Mazalogy · Hebrew letter reference in English

Aleph: Hebrew letter forms and values

Identify Aleph א, compare standard, ordinal and reduced-letter values, and check אור in its cited Hebrew source.

Ordinary Aleph

Published 13 October 2026 · Our editorial approach

Keep the Hebrew letter separate from the mathematical symbol

Aleph identity: alphabet position 1
Form	Character	Unicode code point	Unicode 17.0 name
Ordinary Aleph	א	`U+05D0`	HEBREW LETTER ALEF

Aleph / Alef. Reading cue: No fixed English vowel equivalent.

א is the first alphabet letter. Unicode calls it ALEF; Aleph is another familiar English spelling. The mathematical alef symbol ℵ is a different character, U+2135. Copying it does not preserve the source’s Hebrew character, U+05D0. The calculator’s compatibility normalization maps ℵ back to א; save the actual source character in a reading note.

Do not assign Aleph the sound of the English letter A. The pointed source word below begins with Aleph and is read or. Read its vowel information with the word rather than expecting the English spelling of the letter’s name to tell you a vowel.

One letter, three explicit values

Aleph in Mazalogy’s three methods
Standard	Ordinal	Reduced letters
1	1	1

Aleph is an especially clear baseline: its standard, ordinal and reduced-letter values are all 1. In אור, the differing word totals come from Resh, not from Aleph or Vav. A matching single-letter value does not make the three whole-word methods identical.

אור: light

Pointed source form: אוֹר · reading cue: or. Genesis 1:3 · Mechon Mamre.

The passage names light. Its short word contains Aleph, Vav and Resh in that reading order. The holam point helps the reading; the actual Vav remains a counted letter.

Each actual letter in reading order; pronunciation marks contribute no values
Reading position	Written letter	Base letter	Standard	Ordinal	Reduced letters
1	א	א	1	1	1
2	ו	ו	6	6	6
3	ר	ר	200	20	2
Word total			207	27	9

Standard: 1 + 6 + 200 = 207 · Ordinal: 1 + 6 + 20 = 27 · Reduced letters: 1 + 6 + 2 = 9

Its group in the Gra version of Sefer Yetzirah

Aleph א is among the three mothers listed in Gra 3:1: אמש. Keep this textual classification distinct from the alphabet position and the arithmetic columns above.

Study the source in a guided introduction · Read about textual versions

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Sources, dates and conventions

Prepared by Mazalogy with AI assistance. Characters, source-word spellings and calculation rules were checked against the sources and the calculator on 13 October 2026. Reading cues introduce the cited chart; pronunciation varies by community. Source attribution does not imply outside review or endorsement.

English reference edition. Numerical examples retain final forms and actual vowel letters while ignoring pronunciation marks. Final forms keep base-letter values in all three methods. Reduced letters are added without reducing the completed word total again.