Abbreviation An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening (linguistics), shortening, contraction (grammar), contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened for ...

s () are a common part of the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language unti ...

, with many organizations, places, people and concepts known by their abbreviations.

Typography

Acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

s in Hebrew use a special

punctuation Punctuation marks are marks indicating how a piece of writing, written text should be read (silently or aloud) and, consequently, understood. The oldest known examples of punctuation marks were found in the Mesha Stele from the 9th century BC, c ...

mark called

gershayim Gershayim (Hebrew: , without niqqud ), also occasionally grashayim. (), can refer to either of two distinct typographical marks in the Hebrew language. The name literally means "double geresh". Punctuation mark Gershayim most commonly refers t ...

(). 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 Rishon LeZion ( , "First to Zion") is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area. Founded in 1882 by Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who were ...

). If the acronym is read as is, then the spelling should be with a

final form In certain languages, the final form or terminal form is a special character used to represent a letter only when it occurs at the end of a word. Some languages that use final form characters are: Arabic, Hebrew, Manchu and one letter in Greek () ...

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.

s 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 of some ...

() 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, periods are 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 () is a Haredi Judaism, Haredi religious List of political parties in Israel, political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardic Jews, Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until ...

(),

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 the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

);

Bilu Bilu may refer to: People * Bilú (footballer, 1900-1965), Virgílio Pinto de Oliveira, Brazilian football manager and former centre-back * Asher Bilu (born 1936), Australian artist * Bilú (footballer, born 1974), Luciano Lopes de Souza, Brazi ...

; Lehi. (An exception is ,

Beitar The Betar Movement (), also spelled Beitar (), is a Revisionist Zionism, Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 in Riga, Latvia, by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky. It was one of several right-wing youth movements tha ...

, pronounced .) Hebrew numbers (e.g. year numbers in the

Hebrew calendar The Hebrew calendar (), also called the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish religious observance and as an official calendar of Israel. It determines the dates of Jewish holidays and other rituals, such as '' yahrze ...

) 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 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. 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 t ...

s are referred to with acronyms of their names. For example, Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak is known as

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki (; ; ; 13 July 1105) was a French rabbi who authored comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud and Hebrew Bible. He is commonly known by the List of rabbis known by acronyms, Rabbinic acronym Rashi (). Born in Troyes, Rashi stud ...

(), Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

) is commonly known as ''Rambam'' (), ote: ''Rambam'' is pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable, ''Ram'' Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman (

Nahmanides Moses ben Nachman ( ''Mōše ben-Nāḥmān'', "Moses son of Nachman"; 1194–1270), commonly known as Nachmanides (; ''Nakhmanídēs''), and also referred to by the acronym Ramban (; ) and by the contemporary nickname Bonastruc ça Porta (; l ...

) is likewise known as the ''Ramban'' (), ote: ''Ramban'' is pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable, ''ban'' 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 t ...

..."). * " 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 S ...

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

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...

s, in both prayer, poetry (see

Piyyut A piyyuṭ (plural piyyuṭim, ; from ) is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. Most piyyuṭim are in Mishnaic Hebrew or Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, and most follow some p ...

), and

kabbalistic Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal (). Jewi ...

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 ( ), memory trick or memory device is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval in the human memory, often by associating the information with something that is easier to remember. It makes use of e ...

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 () 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 entirety, with Psalm ...

– The first letter of every verse starts with a consecutive letter of the

Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet (, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is a unicase, unicameral abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish languages, most notably ...

, with the omission of ''nun''. *

Lekhah Dodi Lekha Dodi () is a Hebrew-language Jewish liturgical song recited Friday at dusk, usually at sundown, in synagogue to welcome the Sabbath prior to the evening services. It is part of Kabbalat Shabbat. The refrain of ''Lekha Dodi'' means "Let ...

– The first letter of each stanza (not including the first and last) spells out "Shlomo Halevi" () the name of the author

Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz Solomon ha-Levi Alkabetz (; – 1584) was a rabbi, kabbalist and poet. He is perhaps best known for his composition of the song '' Lekha Dodi''. Biography Solomon Alkabetz was likely born around 1505 into a Sephardic family in the Ottoman ...

. * 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 Roman Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and ...

Yitzchak or to an unknown

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

, and the first letter of the last word in each line spelling out the name

Rivka Rebecca or Rebekah (Hebrew language, Hebrew: רִבְקָה ''Rīvqa'') is a feminine given name of Hebrew language, Hebrew origin. It is the name of the Hebrew Bible, biblical figure Rebecca, wife of Isaac and mother of Jacob and Esau. The nam ...

, one of the Matriarchs.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hebrew Acronyms Abbreviations + Hebrew Types of words

Acronyms An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...