Numbers
A number at a time, worked plainly: what it is worth, where the word carrying it stands in the twenty-four books, and where a traditional reading stops being arithmetic.
613 mitzvot, and the gematria of TaryagWhere the count of the commandments comes from, what it divides into, the words the tradition finds 613 in, and the prophets who gathered them down to one.23 September 2026SeventySouls, elders, palms, years and bullocks are counted; the nations are a tradition; and of everything the number touches, only wine and secret is a gematria.14 August 2026Thirty-sixThe hidden righteous, the candles of the eighth night, and chai twice over: three thirty-sixes, and only one of them is a gematria.13 August 2026Chai, and the gift of eighteenWhy the cheque is written for 36 and not 35, and what the number eighteen was doing in Jewish hands long before it was a donation.12 August 2026Twenty-sixThe value of the four-letter Name, what our index can say about it, and what it cannot.12 August 2026Thirteen, twiceאהבה and אחד carry the same value, and the word the arithmetic belongs to is not the word the Shema uses.12 August 2026FortyThe rain, the mountain, the spies, and the walk to Chorev: every count taken from the text itself.12 August 2026