ש, the Hebrew cursive letter shin

History

ש is the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 300. In traditional and modern Hebrew and Yiddish, it represents the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/ (shin) or voiceless alveolar sibilant /s/ (sin).

In cursive handwriting, shin is executed with a broad curved base and three upward loops or waves, created in a continuous, flowing sweep that simplifies the three separate uprights of the square font.

Shin is ubiquitous in epistolary greetings, particularly in the blessing formula "Shalom" (peace), making its cursive shape instantly recognizable across historical manuscripts.

The Phoenician letter may have been based on a pictogram of a tooth, as in Biblical Hebrew shen, tooth.^[1] In the name Issachar the second shin has no dot even in fully vocalized texts, because it is always silent.^[2] Shin stands for Shaddai, a name of God,^[3] and it is often written on the case of a mezuzah.^[4] A kohen forms the letter with each of his hands as he recites the Priestly Blessing,^[5] and in the 1960s Leonard Nimoy made a one-handed version of the gesture into the Vulcan salute.^[6]