Typically, it contains 24 letters of the Greek alphabet that makes it easier than English gematria. In both Hebrew and Greek , there are only alpha characters. Therefore, when a Hebrew would want to write a number, he would use the corresponding Hebrew letter. Rabbi Feder has used his fascinating journey to a new understanding of gematria as a way of presenting many deep ideas in a clear and easy to read manner. Each chapter brings new and profound insights not only to the method and wisdom in Chazal’s use of gematria, but more importantly, to the underlying topic beyond the gematria. Rabbi Feder’s analysis of these topics demonstrate his clear, incisive and original way of thinking. I highly recommend this well written and enlightening book. Word-based numerology probably began in 8th century BCE Mesopotamia; Greeks practised isopsephia (letter-based calculation) from the 5th century BCE. Hebrew gematria only arrived in c.100 BCE, yet soon grew in complexity. Gematria is often used to detect the secret meaning of holy texts. Unsurprisingly, it became an indispensable tool of Jewish mystics down the ages. The use of numbers to replace letters in Hebrew alphabets is a popular exegesis technique in medieval Kabbalists who sought out mystical insights into their sacred texts or were looking for new interpretations. The letters of the Hebrew alphabet are used to represent the Hebrew system of numerals. In contrast to traditional Hindu-Arabic numerals, Hebrew notation does not have a concept of zero, and each letter’s cardinal values are added to represent a numerical value. The Hebrew Gematria is the oldest known Gematria, and you should have a separate Hebrew gematria calculator to find the values in the Hebrew Gematria. The Gematria Hebrew is specific and there is no regularity of the numeric except for the first 5 numbers of the English alphabets. The word “HELLO” is equal to 25 in Full Reduction Gematria and these values can be reconfirmed by the gematria calculator. “Gematria is a method of assigning the numerical values to a term or a phrase”. I appreciate your joining in on the comments, and that you seem to understand the problems in using transliteration and the solution I am recommending.