א
LETTER 01
Alef אָלֶף
Usually silent or a light glottal beginning
FORMSא
Alef often carries a vowel but does not normally add a consonant sound of its own.
READ IT IN A WORDאָב
avfather
STANDARD1ORDINAL1REDUCED1
THE SHAPES, SOUNDS, NUMBERS, AND CROWNS
Letters
Learn every Hebrew letter and final form, hear its name, recognize its sound, follow its numerical values, and enter the traditional worlds of tagin, gematria, and temurah.
ALEF THROUGH TAV
Know the shape before you ask it to carry a word.
Select a letter. The large study panel keeps the consonant, its pointed forms, sound, example, and gematria together.
READING LESSONS
Train the eye in the right order.
Each lesson isolates one distinction, then returns it to actual Hebrew words.
Separate similar shapes
Compare one pair at a time: inner opening, corner, roof, and leg. Do not rely on the word to guess the letter.
Hear the dagesh pairs
Learn the visible dot and the sound change together, then compare the same root in different forms.
Recognize vowel letters
Vav and yod may carry consonant sounds or help carry vowels. Read them together with the nikkud.
Master the final forms
Kaf, mem, nun, pe, and tsadi change shape only at the end of a word. Their identity and root remain the same.
מנצפ״ך · WORD-FINAL SHAPES
Five letters change at the edge of the word.
In ordinary gematria the final form keeps the letter’s value. In mispar gadol, the five finals may extend the sequence from 500 through 900.
Kaf / final kaf
Standard 20 / 20Mispar gadol 20 / 500
Mem / final mem
Standard 40 / 40Mispar gadol 40 / 600
Nun / final nun
Standard 50 / 50Mispar gadol 50 / 700
Pe / final pe
Standard 80 / 80Mispar gadol 80 / 800
Tsadi / final tsadi
Standard 90 / 90Mispar gadol 90 / 900
TAGIN · תגין
The crowns belong to the written tradition of Torah.
A tag is a small crown-like stroke; tagin is the plural. Menachot describes the Holy One, blessed be He, tying crowns to the letters and records seven letters that require three ziyyunin. These marks are part of the received scribal form, not vowel points and not cantillation.
The crowned forms shown here teach recognition. Writing a kosher Sefer Torah, tefillin, or mezuzah requires the detailed halakhot and a qualified sofer’s received practice.
Read Menachot 29b in Sifrei Kodesh →Shin, ayin, tet, nun, zayin, gimel, and tsadi. Menachot 29b names these seven letters as requiring three ziyyunin.
Bet, dalet, qof, chet, yod, and he are commonly taught as letters receiving one tag. Exact shapes and exceptional occurrences follow the masorah and scribal tradition.
ש ע ט נ ז ג צ
The site’s Hebrew display face includes crowned STaM forms so the reader learns to recognize the tagin naturally.
GEMATRIOT
Every letter is also a number.
Start with the standard value. Then learn which system a source is using before comparing totals.
Open the full calculator →LetterNameStandardOrdinalReduced
The standard sequence: 1–9, 10–90, and 100–400. Final letters keep their ordinary values.
EXAMPLEמלךמ 40 + ל 30 + ך 20 = 90
The letters are counted by their position from alef 1 through tav 22.
EXAMPLEמלךמ 13 + ל 12 + ך 11 = 36
Each standard value is reduced to one digit: tens and hundreds lose their zeroes.
EXAMPLEמלךמ 4 + ל 3 + ך 2 = 9
The five final forms are counted as 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900.
EXAMPLEמלךמ 40 + ל 30 + ך 500 = 570
Spell each letter’s name in full and count every letter. The spelling convention must be stated.
EXAMPLE · USING מם · למד · כףמלךמם 80 + למד 74 + כף 100 = 254
Add one for the word or expression as a whole only when the source explicitly uses that convention.
EXAMPLE · WITH ONE KOLELמלך90 + 1 = 91
TEMURAH · תמורה
Traditional letter ciphers and transformations.
Some systems exchange fixed pairs; some cycle families; others reorder, expand, or read letters as initials. The method must always be named.
INTERACTIVE TABLE
Atbash אתב״ש
Mirror the alphabet: alef exchanges with tav, bet with shin, and so on.
א↔ת · ב↔ש · ג↔ר · ד↔ק · ה↔צRESULTשגתבמא
בבל → ששך · Jeremiah 25:26; 51:1, 41Atbash
Mirror the alphabet: alef exchanges with tav, bet with shin, and so on.
א↔ת · ב↔ש · ג↔ר · ד↔ק · ה↔צAlbam
Divide the alphabet into two groups of eleven and exchange matching positions.
א↔ל · ב↔מ · ג↔נ · ד↔ס · ה↔עAvgad
Move every letter one position forward; tav returns to alef.
א→ב · ב→ג · ג→ד · … · ת→אKuzu
The well-known application of the forward alphabet to the Divine Name and the words beside it on the outer side of a mezuzah.
יהוה אלהינו יהוה → כוזו במוכסז כוזוAtbach
Pair letters inside the units, tens, and hundreds bands of the traditional number system.
א↔ט · ב↔ח · י↔צ · כ↔פ · ק↔תAiq Bekar
Cycle letters that share the same reduced value, using the five final forms to complete nine groups of three.
א→י→ק · ב→כ→ר · ג→ל→ש · ד→מ→תAchbi
Divide the alphabet into two halves and pair inward from the outer edges of each half.
א↔כ · ב↔י · ג↔ט · ל↔ת · מ↔שAkhas Beta
Arrange the letters in seven cycles of three; tav remains by itself.
א→ח→ס · ב→ט→ע · ג→י→פ · ד→כ→צRETURN TO THE TEXT