the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Kaf
The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia
or Eleventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The name is generally taken to mean "hollow of the hand," to which the shape of the letter has a near resemblance (see Alphabet). Kaf belongs to the six consonants called "mutes," and has a twofold pronunciation: an explosive, which is indicated by the "dagesh lene" placed in the middle of the letter, and a spirant. In the former case it corresponds to the English "k," and in the latter nearly to the Greek χ (by which it is often represented in Greek transliteration) or the German soft "ch" (there is no English equivalent). As a palatal kaf is related to נ and ק, with which it sometimes interchanges; in some rare cases it passes into the harsh gutturals ח and ע. The syllable "ke" (
) is a preposition, meaning "at," "as," and is prefixed to nouns and infinitives. At the end of a word kaf is written thus: ד. When used as a numeral it has the value for 20.
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Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Kaf'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tje/k/kaf.html. 1901.
