Letters Verses Parshas Chapters Sedros

BERESHIS78,8641,534915012SHEMOS63,5291,2091644011VAYIKRA44,790859982710BEMIDBAR63,5301,2881583610DEVARIM54,8929921593411TOTAL304,8055,88267017754

Total Number of Letters - 304,805

There are other traditions of the number of letters (including 600,000 like the number of Jews that left Egypt). For a discussion of various sources on this matter, see THE HANDBOOK OF JEWISH THOUGHT by Rabbi Ayreh Kaplan Chapter 7, note 108, plus the following:

• Mikra Vehamesora: The numerical difference results from historical changes of usage of Ksav Ashuris, Ksav Ivri and Aramaic, or a combination of the written letters combined with the blank spaces.
• Zohar Chadash: States there are 600,000 letters in the Sefer torah (corresponding to the 600,000 Jewish souls; the name Yisrael is an acronym for the words “Yesh Shishim Ribo Osiyos laTorah” “there is 60 ten-thousand of letters in the Torah). The method of counting is according to the number of letters that comprise its name when spelled out (example: letter Alef is really three letters Alef-Lamed-Feh).
• Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi: To count the letters one must identify every vowel that lacks a supplementary letter and add that letter to the word (for example, an Alef or Heh after every Patach or Kamatz).
• Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky: The letters of the Torah have different widths. Yud is the smallest letter width. Thus, if you count the letters according the standard width of a Yud, another count would result. (One Yud-width letters: Vav, Zayin, Yud and final Nun; One-and-a-half Yud-width letters: Gimel and Nun; Fifteen letters are two Yud-width letters; Five letters are two-plus-a-bit Yud-width letters; and one letter is three-plus-a-bit Yud-width letter.