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Alphabet Letters

Gimel ג

GIM-el
Also Known As Gimel
Hebrew Letters

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ג
Origin Develops the Achaemenid Aramaic chancery hand, adopted after the exile

Gimel is the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet, its name meaning camel and its gematria value three. It is one of the seven Double letters, attributed to the seven planets, and is given to the Moon. In the Hermetic scheme it corresponds to the tarot trump The High Priestess and to the thirteenth path of the Tree of Life, the long central channel from Kether to Tiphareth across the Abyss. As the camel, it symbolizes the beast of burden that carries the traveller across the desert, and so it is the letter of the deep interior journey, of nourishment carried through barren places, and of the lunar intuition that crosses the great gulf between the Crown and the heart.

Facts
Disputed
Origin Period
Scholem places Sefer Yetzirah between the second and sixth century CE 5Tradition: Sefer Yetzirah: the thirty-two paths and the twenty-two letters
Gershom Scholem's Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (Schocken Books, New York, 1961) surveys the manuscript recensions of Sefer Yetzirah and finds no single stable text: the surviving copies diverge enough in wording and in the letter-to-planet and letter-to-sign correspondences that quoting "the text" requires naming which recension is meant. Comparing the linguistic style, the doctrinal content and the external references made to the work across centuries of citation, Scholem argues the book could have been composed anywhere from the second to the ninth century CE, a span of roughly a millennium, with later Kabbalistic and Hasidic writers each reading it through their own era's overlay. The atlas follows Scholem's range rather than a narrower guess, and does not print the per-letter planet and sign tables at all, because doing so would silently pick one contested recension over the others.
Origin Period
Survives in three recensions that do not agree in detail 5Tradition: Sefer Yetzirah: the thirty-two paths and the twenty-two letters
Gershom Scholem's Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (Schocken Books, New York, 1961) surveys the manuscript recensions of Sefer Yetzirah and finds no single stable text: the surviving copies diverge enough in wording and in the letter-to-planet and letter-to-sign correspondences that quoting "the text" requires naming which recension is meant. Comparing the linguistic style, the doctrinal content and the external references made to the work across centuries of citation, Scholem argues the book could have been composed anywhere from the second to the ninth century CE, a span of roughly a millennium, with later Kabbalistic and Hasidic writers each reading it through their own era's overlay. The atlas follows Scholem's range rather than a narrower guess, and does not print the per-letter planet and sign tables at all, because doing so would silently pick one contested recension over the others.
Origins
Origin Period
Develops the Achaemenid Aramaic chancery hand, adopted after the exile 1Tradition: The Hebrew square script
Origin Period
Not the script of the earliest Hebrew inscriptions 1Tradition: The Hebrew square script
Origin Period
Standard by the Hasmonean period; palaeo-Hebrew survives only on coins 1Tradition: The Hebrew square script
Place of Origin
The Levant, by way of the Aramaic administrative script of the Persian empire. 1Tradition: The Hebrew square script
Origin of the Name
Names travelled into Greek unchanged and meaningless 1Tradition: The Hebrew square script
Origin of the Name
Northwest Semitic words inherited from the older linear script 1Tradition: The Hebrew square script
Origin of the Name
Pictographic meanings (ox head, house, water) are modern reconstructions 1Tradition: The Hebrew square script
Sense of the Name
camel 1Tradition: The Hebrew square script
The pictographic sense is a modern reconstruction from the letter name rather than a meaning attested in the script's own period, and the atlas records that position elsewhere on this letter. The name itself is inherited; the picture behind it is inferred.
Contested Use
Contested or Appropriated Modern Use
A criticism of the predictive method, not of the tradition itself 4
Contested or Appropriated Modern Use
So many possible sums exist that a match can always be found 4
Contested or Appropriated Modern Use
Used as proof: the beast of Revelation, verse prophecy, Bible codes 4
Identity
Alphabet
Hebrew 1
Script Type
An abjad: the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew square script record consonants, read right to left, with vowels supplied either by the reading tradition or, in pointed texts, by the Masoretic vowel-pointing system. 1Tradition: The Hebrew square script
Position
Third of twenty-two in the Hebrew alphabet 1
Attributions
Associated Sound
One of the seven Double letters: voiced velar stop g when hard, historically a voiced velar fricative gh when soft, a distinction lost in most spoken Hebrew today 1
Attestation
Meaning in the Attesting Source
Hebrew letter mysticism is a continuous, living Jewish tradition 2Tradition: Sefer Yetzirah: the thirty-two paths and the twenty-two letters
Meaning in the Attesting Source
One of the seven double letters, each hard and soft 3Tradition: Sefer Yetzirah: the thirty-two paths and the twenty-two letters
Meaning in the Attesting Source
Runs through medieval commentary, golem lore, Abulafia, hasidic teaching 2Tradition: Sefer Yetzirah: the thirty-two paths and the twenty-two letters
Meaning in the Attesting Source
Still studied and practised today 2Tradition: Sefer Yetzirah: the thirty-two paths and the twenty-two letters
Meaning in the Attesting Source
The seven assign to seven planets and seven opposite pairs 3Tradition: Sefer Yetzirah: the thirty-two paths and the twenty-two letters
Meaning in the Attesting Source
Which planet goes with which letter is not recorded; recensions differ 3Tradition: Sefer Yetzirah: the thirty-two paths and the twenty-two letters
Meaning in the Attesting Source
Wisdom/folly, wealth/poverty, seed/desolation, life/death, dominance/subjugation, peace/war, grace/ugliness 3Tradition: Sefer Yetzirah: the thirty-two paths and the twenty-two letters
Learn More
Gimel: The Hebrew Letter of Camel

Gimel is the third Hebrew letter and a double letter; its name means 'camel' and its value is 3. Traditional commentary links the camel, the beast that carries burdens across the desert, to the idea of giving and sustaining, with the following letter Daleth (the poor door) receiving what Gimel bears. The Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation), the foundational text of Jewish letter-mysticism compiled in late antiquity, divides the twenty-two Hebrew consonants into three groups: three 'mother' letters (Aleph, Mem, Shin) assigned to the elements Air, Water and Fire; seven 'double' letters, each with a hard and soft pronunciation, assigned to the seven classical planets and to seven pairs of opposites; and twelve 'simple' letters assigned to the twelve signs of the zodiac and the twelve months. As a double letter Gimel is assigned to a planet and a pair of opposites.

A separate and much later system, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (founded 1888), mapped the twenty-two letters onto the twenty-two trumps of the tarot along the paths of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. This tarot correspondence is a modern Western-esoteric overlay, not part of the ancient Hebrew or classical Kabbalistic tradition. The Golden Dawn attributes Gimel to the Moon and to The High Priestess (trump II), whose path crosses the abyss straight to the crown of the Tree of Life.

Gimel: Scribal Tradition

Gimel is one of seven letters, remembered by the mnemonic shatnez getz, shin, ayin, teth, nun, zayin, gimel and tzaddi, that Jewish law requires a scribe to top with three small decorative crowns, called tagin, whenever they are written in a Torah scroll, tefillin or mezuzah, a rule recorded in the Talmud at Menachot 29b; the other fourteen Hebrew letters are written without them.

Rabbinic homiletic tradition, recorded in the Talmud at Shabbat 104a, also reads meaning into Gimel's shape alongside the letter that follows it: gimel is read as an abbreviation of gomel, one who bestows kindness, and its short extended foot is described as reaching toward the next letter, dalet, read as an abbreviation of dal, a poor person, as though a generous man were running to give charity before the poor man's need becomes visible to others. This paired image, part of a longer homiletic tour through the whole alphabet attributed to the sage Resh Lakish, is one of the best-known pieces of aggadic letter-shape interpretation in the entire Talmudic corpus and is still commonly taught to Hebrew school students today as a mnemonic for both letters at once. Gimel's ordinary shape, a vertical stroke with a short foot extended to the lower left, has stayed close to that description since the square Aramaic-derived script Jewish tradition holds was adopted after the Babylonian exile, discussed elsewhere in this atlas, though the letter's own name and meaning, camel, are older still, inherited from the earlier palaeo-Hebrew writing that script replaced.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

The High Priestess, Tarot

In the Golden Dawn Kabbalistic attribution, The High Priestess corresponds to the Hebrew letter Gimel by way of its Tree of Life path.

Source The Golden Dawn: The Original Account of the Teachings, Rites, and Ceremonies of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, 6th editionIsrael Regardie

Derived from This

Gimel G, Alphabet Letters

Malachim Gimel stands for the Hebrew letter Gimel, and carries its value of 3. Agrippa prints the three scripts in Book III of De occulta philosophia as tables of Hebrew equivalents. The sign shapes vary between the manuscript and printed traditions; the letter for letter correspondence does not.

Source Three Books of Occult PhilosophyHeinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Gimel G, Alphabet Letters

Celestial Gimel stands for the Hebrew letter Gimel, and carries its value of 3. Agrippa prints the three scripts in Book III of De occulta philosophia as tables of Hebrew equivalents. The sign shapes vary between the manuscript and printed traditions; the letter for letter correspondence does not.

Source Three Books of Occult PhilosophyHeinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Gimel G, Alphabet Letters

Passing the River Gimel stands for the Hebrew letter Gimel, and carries its value of 3. Agrippa prints the three scripts in Book III of De occulta philosophia as tables of Hebrew equivalents. The sign shapes vary between the manuscript and printed traditions; the letter for letter correspondence does not.

Source Three Books of Occult PhilosophyHeinrich Cornelius Agrippa

Related To

Ag ࡂ, Alphabet Letters

Mandaic Ag and Hebrew Gimel occupy the same place in the twenty-two letter Aramaic sequence. Hebrew keeps the inherited noun as the letter name and the numeral value 3; Mandaic keeps neither. Where the Mandaic shapes came from is disputed, a cursive Aramaic hand or the Parthian chancery script.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)
Gamal ܓ, Alphabet Letters

Syriac Gamal and Hebrew Gimel stand at the same place in the twenty-two letter Aramaic sequence and carry the same letter-numeral value, 3. The Syriac script grew out of the local Aramaic cursive of Edessa and the Hebrew square script out of the same Aramaic alphabet, so the two letters are inherited from one ancestor rather than borrowed from each other.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)
Gaman ࠂ, Alphabet Letters

Samaritan Gaman and Hebrew Gimel are cognates. Both continue the same Paleo-Hebrew sign, both write g and both carry the value 3. Samaritan preserves the Paleo-Hebrew form; the square Hebrew letter is the Aramaic development of it.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)
Gaml (Ga) ገ, Alphabet Letters

Gaml and the Hebrew gimel continue the Semitic g and share one inherited name. The name means camel, and gamal is still the word for one in Ge'ez.

Source Comparative Dictionary of Ge'ez (Classical Ethiopic)Wolf Leslau
Gamma γ, Alphabet Letters

Greek Gamma and Hebrew Gimel are cognates. Both continue the same Phoenician sign, which is why both carry the numeral value 3 in their letter-number systems. A shared ancestor, not a borrowing in either direction. The Greek alphabet was adapted from the Phoenician abjad in the early first millennium BC, and the Hebrew square script descends from the same abjad through Aramaic.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)
Gamma γ, Alphabet Letters

Hebrew Gimel and Greek Gamma continue the same Phoenician gimel; both carry the numeral value 3 in their letter-number systems.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)
Gimel, Alphabet Letters

Both signs continue the same Northwest Semitic consonant inherited from a shared abjad ancestor; this is a cognate correspondence, not a borrowing in either direction. Ugaritic and Hebrew share the same twenty-two-consonant core, with Ugaritic adding six further signs Hebrew never developed separately.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)
Gimel G, Alphabet Letters

Celestial Gimel is a cipher glyph standing for the Hebrew letter Gimel; Agrippa's Book III prints Celestial, Malachim and Passing the River as tables of Hebrew equivalents, letter for letter.

Source Three Books of Occult PhilosophyHeinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Gimel G, Alphabet Letters

Malachim Gimel is a cipher glyph standing for the Hebrew letter Gimel; Agrippa's Book III prints Celestial, Malachim and Passing the River as tables of Hebrew equivalents, letter for letter.

Source Three Books of Occult PhilosophyHeinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Gimel G, Alphabet Letters

Passing the River Gimel is a cipher glyph standing for the Hebrew letter Gimel; Agrippa's Book III prints Celestial, Malachim and Passing the River as tables of Hebrew equivalents, letter for letter.

Source Three Books of Occult PhilosophyHeinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Jim ج, Alphabet Letters

Cognate letters. Arabic jim and Hebrew gimel both continue the twenty-two letter Northwest Semitic alphabet, and they hold the same place in the inherited order and the same numeral value, 3. Neither is derived from the other.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)
Sources
1. The World's Writing Systems
Peter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.), Oxford University Press, 1996the chapter on the Aramaic scriptView the Source
2. Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid
Moshe Idel, State University of New York Press, 1990the chapters on the letter-combination traditions and their reception
3. Sepher Yetzirah (Book of Formation)
Anonymous (traditionally attributed to Abraham)On Gimel as a double letterView the Source
4. Numerology: Or, What Pythagoras Wrought
Underwood Dudley, Mathematical Association of America (Spectrum series), 1997the chapters on the beast, on the law of small numbers and on biblical sevensView the Source
5. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism
Gershom Scholem, Schocken Books, 1961the chapter on early Jewish mysticism, on Sefer YetzirahView the Source
Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation in Theory and Practice
Aryeh Kaplan, Samuel Weiser, 1997On the double letters and the planetsView the Source
The Encyclopedia of Tarot, Volume I
Stuart R. Kaplan, U.S. Games Systems, 1978For the Golden Dawn attribution (Moon, The High Priestess)View the Source
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