From שׁוֹר to School: The Story of אָלֶף

The familiar words 'שלום כיתה אָלֶף' greet children on their very first day of school. But the connection between אָלֶף and learning runs much deeper than the classroom.

Originally, the Hebrew letters were pictograms—drawings of objects, animals, or body parts whose names began with the sound the letter represented.

Some letters even received their names this way. For example, עַיִן once looked like an eye. From ancient inscriptions we learn that the early form of אָלֶף was the head of a שׁוֹר (ox). Over time, this evolved into a simplified form in ancient Hebrew script, in Greek and Latin and eventually in the square Hebrew script we use today.

The link between אָלֶף and oxen may seem odd to us today, but for ancient Hebrew speakers it was obvious. In Deuteronomy we read: "בָּרוּךְ פְּרִי בִטְנְךָ וּפְרִי אַדְמָתְךָ וּפְרִי בְהֶמְתֶּךָ, שְׁגַר אֲלָפֶיךָ וְעַשְׁתְּרוֹת צֹאנֶךָ" (28:4). In Isaiah: "וְהָאֲלָפִים וְהָעֲיָרִים עֹבְדֵי הָאֲדָמָה בְּלִיל חָמִיץ יֹאכֵלוּ" (30:24). Here אֶלֶף clearly means “ox” or “cattle”—just as it does in other Semitic languages. A related form is אַלּוּף (Psalms 144:14).

Some connect אֶלֶף and אַלּוּף meaning “cattle” to the phrase כֶּבֶשׂ אַלּוּף (Jeremiah 11:19), understood as “domesticated sheep.” By this logic, אֶלֶף originally referred to a domesticated ox—an animal trained for labor. This fits with another meaning of the root אל"ף: “to learn, to train.” Elihu tells Job: "הַחֲרֵשׁ וַאֲאַלֶּפְךָ חָכְמָה" (Job 33:33), and Proverbs (22:25) warns not to befriend an angry man, "פֶּן תֶּאֱלַף אֹרְחֹתָו"—“lest you learn his ways.”

In Modern Hebrew, אִלֵּף refers to training animals, but מְאַלֵּף still keeps the broader sense of “teaching”—as in הרצאה מאלפת (“an enlightening lecture”).

From Aramaic comes אוּלְפָן / אוּלְפָנָא, meaning “learning.” (The verb is לְמֵילַף = to study.) In Biblical translations, בית אולפנא appears instead of “Tent of Meeting.” In later Hebrew, בית אולפן or בית אולפנא came to mean “school” or “place of study.” A 1942 report describes the founding of an אולפנא girls’ school in Petah Tikva. And in 1949, with the opening of אולפן עציון in Jerusalem, the word אולפן gained its modern meaning: a school for adults learning Hebrew.

The same word also came to mean “studio,” thanks to its connection with learning (compare English study, student). Hence אולפן רדיו, אולפן טלוויזיה, and אולפן הקלטות.

Even אַלּוּף as “friend,” in the phrase אלופי ומיודעי (Psalms 55:14), relates to learning and habituation—someone whose company you are accustomed to. And אַלּוּף as “leader” or “chief” (like the chiefs of Edom) may connect either to the “trained” ox leading the herd, or to the idea of a “commander of a thousand” (אֶלֶף as a tribal unit of a thousand).

From the number אֶלֶף we also get the adjective מַאֲלִיף, meaning “abundant, multiplied by a thousand”: "צֹאונֵנוּ מַאֲלִיפוֹת מְרֻבָּבוֹת בְּחוּצוֹתֵינוּ" (Psalms 144:13). Hence the blessing: ברכות מאליפות—“a thousandfold blessings.”

So—ברכות מאליפות to all those entering כיתה אָלֶף, and to every student and teacher beginning a new year of learning!