Once the total has been determined, it can be used to uncover various meanings from the text. Thus, the alef equals 1, but so do the yod and the kuf, which equal 10 and 100 in the absolute or normative value system. In these last two systems, the five letters that have final forms are usually given the same value as the standard form of the letter. Greek gematria is a system of assigning numerical values to letters, words, and phrases. Each letter in the Greek alphabet is assigned a number (1-24), and these numbers can be used to calculate the numerical value of words and phrases. Gematria can be used to find hidden meanings in text, or to simply calculate the numeric value of a word or phrase. Many believe there are secret codes to be uncovered by interpreting the numerical values of the letters in the Bible. The kabbalists employ gematria to decipher the Torah and everyday events. The absolute or normative value of a word is calculated by treating each letter as a word and then adding up all of the numerical equivalencies of these letter words. Since some letters can be spelled differently as words, different numerical equivalencies can be achieved for a single word.
