The braided loaf placed on every Shabbat table the challah is far less simple than it appears. When read through the lens of the Hebrew alphabet and Kabbalistic tradition, this modest bread is found to contain an entire universe: creation, community, humility, and sacred devotion.

Gematria is the art of revealing hidden connections between words by calculating the numerical value of their Hebrew letters. In this article, we begin with the Hebrew spelling of challah, trace its numerical equivalences, examine the origins of its braiding tradition, and explore the threefold meaning embedded in its root letters.

1. What Is Gematria?

In Hebrew, every letter carries a fixed numerical value. Aleph is 1, Bet is 2 — and so the sequence continues through to Tav, which equals 400. Gematria calculates the numerical sum of a word’s letters; two words that share the same total are considered to share a meaningful spiritual connection.

Kabbalists have used this method for centuries to uncover the deeper layers of sacred texts. The underlying idea is this: if the Torah is the word of God, then no letter is accidental — each one is a deliberate choice. The numbers encoded in the letters form a second layer of meaning beneath the surface of the text.

2. The Core Value of Challah: 43

The word challah is written in Hebrew as חלה and is composed of three letters:

ח Het = 8 ל Lamed = 30 ה He = 5 → חלה = 43

Does the number 43 carry meaning on its own? According to some sources, גל (gal, meaning “wave” or “surge”) also equals 43. But the deeper significance emerges only when this number is doubled.

3. Two Challahs = 86 =........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)