Resources / Language and number
Hebrew Alphabet Table
The alphabet in one table, with a transliterator. Any Hebrew is spelled letter by letter in the Golden Dawn's key; pointed Hebrew is also read aloud by its vowels.
Hebrew text
Letter key ShLVMLetter by letter
Letter key: ShLVM
The Golden Dawn's letter key, one capital for each Hebrew letter
שלום
Sounded
This text has no vowel points, so it is given letter by letter only. Unpointed Hebrew leaves its vowels to the reader, and the instrument does not guess them. Try one of the pointed words below.
- שShShin
- לLLamed
- וVVav
- םMMem
For a sounded reading
Pointed words
The alphabet
The twenty-two letters
Letters in your text are marked with how often they occur. Each name opens the letter in the Hebrew Letter Explorer.
| Place | Letter | Name | Sound | Key | Value | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | א | Alephkey A · silent; carries a vowel · Mother | silent; carries a vowel | A | 1 | Mother |
| 2 | ב | Bethkey B · b, or v without dagesh · Double | b, or v without dagesh | B | 2 | Double |
| 3 | ג | Gimelkey G · g · Double | g | G | 3 | Double |
| 4 | ד | Dalethkey D · d · Double | d | D | 4 | Double |
| 5 | ה | Hehkey H · h · Simple | h | H | 5 | Simple |
| 6 | וin your text ×1 | Vavkey V · v; or o, u as a vowel letter · Simple | v; or o, u as a vowel letter | V | 6 | Simple |
| 7 | ז | Zayinkey Z · z · Simple | z | Z | 7 | Simple |
| 8 | ח | Chethkey Ch · ch, as in Bach · Simple | ch, as in Bach | Ch | 8 | Simple |
| 9 | ט | Tethkey T · t · Simple | t | T | 9 | Simple |
| 10 | י | Yodkey I · y; or i as a vowel letter · Simple | y; or i as a vowel letter | I | 10 | Simple |
| 11 | כך | Kaphkey K · k, or kh without dagesh · Double | k, or kh without dagesh | K | 20final 500 | Double |
| 12 | לin your text ×1 | Lamedkey L · l · Simple | l | L | 30 | Simple |
| 13 | מםin your text ×1 | Memkey M · m · Mother | m | M | 40final 600 | Mother |
| 14 | נן | Nunkey N · n · Simple | n | N | 50final 700 | Simple |
| 15 | ס | Samekhkey S · s · Simple | s | S | 60 | Simple |
| 16 | ע | Ayinkey O · silent or a throat stop; carries a vowel · Simple | silent or a throat stop; carries a vowel | O | 70 | Simple |
| 17 | פף | Pehkey P · p, or f without dagesh · Double | p, or f without dagesh | P | 80final 800 | Double |
| 18 | צץ | Tzaddikey Tz · ts · Simple | ts | Tz | 90final 900 | Simple |
| 19 | ק | Qophkey Q · k · Simple | k | Q | 100 | Simple |
| 20 | ר | Reshkey R · r · Double | r | R | 200 | Double |
| 21 | שin your text ×1 | Shinkey Sh · sh, or s with the sin dot · Mother | sh, or s with the sin dot | Sh | 300 | Mother |
| 22 | ת | Tavkey Th · t; soft Tav is s in Ashkenazi reading · Double | t; soft Tav is s in Ashkenazi reading | Th | 400 | Double |
Final values are the large count (mispar gadol); standard gematria gives final forms their ordinary value. Class is the letter's place among the Sefer Yetzirah's mothers, doubles and simples.
The tradition
Transliteration writes Hebrew in Latin letters, and there is no single standard. Scholarly systems mark every consonant and vowel with diacritics. Popular spellings follow pronunciation. The Hermetic tradition wrote names letter by letter in capitals, IHVH and ALHIM, so the Hebrew could be recovered and counted.
Hebrew is written mainly in consonants. Vowels appear as points in Bibles, prayer books, poetry and books for learners, and are left out in most other writing, so an unpointed word can often be read more than one way.
Reading the instrument
- The table gives each letter's place, form and final form, name, sound, Golden Dawn capital and value, and its class in the Sefer Yetzirah. Letters that occur in your text are marked, with how often.
- The letter key spells any text in the Golden Dawn's capitals, one for one. The sounded reading appears only for pointed text and follows its points: the shin or sin dot, the dagesh, holam or shuruk on a Vav.
- Each name in the table opens that letter in the Hebrew Letter Explorer.
Where it descends from
- The Golden Dawn
- Israel Regardie's publication of the Order's papers, where divine and angelic names are written letter by letter in Latin capitals.
- The SBL Handbook of Style
- The Society of Biblical Literature's academic and general-purpose schemes for transliterating Hebrew, the standard reference for scholarly writing.
What this does not claim
The letter key is a convention for recovering and counting letters, not a pronunciation. The sounded reading follows common rules and simplifies: it marks no stress, reads a sheva by its place in the word, and takes a qamats before a silent sheva as a short o (chokhmah) unless a meteg marks it long, which a few words written without the meteg will defeat. The Name, IHVH, is not sounded by rule: it is given as it is read aloud, Adonai, or Elohim where its points say so. Unpointed Hebrew stays unpointed, because the instrument does not guess vowels.