Raphael — the number of the name, the Torah page and the verse
The name Raphael in Hebrew letters is רפאל. 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.
רפאל
In short
Your name in Hebrew letters is רפאל. “God has healed.” In the Tanakh the name of a Levite (1 Chronicles 26:7); as an angel’s name it is known from Tobit and the Talmud. Adding up the numbers of its letters gives 311 — the same as the Torah word איש, “a man as an individual or a male person”. That number points to Torah page 311 of 354 — in the portion Eikev. What that portion is about: “Because you will heed”: the land of seven fruits; the blessing after meals; manna as a test; the second paragraph of the Shema. The verse that begins with the first letter of your name and ends with the last is Exodus 39:9. 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 רפאל gives 311.
311
The number 311 is the Torah word איש — «a man as an individual or a male person» (Genesis 2:23).
The number 311, as the remainder modulo 354, points to Torah page 311 in the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy). These are its opening words:
ממרים הייתם עם יהוה מיום דעתי אתכם ואתנפל …
The verse this place falls on is Devarim (Deuteronomy) 9:23:
וּבִשְׁלֹחַ ה׳ אֶתְכֶם מִקָּדֵשׁ בַּרְנֵעַ לֵאמֹר עֲלוּ וּרְשׁוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי לָכֶם וַתַּמְרוּ אֶת־פִּי ה׳ אֱלֹהֵיכֶם וְלֹא הֶאֱמַנְתֶּם לוֹ וְלֹא שְׁמַעְתֶּם בְּקֹלוֹ
And when HaShem sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying: 'Go up and possess the land which I have given you'; then ye rebelled against the commandment of HaShem your G-d, and ye believed Him not, nor hearkened to His voice.
This is from the portion Eikev. What it is about: “Because you will heed”: the land of seven fruits; the blessing after meals; manna as a test; the second paragraph of the Shema.
The same number, 311, is given by these biblical names:
צרויה · איש · שגוב · רעמא
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) — 311. A Torah word with the same number is איש — “a man as an individual or a male person” (Genesis 2:23).
Reduced, each letter to one digit (mispar katan) — 14. A Torah word with the same number is יד — “a hand” (Genesis 3:22).
Ordinal: alef 1, bet 2 … tav 22 (mispar siduri) — 50. A Torah word with the same number is כל — “the whole” (Genesis 1:21).
Cumulative: a letter plus all letters before it (mispar kidmi) — 1306.
Squares of the letter values (mispar perati) — 47301.
Building: the sum grows with each letter (mispar bone’eh) — 1072.
The word that comes out is גותכ. Atbash: letters mirrored, alef for tav, bet for shin, and the number of the resulting word — 429. A Torah word with the same number is משפט — “a verdict” (Genesis 18:19).
Filling: the names of the letters are counted — alef, bet, gimel… (milui) — 776.
The number 311 appears in the classical books 16 times across 11 works. The earliest mention is ספר קרניים (~1400).
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 רפאל 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 רפאל these are ר and ל. The Pentateuch has 3 such verses. The first of them is Exodus 39:9:
רבוע היה כפול עשו את החשן זרת ארכו וזרת רחבו כפול
This is from the portion Pekudei. What it is about: The accounting of the materials; the priestly garments are finished; the Tabernacle is raised on the first of Nisan; the cloud covers it.
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) — 311. A Torah word with the same number is איש — “a man as an individual or a male person” (Genesis 2:23).
Reduced, each letter to one digit (mispar katan) — 14. A Torah word with the same number is יד — “a hand” (Genesis 3:22).
Ordinal: alef 1, bet 2 … tav 22 (mispar siduri) — 50. A Torah word with the same number is כל — “the whole” (Genesis 1:21).
Cumulative: a letter plus all letters before it (mispar kidmi) — 1306.
Squares of the letter values (mispar perati) — 47301.
Building: the sum grows with each letter (mispar bone’eh) — 1072.
The word that comes out is גותכ. Atbash: letters mirrored, alef for tav, bet for shin, and the number of the resulting word — 429. A Torah word with the same number is משפט — “a verdict” (Genesis 18:19).
Filling: the names of the letters are counted — alef, bet, gimel… (milui) — 776.
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 311
Other names
Penina · Pilar · Pinchas · Polina · Rachel · Ran · Rebecca · Reuben · Ricardo · Rodrigo · Roi · Roman · 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