Hebrew language
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
, with many organizations, places, people and concepts known by their abbreviations.
Typography
Acronym
An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
s in Hebrew use a special
punctuation
Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. An ...
mark called gershayim (). This mark is placed between the last two letters of the non-inflected form of the acronym (e.g. "report" in singular is , hence the plural ). Acronyms can be formed from strings of single initial letters, e.g. (for ), or multiple initial letters, e.g. (for , the Holy Land) or (for , Rishon LeZion).
If the acronym is read as is, then the spelling should be with a final form letter. If, on the other hand, the acronym is read as the complete phrase or read as the individual letters, then it should be spelled with a medial form letter. In practice, this rule is often ignored, and the acronyms spelled either way.
Abbreviations that are truncations of a single word, consisting of the first letter or first several letters of that word (as opposed to acronyms formed from initials or truncations of more than one word) are denoted using the punctuation mark
geresh
Geresh ( in Hebrew: or , or medieval ) is a sign in Hebrew writing. It has two meanings.
#An apostrophe-like sign (also known colloquially as a ''chupchik'') placed after a letter:
#* as a diacritic that modifies the pronunciation ...
() by placing the sign after the last letter of the abbreviation (e.g. "Ms.": ). However, in practice, single and double quotes are often used instead of the special punctuation marks (for which most keyboards do not have keys), with the single quote used both in acronyms and abbreviations.
In Modern Hebrew, as in many European languages, periods sometimes used to mark an abbreviation (e.g., for , "ID card", or for , "P.O.B.") this notation is mainly used in technical writing and regarded nonstandard by the Hebrew Academy.
Pronunciation
Often (and especially when they describe a noun), Hebrew acronyms are pronounced by the insertion of a vowel sound (usually ) between the letters. These vowels often appear in transliterations to other scripts. Examples include
Shas
Shas ( he, ש״ס) is a Haredi religious political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 under the leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until his death in October 2013, it primarily ...
(),
Tanakh
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" '' Shabak (). There are exceptions to the use of "a", such as Etzel ().
When one of the letters is vav or yud, these may be read as vowels ("u"/"o" and "i") instead: (/ = , judgement and account); ( = , Hasidic rebbe); ( = , questions and answers); ( = , knife spoon and fork); ( = , orange, lit. golden apple); ( = , the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
Beitar
The Betar Movement ( he, תנועת בית"ר), also spelled Beitar (), is a Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 in Riga, Latvia, by Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky. Chapters sprang up across Europe, even during World War II. After ...
, pronounced .)
Hebrew numbers (e.g. year numbers in the
Hebrew calendar
The Hebrew calendar ( he, הַלּוּחַ הָעִבְרִי, translit=HaLuah HaIvri), also called the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish religious observance, and as an official calendar of the state of Israel. ...
) are written the same way as acronyms, with gershayim before the last character, but pronounced as separate letter names. For example, (5775 AM, or 2014–2015 CE) is pronounced .
Usage
People
Acronyms have been widely used in Hebrew since at least the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
. Several important
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
s are referred to with acronyms of their names. For example, Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak is known as
Rashi
Shlomo Yitzchaki ( he, רבי שלמה יצחקי; la, Salomon Isaacides; french: Salomon de Troyes, 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105), today generally known by the acronym Rashi (see below), was a medieval French rabbi and author of a compre ...
(), Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (
Maimonides
Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Tora ...
) is commonly known as ''Rambam'' (), Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman (
Nahmanides
Moses ben Nachman ( he, מֹשֶׁה בֶּן־נָחְמָן ''Mōše ben-Nāḥmān'', "Moses son of Nachman"; 1194–1270), commonly known as Nachmanides (; el, Ναχμανίδης ''Nakhmanídēs''), and also referred to by the acronym Ra ...
) is likewise known as the ''Ramban'' (), and Baal Shem Tov is called the ''Besht'' ().
A number of such acronyms differ only in their last letter. They all begin with , as an acronym of the words (, "Our teacher the
Rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
...").
* " Maharam", with the final "m" standing for a number of names, such as Moshe and Meïr.
* "Maharal" for Judah Loew ben Bezalel
* "Maharash" for either Meir Shauls or
Shmuel Schneersohn
Shmuel Schneersohn (or Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch or The Rebbe Maharash) (29 April 1834 – 14 September 1882 OS) was an Orthodox rabbi and the fourth Rebbe (spiritual leader) of the Chabad Lubavitch Chasidic movement.
Biography
Shmuel Schn ...
.
Text
The usage of Hebrew acronyms extends to liturgical groupings: the word ''
Tanakh
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" '' Torah (Five Books of Moses), Nevi'im (Book of Prophets), and Ketuvim (Hagiographa).
Most often, though, one will find use of acronyms as acrostics, in both prayer, poetry (see Piyyut), and kabbalistic works. Because each Hebrew letter also has a numeric value, embedding an acrostic may give an additional layer of meaning to these works.
One purpose of acrostics was as a
mnemonic
A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding.
Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imag ...
or a way for an author to weave his name as a signature, or some other spiritual thought, into his work, at a time when much was memorized. Examples of prayers which contain acrostics include:
*
Ashrei
Ashrei ( he, אַשְׁרֵי) is a prayer that is recited at least three times daily in Jewish prayers, twice during Shacharit (morning service) and once during Mincha (afternoon service). The prayer is composed primarily of Psalm 145 in its e ...
– The first letter of every verse starts with a consecutive letter of the
Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet ( he, אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewi ...
, with the omission of ''nun''.
* Lekhah Dodi – The first letter of each stanza (not including the first and last) spells out "Shlomo Halevi" () the name of the author Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz.
* Shokhen Ad – Four lines are written so that letters line up vertically, with the first letter of the second word in each line spelling the name Yitzchak, which may refer either to the
Patriarch
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...
Yitzchak or to an unknown
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
, and the first letter of the last word in each line spelling out the name Rivka, one of the Matriarchs.
See also
*
Notarikon
Notarikon ( he, נוטריקון ''Noṭriqōn'') is a Talmudic and Kabbalistic method of deriving a word, by using each of its initial (Hebrew: ) or final letters () to stand for another, to form a sentence or idea out of the words. Another var ...
*
Acronym and initialism
An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
*
Bible code
The Bible code ( he, הצופן התנ"כי, ), also known as the Torah code, is a purported set of encoded words within a Hebrew text of the Torah that, according to proponents, has predicted significant historical events. The statistical lik ...
Acronyms
An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...