The Hebrew letter Gimmel
Gimmel is the third of the 22 letters of the alef beis. It is written ג in print, in ksiva it is written as a single unbroken stroke, and its gematria value is 3. It sounds like g, as in give. My Ksiva Workbook teaches it on page 7.
Gimmel is third, value 3, and the first letter in the book whose shape stands on a leg. In ksiva it loses the leg entirely and becomes a single rounded stroke with a stem — an early, blunt demonstration that the two scripts are not two drawings of the same thing.
- Position 3 of 22
- Gematria 3
- Sound g
- Ksiva strokes One
- Taught on page 7 of 82
How is Gimmel written?
The workbook teaches every letter the same four ways, so a child always knows what is being asked of them.
See both forms. The workbook opens the letter with Gimmel in print and in ksiva side by side, and marks the ksiva form with a numbered arrow showing where the stroke begins.
Trace it. A row of dotted outlines gives the whole shape. The child writes over the top of it, so the hand learns the movement before it has to remember the shape.
Finish it. Each box after that gives a little less of the letter than the one before, until the last box is empty and the child writes it unaided.
Use it in a word. The letter then appears in whole words to copy in script, built only from letters already taught, so the child is never asked to write a letter they have not met.
What is it confused with?
Gimmel and noon are both narrow and both stand on a foot. Gimmel’s kicks out to the left at the bottom; noon’s turns square underneath the upright.
How is it spelled in English?
This site uses the Ashkenazi transliteration the workbook prints, Gimmel. You will also see it written gimel. They are all the same letter.
Where it is taught
Gimmel is taught on page 7 of My Ksiva Workbook, an 82-page Hebrew handwriting workbook covering all 22 letters in both scripts. Every letterform on this page is taken from the book itself.