The Hebrew letter Zayen
Zayen is the seventh of the 22 letters of the alef beis. It is written ז in print, in ksiva it is written as a single unbroken stroke, and its gematria value is 7. It sounds like z. My Ksiva Workbook teaches it on page 18.
Zayen is the seventh letter, value 7. In print it is a head with a stroke hanging from the centre of it. In ksiva it turns into a rounded shape with a tail and keeps nothing of the print form — the book’s own alef beis chart sets the two beside each other so a child can see there is nothing to carry across.
- Position 7 of 22
- Gematria 7
- Sound z
- Ksiva strokes One
- Taught on page 18 of 82
How is Zayen 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 Zayen 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?
Zayen and vov are the pair to watch. Both are a stroke hanging from a head. Zayen’s head is wider and the stroke comes down from its centre; vov’s comes down from the end.
How is it spelled in English?
This site uses the Ashkenazi transliteration the workbook prints, Zayen. You will also see it written zayin, zain. They are all the same letter.
Where it is taught
Zayen is taught on page 18 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.