Sitemap

Bibles & Midrashim
Biblehub Interlinear - There are several excellent Hebrew/Greek interlinear Bibles available online, but I like this one because it attempts to categorize the words into nouns, verbs, adjectives etc, which is an important aspect of gematria practice. However, it does use Christian translations, which aren't always accurate, so you are advised to cross reference with Scripture4all or with the Sepharia Jewish Library which is an awesome compendium of Jewish texts across the ages. I also recommend the website Learn Tefillah for Hebrew readers who wish to study and pray on a daily basis, and this site has some lovely recordings of readings from the Tanakh.

Academic Studies
The design of the first Temple corresponda to the alphabet and the Merkabah, so a first class study of the Temple is worthwhile. Fortunately, a renowned scholar of the Temple - Professor Victor Avigdor Hurowitz presented his paper 'Heaven on Earth' to the Library of Congress and they recorded the presentation on video.

As for academic studies of Gematria itself, I recommend this study byStephen J. Lieberman in 1987, and you can read his paper online at JSTOR.

In recent years, Professor Israel Knohl (Harvard) has suggested that prior studies into the gematria of the bible had not revealed much of significance because the knowledge of it (i.e. the ciphers/systems) were sacred and thus kept secret. He is well worth following on academia.edu.

Studies into the origins of the alphabet can reveal much that is informative to our studies of gematria, particularly in respect of the value of 'mnemonic words', which are words that have a set value connected to a letter and its theme in creation. Professor Douglas Petrovich's alphabet chart is particularly useful. As well as being an epigrapher, Petrovich has a background in archeology and his books "The World's Oldest Alphabet: Hebrew as the Language of the Proto-Consonantal Script (Carta 2016)" and "Origins of the Hebrews: New Evidence for Israelites in Egypt from Joseph to the Exodus (2022)" are well worth picking up for their depth and breadth. Douglas maintains a blog 'Exegesis International' which is worth a bookmark.

 Other scholars of note in this area are Brian Colless (see his cryptcracker site), and Judith Dillon for her analysis of cultural myths and stories in respect of the alphabet. I also like the work of Daniel Sarlo, Aryeh Krawczyk and Aaron Koller and have found the essays by Professor David Toshio Tsumura about the cult of El in ancient Ugarit to be highly informative and valuable to the study of the Merkabah.

Talmud and Kabbalah
During biblical times, people mapped the macrocosm to the seven palaces/merkabah, and in antiquity this schema was broadened and combined with Greek/Gnostic concepts to form the Tree of Life in the Sepher Yetzirah. In the Middle Ages, Kabbalah developed the idea of the microcosm (the Tree of Life) as a complement of the macrocosm, and as something that could mirror or align with all that was good in God's creation. Teachers such as Joseph Gikatilla and Moses de Leon took up the subject of the alphabet, and the conformations of the Merkabah once more. These are matters covered in a free 10 part video course on the fundamental concepts of Kabbalah, presented by Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum.

For a hands on book on Jewish meditation, I would recommend "Eye to the Infinite" by Rabbi Rubin. This incorporates visualizations, meditations & techniques adapted from the Talmud, Kabbalah & Classics of Jewish theology. It's an indispensable investment for anyone interested in traditional Jewish Kabbalah.

There are many kosher Kabbalah videos and channels I find enjoyable and informative. From Jerusalem, I follow Rabbi Betzalel Edward's channel and his 'Сoffee and Cabbala' series. The videos are a dedicated to Torah, and in particular Hasidism, Talmud, and Kabbalah, and the teachings of the Isbitz and Radziner Rebbes are a key feature on this channel.

One video series I totally adore is the "Daf Reactions" series by Miriam Anzovin. If you've never come across her videos yet, where have you been? Under a rock? Daf Reactions went viral earlier this year on Tik Tok and Youtube. Miriam produces two-minute, engaging, funny videos about the Talmud and the Torah. She has a gift and I admire her so much. Laugh and learn!

Also check out My Jewish Learning, Chabad.org, Forward, and why not check out TorahCalc - which is a Jewish calculator with 25 different ciphers which are all mentioned by Kabbalistic sources! Personally, I don't think any of them were used by biblical scribes, but they could have been used in later texts. Unless you check, how will you know?

Jewish Magic
The Temple of Miriam is running a free course: Introduction to Jewish Magic Course, by the fabulous Dr. Jeremy Weiss! Don't miss out! You will learn about the Jewish people, the history of their magic, and its foundational role in many magical practices. You don’t need to be Jewish to study Jewish magic with Dr. Jeremy! 

Occult and Magick
Crowley texts are becoming rarer, but the 100th monkey press maintains a full bibliography of unedited original texts by Aleister Crowley

One of the great living teachers and communicators of Magic and Thelema is Lon Milo Duquette. As well as being a prolific author and musician, Lon hosts regular podcasts from his facebook page which are highly entertaining as well as instructive.

From the Golden Dawn tradition, author Nick Farrell has an excellent long running magical blog that covers many aspects of qabalah. Highly recommended, and you can often find Nick and other notable magical authors and practioners at the Universal Mysteries facebook group, dedicated to sharing spiritual and religious mysteries in a manner which exposes the commonalities and differences of various esoteric systems. It is open to seekers of all paths in the Western Mystery Traditions whether Rosicrucian, Masonic, Thelemic, Golden Dawn, Martinist, Gnostic or any other.

-------------------
Would you like to recommend a link to a website, book or blog about gematria, the bible, kabbalah, etc? Write to me at bethsheba@lightwoodstudio.com and let me know.