Mordecai — the number of the name, the Torah page and the verse
The name Mordecai in Hebrew letters is מרדכי. 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.
מרדכי
In short
Your name in Hebrew letters is מרדכי. A name of Babylonian origin. Esther’s cousin and guardian who would not bow to Haman (Esther). Adding up the numbers of its letters gives 274 — the same as the Torah word עדר, “an arrangement, i.e. muster”. That number points to Torah page 274 of 354 — in the portion Pinchas. What that portion is about: The covenant of peace with Phinehas; the second census; the daughters of Zelophehad and inheritance; Joshua the successor; the festival offerings. The verse that begins with the first letter of your name and ends with the last is Exodus 22:28. 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 מרדכי gives 274.
274
The number 274 is the Torah word עדר — «an arrangement, i.e. muster» (Genesis 29:2).
The number 274, as the remainder modulo 354, points to Torah page 274 in the book of Bamidbar (Numbers). These are its opening words:
בני ישראל אתו וכל העדה ויעש משה כאשר …
The verse this place falls on is Bamidbar (Numbers) 27:21:
וְלִפְנֵי אֶלְעָזָר הַכֹּהֵן יַעֲמֹד וְשָׁאַל לוֹ בְּמִשְׁפַּט הָאוּרִים לִפְנֵי ה׳ עַל־פִּיו יֵצְאוּ וְעַל־פִּיו יָבֹאוּ הוּא וְכָל־בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אִתּוֹ וְכָל־הָעֵדָה
And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before HaShem; at his word shall they go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation.'
This is from the portion Pinchas. What it is about: The covenant of peace with Phinehas; the second census; the daughters of Zelophehad and inheritance; Joshua the successor; the festival offerings.
The same number, 274, is given by these biblical names:
מרדכי · עדר · ערד · דרע
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) — 274. A Torah word with the same number is עדר — “an arrangement, i.e. muster” (Genesis 29:2).
Reduced, each letter to one digit (mispar katan) — 13. A Torah word with the same number is אחד — “united, i.e. one” (Genesis 1:5).
Ordinal: alef 1, bet 2 … tav 22 (mispar siduri) — 58. A Torah word with the same number is נח — “Noach, the patriarch of the flood” (Genesis 5:29).
Cumulative: a letter plus all letters before it (mispar kidmi) — 1080.
Squares of the letter values (mispar perati) — 42116.
Building: the sum grows with each letter (mispar bone’eh) — 1062.
The word that comes out is יגקלמ. Atbash: letters mirrored, alef for tav, bet for shin, and the number of the resulting word — 183.
Filling: the names of the letters are counted — alef, bet, gimel… (milui) — 1144.
The number 274 appears in the classical books 24 times across 11 works. The earliest mention is ספר חסידים (~1200).
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 מרדכי does not stand as a word in the Pentateuch — as with most names, including many Tanakh names from the later books.
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 מרדכי these are מ and י. The Pentateuch has 2 such verses. The first of them is Exodus 22:28:
מלאתך ודמעך לא תאחר בכור בניך תתן לי
This is from the portion Mishpatim. What it is about: Laws of the servant, damages, theft and pledges; “an eye for an eye” as compensation; the sabbatical year; “we will do and we will hear”.
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) — 274. A Torah word with the same number is עדר — “an arrangement, i.e. muster” (Genesis 29:2).
Reduced, each letter to one digit (mispar katan) — 13. A Torah word with the same number is אחד — “united, i.e. one” (Genesis 1:5).
Ordinal: alef 1, bet 2 … tav 22 (mispar siduri) — 58. A Torah word with the same number is נח — “Noach, the patriarch of the flood” (Genesis 5:29).
Cumulative: a letter plus all letters before it (mispar kidmi) — 1080.
Squares of the letter values (mispar perati) — 42116.
Building: the sum grows with each letter (mispar bone’eh) — 1062.
The word that comes out is יגקלמ. Atbash: letters mirrored, alef for tav, bet for shin, and the number of the resulting word — 183.
Filling: the names of the letters are counted — alef, bet, gimel… (milui) — 1144.
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 274
Other names
Michael · Michal · Miguel · Mikhail · Miriam · Mor · Moses · Nadezhda · Nahum · Naomi · Naphtali · Natalia · 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