The Hebrew letter Raish
Raish is the twentieth of the 22 letters of the alef beis. It is written ר in print, in ksiva it is written as a single unbroken stroke, and its gematria value is 200. It sounds like r. My Ksiva Workbook teaches it on page 66.
Raish is value 200 and, in print, the plainest curve in the alef beis: a roof turning smoothly into an upright with nothing projecting anywhere. The plainness is the point. Most of the letters it gets confused with are a raish plus one thing.
- Position 20 of 22
- Gematria 200
- Sound r
- Ksiva strokes One
- Taught on page 66 of 82
How is Raish 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 Raish 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?
Raish, dalet and koof are one family. Dalet is a raish with a heel at the top right; koof is a raish with a leg below the line; raish has neither.
How is it spelled in English?
This site uses the Ashkenazi transliteration the workbook prints, Raish. You will also see it written resh, reish. They are all the same letter.
Where it is taught
Raish is taught on page 66 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.