Esau — the number of the name, the Torah page and the verse
The name Esau in Hebrew letters is עשו. Below: how its number adds up, which page of the Torah it falls on and what verse stands there. Everything is computed, nothing is guessed.
עשו
In short
Your name in Hebrew letters is עשו. Linked to “made, finished” (born hairy). Jacob’s twin brother (Genesis 25:25). Adding up the numbers of its letters gives 376 — the same as the Torah word עשו, “Esav, a son of Isaac, including his posterity”. That number points to Torah page 22 of 354 — in the portion Lech Lecha. What that portion is about: “Go forth”: Abraham leaves Haran; the promise of land and offspring; the covenant between the pieces; circumcision. The verse that begins with the first letter of your name and ends with the last is Genesis 8:22. Each of these steps is laid out below with its sources. There are no predictions or judgments here — only the text of the Torah and arithmetic you can check.
Adding up the letters of the name עשו gives 376.
376
The number 376 is the Torah word עשו — «Esav, a son of Isaac, including his posterity» (Genesis 25:25).
The number 376, as the remainder modulo 354, points to Torah page 22 in the book of Bereshit (Genesis). These are its opening words:
עשן ולפיד אש אשר עבר בין הגזרים האלה …
The verse this place falls on is Bereshit (Genesis) 15:17:
וַיְהִי הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ בָּאָה וַעֲלָטָה הָיָה וְהִנֵּה תַנּוּר עָשָׁן וְלַפִּיד אֵשׁ אֲשֶׁר עָבַר בֵּין הַגְּזָרִים הָאֵלֶּה
And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and there was thick darkness, behold a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch that passed between these pieces.
This is from the portion Lech Lecha. What it is about: “Go forth”: Abraham leaves Haran; the promise of land and offspring; the covenant between the pieces; circumcision.
The same number, 376, is given by these biblical names:
עשו · שלום · שוע · כושן
Nine ways of counting
The tradition counts the same name in several ways. The main one is above: each letter is its number. The other eight are old and checkable too; each gives its own number, and many of them have a Torah word with the same number.
Final letters as 500–900 (mispar gadol) — 376. A Torah word with the same number is עשו — “Esav, a son of Isaac, including his posterity” (Genesis 25:25).
Reduced, each letter to one digit (mispar katan) — 16. A Torah word with the same number is אחז — “to seize” (Genesis 22:13).
Ordinal: alef 1, bet 2 … tav 22 (mispar siduri) — 43. A Torah word with the same number is גם — “assemblage” (Genesis 3:6).
Cumulative: a letter plus all letters before it (mispar kidmi) — 1441.
Squares of the letter values (mispar perati) — 94936.
Building: the sum grows with each letter (mispar bone’eh) — 816.
The word that comes out is זבפ. Atbash: letters mirrored, alef for tav, bet for shin, and the number of the resulting word — 89. A Torah word with the same number is טף — “a family” (Genesis 34:29).
Filling: the names of the letters are counted — alef, bet, gimel… (milui) — 502. A Torah word with the same number is בשר — “flesh” (Genesis 2:21).
The number 376 appears in the classical books 35 times across 10 works. The earliest mention is בעל הטורים על התורה (~1300).
The full message
Every letter of the name explained, the words and namesakes with references, the Hebrew date, the letter and tribe of the month, the day 861 of your life, the psalm by age, the attestations from 834 works — a PDF built the moment you pay.
The name עשו appears in the Torah as a word 118 times. The first time is Genesis 12:5. Another 23 times it stands with prefixes — “and”, “in”, “the”.
The verse of your name
There is a custom: at the end of the prayer one says a Torah verse that begins with the first letter of one's name and ends with its last. For עשו these are ע and ו. The Pentateuch has 7 such verses. The first of them is Genesis 8:22:
עד כל ימי הארץ זרע וקציר וקר וחם וקיץ וחרף ויום ולילה לא ישבתו
This is from the portion Noach. What it is about: The flood and the ark; the rainbow as a sign of the covenant; the tower of Babel; ten generations from Noah to Abraham.
Nine ways of counting
The tradition counts the same name in several ways. The main one is above: each letter is its number. The other eight are old and checkable too; each gives its own number, and many of them have a Torah word with the same number.
Final letters as 500–900 (mispar gadol) — 376. A Torah word with the same number is עשו — “Esav, a son of Isaac, including his posterity” (Genesis 25:25).
Reduced, each letter to one digit (mispar katan) — 16. A Torah word with the same number is אחז — “to seize” (Genesis 22:13).
Ordinal: alef 1, bet 2 … tav 22 (mispar siduri) — 43. A Torah word with the same number is גם — “assemblage” (Genesis 3:6).
Cumulative: a letter plus all letters before it (mispar kidmi) — 1441.
Squares of the letter values (mispar perati) — 94936.
Building: the sum grows with each letter (mispar bone’eh) — 816.
The word that comes out is זבפ. Atbash: letters mirrored, alef for tav, bet for shin, and the number of the resulting word — 89. A Torah word with the same number is טף — “a family” (Genesis 34:29).
Filling: the names of the letters are counted — alef, bet, gimel… (milui) — 502. A Torah word with the same number is בשר — “flesh” (Genesis 2:21).
Add a date of birth and the verse of meeting from that week's portion is added to the reading.
Compute with a date of birth The whole Torah page 22
Other names
Elizabeth · Emily · Emma · Emmanuel · Enoch · Ephraim · Esther · Ethan · Eve · Evgeny · Evyatar · Ezekiel · All names
How it is counted
Each Hebrew letter has a number; a word's number is their sum (alef 1 … tav 400). The page is the remainder modulo 354: the Torah divided into 354 pages of 861 letters, as the lunar year has 354 days. Everything can be checked by hand.
Биньямин Пичхадзе, «Хумаш 354» (חומש 354), Бней-Брак, 2002 / התשס״ג · A calculation, not a prediction.
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (WLC), CC BY 4.0