Decoding the Torah with Gematria Taught by Michael Greenfield The simple math that connects the very Jewish number 18 to the word Life is the tiniest tip of the iceberg known as Gematria. For centuries, Jewish rabbis and scholars have studied the numerical value of words to find beautiful, meaningful, and hidden connections throughout the Torah and across Jewish culture. We’ll study some of those connections and ask questions about what they mean. For this class, if you can add small numbers together, you can do Gematria.