The other day in Beit Nitzanim, we introduced one of our boys
who enjoys working with numbers to the Jewish concept of
gematria. Gematria is the study of the mathematical value of
Hebrew words. Each Hebrew letter corresponds to a different
number, such that every Hebrew word has a different mathematical
“value”. Rabbis long ago used these numbers to compare the
meaning of different words and ideas. The teacher introduced
this particular boy to the topic by transforming the first few
letters into numbers for him. The first letter of the Aleph Bet
is 1. The second letter is 2. And so on, and so forth… the
teacher walked away. Several minutes later, the teacher returned
to discover that, not only had the boy finished off the rest of
the Aleph Bet, he had already begin to discover the numerical
“value” of several different words: Sh’ma, Shleshi, and Elul!
This process of discovery was self-regulated. His teacher gave
him a scaffolding from which to begin building; he used that
knowledge to reach even further. Onc