Chai! How Are Ya?!

Later this week, my husband and I will be celebrating our 18^th wedding anniversary. Eighteen is one of those highly significant Jewish numbers. Like seven. Just as seven days makes a complete week, seven represents a complete cycle. Another Jewish number is 120. On someone’s birthday, we say “Ad meah v’esrim” meaning “You should live until 120!” which was the number of years Moses lived. Other Jewish numbers include 613 (613 mitzvot) and 40 (years spent wandering in the desert).

 

Arguably however, no number is more Jewish than 18. In a system known as gematria, each letter has a numerical value. That numerical value which is known as that letter’s gematria. The gematria of a word is the simple sum of its letters. So the Hebrew word for life is chai, made up of two Hebrew letters – chet and yud. And the gematria, the numerical value of chai, of life, is 18.

 

The symbol, pictured above, is known as chai. To those unfamiliar with Hebrew, it looks like a graphic symbol, but it’s really just the Hebrew letters chet, followed by yud, which spell the word chai. (Keep in mind that Hebrew is read right to left.) Look in any bricks and mortar or online Judaica store and you’ll inevitably find the chai symbol pictured on everything from jewelry to mugs to needlepoint canvases. The chai symbol also appears on the medals of the Maccabiah Games, the international Jewish sporting event, often called the Jewish Olympics, that’s held every four years in Israel.

 

Jews often give gifts in multiples of chai as a way of offering a blessing that the recipient should have a long life. To write a check for $150 is nice, but $180 is a much more Jewish gift. Similarly, Jewish charities offer suggested donations in multiples of 18 (such as $18, $36, $54).

 

The number 18 is also significant In the Talmud; it’s considered the age at which a boy is ready to stand under a chuppah in marriage (ben shemoneh esrei lechupah). In addition, the central prayer of any Jewish prayer service is referred to as the Shemoneh Esrei, a reference to the 18 blessings that were part of the prayer’s original text.

 

According to Kabbalah, the mystical tradition in Judaism, the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are the fundamental building blocks of the universe and there is a deep connection between things that have the same gematria (numerical equivalent). According to this way of thinking, anything that equals 18 has a connection to chai – to the concept of life.

 

My sister Lisa was born on January 18^th and she especially loves playing around with the whole chai thing. Her email address is ChaiLisa@. And she takes special delight when she can make an important sequence of numbers, like the address of a house I used to live in, or the months and days of the birthdays of a couple, add up to 18.

 

Am Yisrael Chai - “The Jewish People Lives On!”