The Hebrew letter Tsadik
Tsadik is the eighteenth of the 22 letters of the alef beis. It is written צ in print, in ksiva it is written as a single unbroken stroke, and its gematria value is 90. It sounds like ts, as in cats. My Ksiva Workbook teaches it on page 57.
Tsadik is value 90, the last of the tens, and it makes a sound English needs two letters for — ts, as in cats. Its ksiva form runs from above the writing line to below it, one of the tallest single strokes in the book. At the end of a word it becomes tsadik sofis and drops further still.
- Position 18 of 22
- Gematria 90
- Sound ts
- Ksiva strokes One
- Final form ץ — Tsadik sofis
- Taught on page 57 of 82
How is Tsadik 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 Tsadik 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?
Tsadik and ayin share a shape: a V meeting a base. Tsadik’s arms close to a point and its base runs out to the left; ayin’s stay open above a straight stem.
The final form
At the end of a word, Tsadik is written ץ — Tsadik sofis. The workbook gives it its own page, on page 60.
How is it spelled in English?
This site uses the Ashkenazi transliteration the workbook prints, Tsadik. You will also see it written tzadi, tsadi, tzadik. They are all the same letter.
Where it is taught
Tsadik is taught on page 57 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.