ל, the Hebrew cursive letter lamed

History

ל is the 12th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 30. In traditional and modern Hebrew and Yiddish, it represents the voiced alveolar lateral approximant /l/.

Lamed is the only letter in the Hebrew alphabet whose mast extends substantially above the ascender line. In cursive, the ascender curves dynamically upward and hooks gracefully, anchoring the vertical rhythm of the line.

Because cursive lamed reaches high above neighboring letters, scribes and letter-writers often used its ascender to flourish lines or weave around ascenders and descenders on adjacent lines.

The letter is usually thought to come from a picture of an ox-goad, a cattle prod, or of a shepherd's crook;^[1] in Proto-Semitic a goad was called lamed.^[2] With vav, lamed refers to the Lamedvavniks, the 36 righteous people who save the world from destruction.^[3] A lamed on a car means its driver is learning to drive: the lamed stands for lomed, learner.^[4] As a prefix it forms the infinitive, so daber, speak, becomes ledaber, to speak,^[5] and it can also mean to or for.^[6]