a cipher to spell out a different word which conveys the real meaning of the text. These methods of interpretation, along with an interpretation from a plain reading, were called the PaRDeS (meaning ‘Orchard’), which is an acronym of:

Peshat: meaning “Plain”
Remez: meaning “Hints”
Derash: meaning “Search”
Sod: meaning “Secret”.

The majority of calculations in the Hebrew Bible are types of arithmetic. The system gave numerical values to letters and used the combined value of nouns to count with. The system reserved some verbs and prepositions as well as the direct object את to indicate a variety of arithmetic operations. It also included flag words with special instructions for the reader, and nouns which had a specific set value rather than being the sum of their letters. This latter category of words were usually words that described the shape origins of the letters of the alphabet, or their corresponding themes in the creation narrative[ii].

For example, the following three calculations are found in Genesis 1:1 through arithmetic, notariqon with the reversal cipher, and iteration through the first word, also with the reversal cipher;

בראשית + אלהים + השמים + הארץ = 700
ב + ב + א + א + ה + ו + ה = 800
ב + בר + ברא + בראש + בראשי + בראשית = 2000

When the Hebrew Bible is read as if it were an open-text then it can be misleading, obscure, and lacking crucial context and substance. Any reading of the Bible without considering all the information the scribe embedded into it, and without knowing and using the same methodology as them, will result in an interpretation that is eisegesis rather than exegesis. This means that without following the ancient exegetical rules of interpretation, the modern reader of the Bible will read into it things that didn’t happen and aren’t there. In most cases, little harm can come from this, but in the nation of Israel a peshat (simple) reading of the Bible as if it were an open-text is used to:

a. Justify settlements in the West Bank which are viewed as illegal by the United Nations.
b. Evict Palestinian people from their homes in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
c. Pursue a long term aim to establish a nation of ‘greater Israel’ between the river Nile and Euphrates.
d. Argue for military action on the basis of supposed ancient conflicts.

I doubt if the Tannaim were alive today, they would still be calling gematria “desserts of wisdom”, and moreover, they would have lived to regret the prohibition on teaching the Merkabah. The occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel have complex political, sociological and psychological dimensions behind it, but a widespread misinterpretation of the Torah has provided the primary ideological basis for the modern settler movement and its support of far right parties and politicians. The text of Genesis 15 appears on the surface to promise the descendants of Abraham a land that would stretch from the river Nile to the river Euphrates, which includes parts of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon along with Gaza, the West Bank and modern Israel today. Israeli politicians like Smotrich and Ben Gvir campaign on the basis that these lands were promised to the Jewish people and will one day be annexed, and so they and their supporters are violently opposed to a two state solution that would give Palestinians their own nation state and self-determination.

As part of an international effort to bring peace to the region, the crucial embedded information in the Hebrew Bible must be revealed, and the true mission of peace that scribes of ancient Israel envisioned for their descendants has to be told. Riding alongside this effort, the false narrative that the plain interpretation of the Tanakh gives us of a warlike people that were prepared to wipe out entire nations with the full approval of God in order to occupy the ancient land of Israel needs to be roundly debunked.

I have made a tutorial and guide to the methodologies of the scribes; their ancient formal system of mathematics and the Merkabah in my two books on these subjects[iii]. In this relatively short article I intend to focus on those Biblical verses that are pertinent to the conflict in Israel today, starting with the Amalek. Of course, it will not be possible to review the calculations of every battle or war in the Bible, or even in the Torah. There are simply too many. However I believe that by reviewing the most critical events that are used in public debate as points of comparison to the present war, I shall be able to provoke some self-reflection about what we commonly accept to be biblical history.

I have chosen to omit from this analysis most of the Book of Joshua and Judges. Although others suggest they were written at an early date, I disagree with this based on stylistic differences with the Torah and on the fact that there are numbering changes in these texts. The order of numbers in the Torah is uniformly: units to tens to hundreds. The order of numbers in Joshua and Judges runs from the hundreds to the tens to units, and this suggests to me they were likely written during the Babylonian exile, and contain content written to justify their claim to the land by conquest, and also to intimidate and impress their captors with their apparent savageries. These include the cutting off captives’ fingers and toes, and the gruesomely described stabbing of the fat king Elgon by Ehud. Although not entirely absent from these texts, there is very little in the way of calculation or other scribal methodologies in them.

The genocide of the Amalek?
The most interesting thing about the story of the Amalek is that it reveals God to be the ultimate pacifist, for whom war is completely empty, so its ironic that Prime Minister Netanyahu used it early on in the war in a letter to the troops. In a move that South Africa has deemed an incitement to genocide, he said “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible.” Many scholars and Kabbalists have traditionally interpreted the Amalek as an inner enemy, but verses such as 1 Samuel 15:3 seem to speak the language of genocide:

“Now go and attack Amalek and go and destroy all that they have, and not do spare them but kill from man and to woman, from child and to infant, from ox and to sheep, from camel and to donkey.”

Netanyahu was not referencing Samuel however, but Deuteronomy 25:16-18 which tells how, after some guidance on using correct weights and measures, God says that he regards as abominations all who behave unrighteously, and then in a curious non sequitur he reminds the Israelites of the Amalek who attacked them when they were coming out of Egypt and were tired and weary. No reason is given for this “attack” by the Amalek which is described in Exodus 17. The people had complained to Moses that they had no water, and were thirsty, and had asked “Is YHWH with us or not?” Moses had twice chastised the people for tempting God to anger in this way. And eventually things got so bad that Moses said to God “What shall I do with these people? They are ready to stone me!” Following these events, Moses performs a miracle (which relies entirely on gematria) and gives them water out of a stone, and then the Amalek attack.

Exodus 17:8
ויבא עמלק וילחם עם ישראל ברפידם
“And came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim.”

While a peshat interpretation of these verses say that the Amalek were a people, named after their ancient sire Amalek, who attacked Israel, the true nature of Amalek is revealed using the Hebrew Bibles’ reversal cipher. This cipher takes the letters of the main biblical cipher and reverses their order to spell out different words, and so hidden meanings can be embedded in the text. עמלק Amalek with the reversal cipher is החטא[iv] ‘the sin’ [of killing]. The name of the mother of Amalek was תמנע Timna, which is פחזה [v] with the reversal cipher meaning “wantonness”, or the state of being uncontrolled, so symbolically it is this state of wantonness which gives birth to ‘the sin’.

The fear and alarm that is evident in texts over provoking or tempting God to anger may also be explained by his three lettered name, used during the bronze age, with the reversal cipher. יהו produces the cipher word כעס which means “provoked to anger”. When we use the cipher word meaning ‘the sin’ in place of ‘Amalek’ the gematria of 17:8 with the Standard Cipher resolves to:

החטא ישראל ברפידם = 900

The full verse with that cipher word exchange would read;
“And came the sin and fought with Israel in Rephidim.“

In Exodus 17:10 there is a repeat of the final total for this sum but this time with the main biblical cipher:

“So did Joshua as said to him Moses, and fought the head of the sin and Moses and Hur went up to the head of the hill.”

יהושע משה ר החטא ומשה אהרן וחור ה =900 [vi]

Whether 90, 900, or 9000 these values corresponds to the letter Tsade, which has an ancient correspondence to childbirth, however we also see that it is intimately connected with sin, probably due to the disobedience of Adam and Eve which resulted in them descending to earth, and the process of labor becoming painful. It may also be that each person is thought to be born from repeating the sin of Adam and Eve by being attracted to the light and life of manifestation on earth (the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge). Whatever the case, the Tsade represents both sin and childbirth, and words such as צדיק Tsadik (righteous) are bound to the concept of overcoming sin.

In Genesis 2:21-22 the tsade corresponds to the creation of Eve, which is regarded as the first “birth” by Kabbalists and Rabbis. Using the reversal cipher, the Shemhamphorash (Exodus 14:19-21) sums to 9000 to represent the birth of the people of Israel from the waters of the red sea, leaving the mother of civilizations (Egypt) behind them. But in a rare appearance of such calculations in Judges, verse 4:1 directly correlates 900 with sin through the reversal cipher:

“And again the sons of Israel did the evil in the eyes of YHWH and Ehud died.”
ישראל הרע ע יהוה ואהוד נ = 900

The defeat of ‘the sin’ (the Amalek) is corresponded to 860 with Exodus 17:13, also with the Standard Cipher, by replacing Amalek with its cipher word:

“And defeated Joshua ‘the sin’ and his people by the edge of the sword.”
יהושע החטא עמו לפי חרב = 860

The value of the word אלהים (Elohim) is 86 and 860 is 86 × 10. Just as we saw with the Shemhamphorash, the multiplication by 10 or by 100 broadens and magnifies the meaning. Where the tsade could represent either the birth (or the sin) of one person, when it is multiplied is can represent the birth of a nation. Here the presence of Elohim is with the people in the defeat of the sin. After the Amalek are defeated, an altar is made and Moses is commanded to write an account of matters. He poignantly wrote for YHWH:

ויאמר כי יד על כסיה מלחמה ליהוה בעמלק מדר דר

“And he said, like [a] hand upon [a] glove [is] war for YHWH in Amalek [the sin] from generation to generation.” – Exodus 17:16 [vii]

This is my own translation. It means that for God, war is as empty as a glove without a hand inside of it, because the sin of killing has happened all throughout history. The final total of this verse is 930 which is a magnification of the total 93, which is the gate value of the final Heh of the Merkabah.

יד + כס יה מלחמה ליהוה בעמלק ר ר = 930 [viii]

This lower section of the Merkabah represents everything that comes into manifestation on the earth; all souls and living beings that descent to earth and exit the earth, along with all light and the waters from the great rivers which leave the heavenly realm of Eden.
1 Samuel 15:3 seeming genocidal verse also requires replacing the word Amalek with ‘the sin’. The resulting sum total is also in the Standard Cipher:

החטא עליו מאיש קיא מעלל יונק א שה ג חמור = 1500

Samuel was the last of the Judges, and his book was also likely written during the exile to intimidate the Babylonian captors, but even here the cipher word is used so that it is understood by those who know the scribal arts and methodologies that it is the complete destruction of ‘the sin’ which is implied, rather than the genocide of a people. 1500 is the sum of 700 + 800 recalling the calculations of Genesis 1:1, suggesting the complete eradication of sin in all its forms from all creation. Going back to the laws of God given to Noah, and repeated in the ten commandments received by Moses, the prohibition against killing is an absolute law.

Exodus 20:13
לא תרצח

This commandment is just two words meaning: “Not shall you murder”. By the conventions of biblical gematria, the word לא (not) means to not count the next word, but it can also mean to not count the first letter of the word when it is iterated, so לא תרצח becomes תר תרצ תרצח with a value of 800, which signifies it is absolute and applies to everyone at any time and any place, and in any situation. It is a law that cannot be reasoned with. There are no excuses or justifications or loopholes around it. Though simple, the implications are profound.

The destruction of the seven nations of Canaan?
The Torah appears to repeatedly call for the annihilation of the people of Canaan, which is something that many people who have only read a peshat interpretation have wrestled with for hundreds of years, and especially today. Some have sought to excuse it as a product of the time it was written, while others have tried to justify it and revealed their lack of a moral compass by doing so. However, this apparent destruction of seven nations was actually just the work of scribal calculation that demonstrated subtraction, and not a historical event. For instance, take Deuteronomy 20:16-17:

רק מערי העמים האלה אשר יהוה אלהיך נתן לך נחלה לא תחיה כל נשמה׃
כי החרם תחרימם החתי והאמרי הכנעני והפרזי החוי והיבוסי כאשר צוך יהוה אלהיך׃

“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. But you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as YHWH your God has commanded you.”

The gematria of these verses is:
מערי העמים יהוה אלהיך נחלה נשמה החתי והאמרי הכנעני והפרזי החוי והיבוסי יהוה אלהיך = 1790

Now take the names of those nations which you might think God commanded the Israelites to destroy; The Hittites, and Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites:

החתי והאמרי הכנעני והפרזי החוי והיבוסי = 930

Now lets destroy these nations utterly! We shall subtract their total from the final total of the verses:

1790 – 930 = 860

There is nothing more benign and harmless than mathematics, except when people refuse to listen to their own God given conscience.

The Destruction of Gaza?
As a consequence of the war in Gaza, many people have been reviewing Amos 1:6-8 and drawing conclusions about their prophetic accuracy that seem only reasonable from a peshat interpretation. But just like the so called destruction of the seven nations of Canaan, the biblical destruction of Gaza is also a simple example of subtraction. In ancient days such verses were probably given to children to solve.

Amos 1:6-8
כה אמר יהוה על שלשה פשעי עזה ועל ארבעה לא אשיבנו על הגלותם גלות שלמה להסגיר לאדום׃
ושלחתי אש בחומת עזה ואכלה ארמנתיה׃
והכרתי יושב מאשדוד ותומך שבט מאשקלון והשיבותי ידי על עקרון ואבדו שארית פלשתים אמר אדני יהוה׃

“Thus says YHWH “Upon three transgressions of Gaza and upon four, not I will turn away upon the exiled captives the complete peace to deliver to Edom. And I will send a fire by the wall of Gaza and will consume her palaces. And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and the one who holds the scepter from Ashkelon, and I will turn my hand against Ekron and shall perish the remnant of the Philistines says Adoni YHWH.”

The mathematics begins as follows:
י – יהוה + ש פשעי – עזה + ד גלות שלמה לאדום ש בחומת עזה ארמנתיה מאשדוד שבט מאשקלון – י + עקרון שארית פלשתים אדני יהוה = 1913

The following is a list of all the places and people that shall be devoured, cut off or will perish (by which is meant subtracted): The palaces, Ashdod, Ashkelon and the remnants of the Philistines:

ארמנתיה מאשדוד מאשקלון שארית פלשתים = 983
1913 – 983 = 930.

So the final calculation from these three verses is:

י – יהוה + ש פשעי – עזה + ד גלות שלמה לאדום ש בחומת עזה שבט – י + עקרון אדני יהוה = 930

What really disturbs me about this verse, isn’t so much the reality that some have taken it as prophecy, as the possibility that others may have read into it a set of instructions.

The inheritance of the descendants of Abraham?

The Seven Palaces.

Political Zionism takes the realistic position that 7.2 million Jews in Israel are there to stay and the state of Israel itself should exist as a homeland and a refuge to the Jewish people who have an ancient historical tie to the land. However, political Zionism makes no claim to specific territories or borders, and it is flexible on the matter of a two state solution when it comes to the Palestinians who also have strong historical ties to the land. It is therefore a very different animal from religious Zionism which draws its inspiration from a peshat reading of the Torah while ignoring certain facts about the worldview of the ancients which are discussed in the Talmud. Their main claim to a greater Israel is derived from Genesis 15:18:

ביום ההוא כרת יהוה את אברם ברית לאמר לזרעך נתתי את הארץ הזאת מנהר מצרים עד הנהר הגדל נהר פרת

“In the day that made YHWH and Abram a covenant saying to your seed I given earth this from the river of Egypt unto the river great river Perat.”

What religious Zionists overlook is how the ancients thought about the rivers Nile and Euphrates. To the ancients, the heads of these rivers began in the heavens flowing out of Eden and out of the milky way (the river of fire) to water the entire earth below.

“Rav Kahana also states: The source of all the water in the world is the Euphrates River. The halakhic ramification of this is in accordance with a statement of Rav Yehuda, as Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: With regard to one who takes a vow rendering the waters of the Euphrates River forbidden to him, it is prohibited for him to drink from any water in the world.” – Bekharot 55a, The William Davidson Talmud.

Because the waters of these great rivers watered the entire earth, the covenant gives the descendants of Abraham a spiritual mandate to the entire earth, as Solomon inherited.

“Rabbi Yitzḥak said: Is it possible for a person to sit on the throne of the Lord, in whose regard it is written: “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24), and it is written: “A river of fire flowed and emerged [from before Him]” (Daniel 7:10), and it is written: “His throne was sparks of fire” (Daniel 7:9), and you say: “Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord”? Rather, just as the throne of the Holy One blessed be He rules from one end of the earth to the other, so, too, the throne of Solomon ruled from one end of the earth to the other.” – Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:1.

The notariqon of Genesis 15:18 sums to 452, which is the gate value of the central Palace of the Resh, which is at the source or headwaters of the 4 great rivers that emerged from Eden. The Palace of the Resh is at the center of the Merkabah, above the earth and below the House of God.

ב ה כ י א א ב ל ל נ א ה ה מ מ ע ה ה נ פ = 452

A “gate” of a Palace is computed by adding each of the letters of the paths it connects to, and the letter of the Palaces at the end of the paths.

The gematria of Genesis 15:18 is:
יהוה אברם ברית ז הארץ ס – מ + ררר ס פרת = 1752 [ix]

When we subtract the notariqon of 452 from 1752 we arrive at a final total of 1300. When we read the notariqon of verses 18-19 together they also sum to 480:

ב ה כ י א א ב ל ל נ א ה ה מ מ ע ה ה נ פ א ה ו ה ו ה = 480

This is the same notariqon result from Genesis 2:10 which discusses the rivers that emerge from Eden:

ש ה פ ה ה א כ א ה א ש ה ו ה ה ט ש ה ו ה ו ה ה ג ה ה א כ א כ ו ה ה ח ה ה ק א ו ה ה פ = 480

480 is the gate of the letter Waw of the Holy Name upon the Merkabah (which is the rose coloured section).

480 is also the value of YHW when iterated: י יה יהו יהוה using the reversal cipher and the sum of Elohim + the Heavens + the Earth in Genesis 1:1.

So essentially, what the religious Zionists have done, is take a spiritual mandate that was granted to a peaceful people that could teach the whole earth by their example of how to keep the laws of God, and resolve disputes without bloodshed, and turned that ancient vision of a peaceful earth into a travesty over an entirely mythical idea that God goes around granting land deeds to mortals. Not only that, but as we speak the majority of Israelis want the Haredim who study the Bible in service to God to instead join in with the killing – doing the very thing that is an anathema to God.

Those Jews who became Christians and wrote the Gospels knew all about this verse. We need to cross reference the Book of Matthew, verse 13:43 for the evidence of that. The verse suggests itself for analysis due to its reference to the sun in connection with the Kingdom of God:

τότε οἱ δίκαιοι ἐκλάμψουσιν ὡς ὁ ἥλιος ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ Πατρὸς αὐτῶν. ὁ ἔχων ὦτα ἀκουέτω.

“Then the righteous will shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father of them. He having ears, let him hear!”

The notariqon of this verse is:
τ ο δ ε ω ο η ε τ β τ π α ο ε ω α = 490

The gematria of this verse is:
δικαιοι εκλαμψουσιν ηλιος βασιλεια πατρος ο ωτα = 1790

We only need to subtract the notariqon from the calculation, exactly as we did with Genesis 15:18, and 1790 – 490 = 1300, which is the identical result.

The thing to note about this is that Jesus always insisted that the Kingdom of God was a heavenly kingdom and inheritance for those who followed the laws of God, and not an earthly realm at all, and all the evidence demonstrates that this probably wasn’t a novel idea on his part but something that was widely agreed upon in the Jewish community.

Even at this late stage, all is not lost however. Abraham once went to war to rescue his brother from the Kings of Sodom and Gomorah, and by doing so he raised his hand against God and his laws. But Abraham repented of his actions and would take no reparations from the Kings except the food his men had already eaten. It appears that God chose Abraham to be the Patriarch of the Jewish people precisely because he repented of his actions, and it is his example that his descendants may follow to redeem themselves in the eyes of God. Because all peoples have a God given conscience, all peoples love and yearn for peace, and that should give everyone hope that this summer solstice will mark a true turning point.

[i] I’ve published an online list of categories for Genesis 1-2 along with their calculations here; https://www.shematria.com/GematriaGenesis

[ii] For example: Bayit (House) = 2 (Beth), Ash (Fire) = 3 (Shin), or Nachash (Snake) = 50 (Nun).

[iii] Please see my major works: Behold: the Art and Practice of Gematria, and Chariot: An essay on Bereshit and the Merkabah. Available on Amazon.

[iv] See Strong’s Concordance number 2399. Chet.

[v] See Klein’s Dictionary: https://www.sefaria.org/Klein_Dictionary%2C_%D7%A4%D6%B7%D6%BC%D7%97%D6%B2%D7%96%D6%B8%D7%94.1?lang=bi

[vi] Note that the word ros (ראש) meaning “head” indicates to choose the first letter of the next word in the sentence, which in this case is the Heh of “the hill”, and also the the reversal cipher pair of the prefix Beth with Amalek is Resh which also means “head” but doesn’t have the same function unless it is spelled out as ראש!

[vii] Note that the word ros (ראש) meaning “head” indicates to choose the first letter of the next word in the sentence, which in this case is the Heh of “the hill”, and also the the reversal cipher pair of the prefix Beth with Amalek is Resh which also means “head” but doesn’t have the same function unless it is spelled out as ראש!

[viii] The word “generation” always has the set value of 200 (for the Resh).

[ix] The words for “river” in this verse has the set value of 60 for the letter Samekh, and “great river” is samekh × 10 which is 600 and represented by the 3 letters Resh in the calculation. The word “seed” has the set value of the letter Zayin (7). The word “Egypt” has the set value of the letter Mem (40) and the subtraction in the verse is indicated by the word עַד which means “unto”.