The Hebrew letter Mem
Mem is the thirteenth of the 22 letters of the alef beis. It is written מ in print, its ksiva form is the one letter in the book whose stroke order is not marked, and its gematria value is 40. It sounds like m. My Ksiva Workbook teaches it on page 37.
Mem is the thirteenth letter, value 40. Print mem is a closed shape with a small opening at the foot. Ksiva mem is closer to a printed capital N and shares nothing with it at all. If a school wants one example of why a child has to be taught both scripts rather than one, this is the letter to hold up.
- Position 13 of 22
- Gematria 40
- Sound m
- Ksiva strokes Not marked in the book
- Final form ם — Mem sofis
- Taught on page 37 of 82
How is Mem 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 Mem 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?
Final mem and samech are the two closed letters of the alef beis and the classic mix-up. Samech is round the whole way around; final mem has square corners.
The final form
At the end of a word, Mem is written ם — Mem sofis. The workbook gives it its own page, on page 39.
How is it spelled in English?
This site uses the Ashkenazi transliteration the workbook prints, Mem.
Where it is taught
Mem is taught on page 37 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.