I've been going through some records (e.g. from the old Jewish cemetery in Worms, Germany) from the 1200's and 1300's, and I've noticed that the gematria for 16 is yud-vav, as opposed to tes-zayin. When and why was this switch incorporated and became mainstream? (I'm aware of the gematria for 15 being tes-vav universally, and I'm aware that it is because yud-hey is the Shem Hashem.)
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related: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/10682/how-could-the-numerals-%d7%99%d7%94-and-%d7%99%d7%95-be-used-irreverently – Joel K Feb 06 '22 at 12:13
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I think "mainstream" is ill-defined when speaking about Halacha or a tradition. Different rabbis and different communities in different places adopted it differently, over about a millennia. IIRC even some Rishonim use יה or יו in their interpretations. BTW, check the festival of טו בשבט. – Al Berko Feb 06 '22 at 21:07
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1I think the Rashba uses יו. – pcoz Feb 08 '22 at 01:04
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I believe within Kabbalistic literature the י-ו combination is used in description of Hashem's Name (it being two of the letters of the Four Letter Name, same as י-ה is). – Yehuda Feb 08 '22 at 17:42