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| | Encyclopedia :: encyclopedia : Hebrew alphabet (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20) |
 | | The Hebrew alphabet was in origin an abjad, in other words it had letters for consonants only, but means were later devised to indicate vowels, first by using consonant letters as matres lectionis, later by separate vowel points or nikud. |
 | | The number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, their order, their names, and their phonetic values are virtually identical to those of the Aramaic alphabet, as both Hebrews and Arameans borrowed the Phoenician alphabet for their uses during the end of the 2nd millennium BC. |
 | | This use of letters as numbers is used in Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) in a practice known as gematria. |
| www.hallencyclopedia.com /Hebrew_alphabet (1465 words) |
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