If you spell out each letter that makes up the name of God, then add up the gematria (numerical value) of each letter of each fully spelled out letter you get various values. The value depends on how you spell each individual letter.
There are 4 numeric values of the name of G-d (YKVK), each based on different spellings of the its constituent letters. (Wikipedia):
- ע"ב/`AV : יו"ד ה"י וי"ו ה"י, gematria 72
- ס"ג/SaG: יו"ד ה"י וא"ו ה"י, gematria 63.
- ב"ן/BaN: יו"ד ה"ה ו"ו ה"ה, gematria 52.
- מ"ה/MaH: יו"ד ה"א וא"ו ה"א, gematria 45.
My question is why is BaN (representing 2+50) not termed “NaB” (representing 50+2), so that like AV (representing 70+2), SaG (representing 60+3), and MaH (representing 40+5), its ten’s place numeral would come before its one’s place numeral?
Answer
because if it were termed נ"ב then it wouldn’t equal 9 in “the small number gematria” value.
The “small number gematria value” comes down to this: were I to add 2+4+6 I’d of course arrive at 12. If I were to add the 1 and 2 of the figure 12 I’d arrived at just now, I’d then arrive at the number 3, which is the “small number gematria” value of the original 2+4+6 (i.e., 2+4+6=12=3).
So, just as ע"ב’s 72 is 7+2=9, ס"ג’s 63 is 6+3=9, and מ"ה’s 45 is 4+5=9 — ב"ן’s 52 is 2+700=9 in “small number gematria value” (given that the final letter Nun is worth 700), whereas it would be worth only 7 (5+2) if it read נ"ב(Midrash Peliah 163).
Why would they need to each be worth 9? According to that same source, that’s because that represents the nine major components of each Partzuf which is then completed by its tenth — it’s Malchut; or because the word for truth (emet) also has the “the small number gematria” value of 9 (1+40+400=9).
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