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I had a look on Wikipedia but cannot find what an Aleph with gershayim at the top left stands for.

Jake Wilson
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    Where did you see such a thing? – Harel13 Nov 04 '23 at 16:21
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    Are you sure it wasn’t א״י? That stands for “Eretz Yisra’el”. – ezra Nov 04 '23 at 16:34
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    @Harel13 has asked the most important question: give us the full sentence please – Rabbi Kaii Nov 04 '23 at 20:50
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    @ezra also אינו יהודי or various other things – Double AA Nov 05 '23 at 00:11
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    Likely אחד or the number one. Or the letter aleph itself – N.T. Nov 05 '23 at 11:36
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    Maybe it is short for "abbreviation"? – Moses Supposes Nov 06 '23 at 19:07
  • Thank you everyone for your swift replies. The א״ cropped up in a transcript of the Shem Tov Hebrew Matthew, and since I have now seen for the second time in another segment, it is obvious that it simply stands for "echad": ...והנותן כלי א״ של מים קרים לאחד מתלמידי הקטנים (I am a beginner in Hebrew and am sure you would have known at once its meaning, had you seen the whole phrase). – Jake Wilson Nov 07 '23 at 09:11

1 Answers1

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Taken from Avraham Stern’s Sefer Roshei Teivot there are 22 commonly used meanings: [![Aleph abbreviations ]2]2

There are additional meanings found in Sifrei Kabbalah and Chassidut like the index section of Sefer HaLikkutim published by Kehot.

Yaacov Deane
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    While it’s likely OP saw א׳, they were looking for what א״ means. With a gershayim, not a single geresh. – ezra Nov 06 '23 at 18:59
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    @ezra I've seen plenty of books that are not careful in the use of a single geresh or two gershayim. Sometimes, for example, a single geresh will be applied in kabbalistic texts to emphasize letter divisions within a word to bring out an additional concept like the Miluy of an individual letter, like י׳וד is the Miluy (meaning the pronunciation) of the single letter י. And that illustrates part of the concept of the process of Creation, from Nekudah נקודה (point), to Kav קו (line), to Shetach שטח (Area or Field). The form of the "Letters of Miluy" (the Vav and Dalet) illustrate the process. – Yaacov Deane Nov 06 '23 at 20:43