5782: Prophetic Meaning in Rosh Hashanah

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It’s that time of year! Your newsfeed may be filled with various prophecies of what the Jewish New Year 5782 holds, but have you wondered how people are deciphering these prophetic symbols and coming up with their meanings? As with any prophetic word, it is important that we test the words against scripture and what we know of God’s nature. We unpacked all this last year for 5781, but here’s a refresher for this year plus our prophetic insights for Rosh Hashanah and 5782.

Numbers, New Years, and Prophetic Words

What is Gematria?

Most of the words being given about 5782 prophetic meaning (and any other year) rely on a form of numerology using gematria. The Hebrew language does not have separate characters for numbers, so the letters themselves have assigned numeric values. Del gets into these number values in the third book in the Healing in the Hebrew Months series, looking at how these numbers correlate to musical frequencies. Gematria itself is not inherently good or bad, it’s just a way of communicating numeric values in the Hebrew language. Numerology using gematria (or any other numerology) can be good or bad, depending on how it’s being used.

Very simple forms of numerology are common in Christianity. Three representing the trinity, seven representing God’s completion or perfection in the days of creation, and ten representing law and authority as with the Ten Commandments. Recognizing symbolism in numbers throughout scripture is a great way to go deeper in your Bible study and have a new language for Holy Spirit to communicate through.

Other forms of numerology use the gematria number value of the letters to spell out words, or use the meanings of the letters themselves to derive significance. Besides having a numeric value, each of the Hebrew letters has pictographic meaning. Aleph in its most ancient form depicts an ox’s head and represents strength, leadership, and power. Lamed depicts a shepherd’s staff and represents guidance, teaching, control, and direction. 

5782 Gematria and New Year Prophecies

With 5782 the gematria can be spelled out two ways:

This method uses the gematria for 5,000, 700, 80, 2

היןפב

These letters don’t really spell anything since they have a final form Nun in the middle, and even with a space don’t form any words. Even if you changed the final form Nun to a regular Nun it doesn’t spell any words. And regular Nun has a different numeric value.

But the letters themselves also have meaning:

ה Heh – Look, reveal, breath, window, eternity

 י Yod – Work, throw, hand

ן Final Nun – Fish, seed, to sprout, offspring, heir, continue

פ Pey – Blow, scatter, edge, mouth

 ב Bet – Home, family, the body, within or inside

So from those letters’ meanings you could come up with all sorts of “prophetic” meaning – 5782 breathing revelation into our work and children, blowing into our homes. Or it’s an eternity of throwing our seed but seeing it scattered within. The combinations could go on and on, but what is God highlighting as you ask him about these numbers, letters, and meanings?

This method uses the gematria for 5, 7, 8, 2

הזחב

Using this method it doesn’t spell out a word, but there are still the meanings of the individual letters:

ה Heh – Look, reveal, breath, window, eternity

ז Zayin – Foot, cut, nourish, weapon, sword, completeness, perfection

ח Chet – Outside, divide, half, enclosure, fence, new beginning, new creation

ב Bet – Home, family, the body, within or inside

From these letters you could say 5782 will be a season of breathing nourishment and new beginnings into our bodies, a season to look for completeness in new creation in our homes, or a window of perfection outside and in.

Another way to interpret numerology is to add the numbers until you have a single number.

5+7+8+2 = 22

2+2 = 4

So the meanings associated with the number 4 would apply to the year 5782.

You could also then take that 4 and look at it through gematria. Dalet ד represents the number four and symbolizes a door, pathway, a journey, movement, or a way of life. Four in the Bible is associated with creation of the material world, the seasons, and Sabbath rest (4th commandment). The association with rest also connects with 5782 being a Shemitah year. Every seven years Israel was commanded to rest and let their fields rest as well.

You might also consider meanings from Strong’s concordance numbers. This method isn’t based on gematria, but is another form of basic numerology similar to looking for biblical references to a number. Like looking for verses 57:82 or mentions of that specific number in scripture. Strong’s is not scripture itself, but we can still explore this resource with Holy Spirit to see if there are meanings he wants to highlight. Each Strong’s number also lists the Bible verses that contain the word.

For Strong’s number 5782 the corresponding word is “ur” and it means arise, arouse, awaken, awake, exulted, incite, excited, triumphant, lifted, raise, rouse, rouse yourself, stir, swung. Looking at the myriad verses where ur was used, much of the context talks about worship, and being hidden. 

Currently there’s a faction of people talking about being “woke” and another discussing a “great awakening”. While those things may come into relevancy here, God’s idea of us being woke or awakened is probably a completely different level than we would immediately consider. 

There’s a particular repetitive case of “ur” in Psalm 57. Verse 8 says (get it? 5782?) 

“Awake, my soul!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.”

Psalm 57 discusses refuge in God, and praise and worship in the midst of it. 

Don’t Forget Discernment

All of these meanings and more could be taken from 5782 and their gematria. The problem is that your own biases and perspectives can shape your interpretation strongly, or your sources could be wrong. And none of those meanings are actually prophetic, unless you’re exploring all of this with Holy Spirit as your guide and leaning into whatever he wants to communicate through it.

Interpreting symbolism doesn’t make something prophetic, hearing God’s voice is what makes it prophetic. Without God’s voice you’re simply practicing divination – operating out of your own earthly wisdom. But hear me clearly. I’m not saying that it is wrong to engage gematria as a layer of language for Holy Spirit to speak to us through. Scripture is full of symbolism and examples of God using symbols to speak to his people.

With the Hebrew calendar God set in motion layers upon layers of seasonal symbols and rhythms. What is wrong, is for us to take all those symbols, rhythms, language and prophesy from them without God actually speaking through them. It’s one thing to interpret symbols about the past, to examine data and structures and understand their meaning. That is what Del has done with the gematria values and musical frequency – she is exploring data that is already there. It’s an entirely different approach to take these symbolic meanings and then try to declare what they mean about the future. 

Prophetic Words for 5782

So, what can we expect in 5782? It is fine to explore gematria and symbolic meanings in regards to the coming year, but it should all start from a place of listening to what God is saying. All that data above – is he saying anything about it or is it just data? His voice is what makes something prophetic, not the use of Hebrew symbolism and complicated interpretation (that would be gnosticism not prophecy). 

Now go back to what you wrote down earlier – what was God telling you about 5782? Does any of that 5782 gematria make sense with what you heard from him? He may give you confirmations through gematria or other symbols, he may not. But the goal in any prophetic word should be to connect with the heart of God, not to find layered secret meanings.

Please take time to test any word you hear. Maybe it’s a good word, it just doesn’t apply to you, maybe it’s mixed with the writer’s own perspectives, maybe part of it is good but part of it is a bit off. No matter who the word comes from – test it. Does it agree with scripture and what we know of the nature of God? Pray about it. What is Holy Spirit saying to you about it? Does it resonate with your spirit or feel off? Do others using discernment to test the word agree with it as well?

Now all that said, here are what Seneca and I have heard when we’ve gone through the exercise of listening to what God has to say about 5782. Take or leave any of it and talk to God about it yourself. We aren’t declaring any “thus saith the Lord” we’re just sharing where our own process of listening has taken us.

What We’ve Heard

Leah:

Many things will be happening in the world and around us, but that is not what God is showing me to focus on. This year he’s highlighting the rich inner world, the internal joy, freedom, awakening that can thrive no matter the circumstances around us. This will be a year of healing breakthroughs in our inner man, but only if we pursue them. We must set aside all the distractions, the constant noise and message of the world around us, and sit before the Lord in silence, allow him into those uncomfortable places, the rooms we don’t open any more, the places we have cut off from ourselves yet seep toxic fumes into the rest of our being. It will be a swift renewal, once he’s allowed in the process will be quick, like flipping a light switch off to on. But it will be up to us to maintain this inner world with him, this inner joy and freedom despite circumstances. We can step into a place where it’s not “second nature” to hear God clearly for ourselves and have his solutions and perspective, but first nature. We also must be careful not to naval gaze and stay stuck in our heads. These rich inner worlds he wants us to live from are to be a wellspring of life shifting the atmospheres around us and setting others free into their own rich inner worlds with Jesus. 

Seneca:

I’m hearing “incubation” but I suspect that is only a portion of the year. Like Leah’s rich inner world statement, I think we need a period of downtime with God in conditions optimized by Him for our growth and development, but that open door of the Bet pictograph shows me that we are still engaging with the world. My attention has been strongly drawn to the Shemitah and part of it is being open to outsiders. Being open means healing has to happen. Forgiveness has to happen, release has to happen. The other thing I’m hearing is “Everybody needs to come home.” Again, that open door of the Bet, whether it’s a message to the prodigals, or simply those who need more closeness with God, that open door has a special emphasis this year.

One thing is for certain as we enter this new Hebrew year – the rhythms God set in place in his calendar are still in motion.

Leah Lesesne, MA

Author

If you’ve enjoyed this post from Leah, check out her books the Healing in the Hebrew Months: A Biblical Understanding of Each Season’s Emotional Healing and Miracles and Dedication: Christian Devotions for the Festival of Lights.