Hebrew Numbers The Hebrew numbering system is explained. Unicode character values are provided for letters used to represent numbers. To display the Hebrew characters you need an appropriate font. Ezra SIL font shows almost all of the Hebrew characters. Other Hebrew fonts, supporting not only Hebrew characters but punctuation, vowel and cantillation marks, are discussed on Mechon Mamre's font page Modern versus Traditional Number Forms in Hebrew Writing Most Hebrew text today uses European digits (0, 1, 2, 3...9) to represent numbers. However, religious or biblical text, and calendars in Hebrew will use the traditional form which uses Hebrew letters as numeric values. Hebrew Letters And Their Number Values Each letter in the Hebrew alphabet (or aleph-bet) has a numerical value. The first 10 letters (consonants actually) have the values 1-10. The next 9 letters are valued 20, 30, ... 100. The remainder are valued 200, 300, and 400. The number values for each character are shown in the table below. There is no representation for zero (0). This is the system used by Hillel II in the fourth century A.D., when he prescribed the rules for the Hebrew calendar system. Later, the final forms of the letters kaf, mem, nun, pe, and tzadi were used for the missing values 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900. | |
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