Hebrew Number Converter

What are Hebrew Numerals?

Hebrew numerals are based on the Hebrew alphabet and are widely used in Jewish religious texts, such as the Talmud, the Jewish calendar, and other historical documents. Each Hebrew letter not only represents a letter but also corresponds to a specific number. In this system, the numeric value of the letters represents the magnitude of the number, and they are often used to mark years, dates, or specific numerical expressions.

Basic Rules of Hebrew Numerals

The Hebrew numeral system uses the character values of the Hebrew letters to represent numbers. Each letter corresponds to a fixed numerical value and is divided into three categories:

• 1-9: Single letters represent numbers 1 to 9.
• 10-90: Letters represent numbers 10 to 90.
• 100-400: Letters represent numbers 100 to 400.

Hebrew numerals do not use the concept of zero, so numbers are represented solely by combinations of letters. Below is the correspondence between Hebrew letters and Arabic numbers:

How to Represent Other Hebrew Numbers?

Hebrew numerals are formed by combining letters according to certain rules. The arrangement of letters is not fixed, but they are typically written from right to left (since Hebrew is written from right to left), with larger numbers placed on the right. For example:

• The number 17 is represented as "ז"י" in Hebrew numerals, where the letter "י" (10) and the letter "ז" (7) are combined.
• The number 42 is represented as "ב"מ", where the letter "מ" (40) and the letter "ב" (2) are combined.
• The number 500 is represented as "ק"ת", where the letter "ת" (400) and the letter "ק" (100) are combined.

The quotation marks " are used to indicate that multiple letters are combined to form a number, typically placed on the right of the last (leftmost) letter. For example, the number 28 is represented as "ח״כ (where "ח" represents 8 and "כ" represents 20).

Representation of Thousands and Large Numbers

For numbers over 1000, the Hebrew numeral system uses letters and an apostrophe to denote the thousands place. This is achieved by adding the symbol "׳" above the left side of a letter to indicate that the number represented by that letter is multiplied by 1000. For example:

• ׳א represents 1000.
• ׳ב represents 2000.
• ׳ג represents 3000.
• ׳גכק represents 123 × 1000 = 123000.

For example, the number 1998 is represented in Hebrew numerals as ח"צקתת׳א, where:

• ׳א represents 1 × 1000 = 1000.
• קתת represents 400 + 400 + 100 = 900.
• צ represents 90.
• ח represents 8.

Therefore, ח"צקתת׳א converts to the number is 1998.