ג, the Hebrew cursive letter gimel

History

ג is the 3rd letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 3. In traditional and modern Hebrew and Yiddish, it represents the voiced velar plosive /ɡ/.

In cursive script, gimel is written with a downward vertical stroke that loops or curves gently at the bottom into a short foot, unlike the printed square form with its distinct descending left leg.

In Ashkenazi community ledgers and personal correspondence, gimel is frequent in Yiddish vocabulary, German loanwords, and Hebrew dating formulas using Jewish calendar numerals.

Bertrand Russell took the letter's form for a conventionalized image of a camel,^[1] while Solomon Gandz derived it instead from a word for weapon or battle-axe.^[2] Gimel is one of the six letters which can receive a light dagesh, the dagesh qal.^[3] Tradition sees in its shape a person in motion: a rich man running after a poor man to give him charity.^[4] It is one of the seven letters given small crowns, tagin, in a Torah scroll,^[5] and in Israel it is the electoral symbol of the United Torah Judaism party.^[6]