Aleph (letter)
- This is about the Hebrew letter. For mathematical and other uses of Aleph see Aleph.
| Phoenician | Hebrew | |
|---|---|---|
| Missing image Phoenician_aleph.png Aleph | א | א |
Aleph or Alef is the first letter of the Phoenician and Hebrew alphabets. The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Alpha, the Latin A and the Cyrillic equivalent. Alpha, like all Phoenician letters, represented a consonant, but the Latin, Greek and Cyrillic equivalents have all come to represent vowel sounds.
In the Sefer Yetzirah, The letter Aleph is King over Breath, Formed Air in the universe, Temperate in the Year, and the Chest in the soul and has the numerical value of 1.
Aleph is also the first letter of the Hebrew word emet, which means truth. In Jewish mythology is was the letter aleph that was carved into the head of the golem which ultimately gave it life.
Because aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, it is frequently used for naming other entities. For example the lubavitch rebbe founded the Aleph Institute and there is an alliance for Jewish Renewal also called aleph