Jewish and Biblical Units of Measurement

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Jewish and Biblical Units of Measurement

Judaism has its own system of measurement that is consistent from the time of TaNaKh to Mishna and Talmud. The data below is derived from a standard Talmudic student's textbook "The practical Talmud dictionary" by Rabbi Yitzhak Frank, The Ariel Institute, Jerusalem, Israel, 1994.

The precise width of the ehtzba (thumb) is a subject of controversy among halakhic authoritis. The best known is that of the Hazon Ish.

The measurements have lowest and highest acceptable halakhic value in terms of conversion to either metric or Imperial measurements.

Area
"Siarah" (Hebrew ) - (pl.

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Encyclopedia

Length

Area

"Siarah" (Hebrew ) - (pl. siarot) hair

Hair

Hair is a protein filament that epidermal growth from hair follicle deep within the dermis. The fine, soft hair found on many nonhuman mammals is typically called fur; wool is the characteristically curly hair found on sheep and goats....
square 1/36 of a giris

"Adashah" (Hebrew ) - (pl. adashot) lentils 1/9 of a giris

"Giris" (Hebrew ) - (pl. ) split bean a circle with a diameter of about 20mm

"Amah al amah" (Hebrew) - (pl.) square cubit 2,304cm² to 3,318cm²

"Bait rova" (Hebrew ) - (pl. ) space for sowing 1/4 of a kav 24m² to 34.56m²

"Bait seah" (Hebrew ) - (pl. ) space for sowing a seah 576m² to 829.4m²

"Bait kor" (Hebrew) - (pl. ) space for sowing a kor 17,280m² to 24,883m²

Volume

"Zait" (Hebrew ???) - (pl. )olive

Olive

The Olive is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean region, from Lebanon, Syria and the maritime parts of Turkey and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea....
; a unit of volume 1/2 of beytza.

"Beytza" (Hebrew ) - (pl. ) egg

Egg (food)

An egg is a round or oval body laid by the female of many animals, consisting of an ovum surrounded by layers of membranes and an outer casing, which acts to nourish and protect a developing embryo and its nutrient reserves....
0.0576 L

Litre

The litre or liter is a unit of volume. There are two official symbols: the Latin letter L in lower and upper case . The lower case L is often written as a cursive l to avoid confusion with the number 1 in antiqua fonts....
to 0.1 L

"Revi'it" (Hebrew ) - (pl. ) 0.086 to 0.15 L

"Log" (Hebrew ) - (pl. login) 0.345 to 0.6 L
When used with "reva" one quarter , this is a liquid measurement. Rova is used for dry measurement.

"Kav" (Hebrew ) - (pl. ) 1.38 to 2.4 L

"Esaron" (Hebrew ) - (pl. ) 2.49 to 4.32 L
When used with "omer" , this is a liquid measurement. Omer is used for dry measurement..

"Seah" (Hebrew ) - (pl. ) 8.29 to 14.4 L

"Bat" (Hebrew ) - (pl. ) 24.88 to 43.2 L
When used with "ephah" , this is a liquid measurement. Ephah is used for dry measurement.

"Bor" (Hebrew ) - (pl. ) cistern

Cistern

A cistern is a receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Often cisterns are built to catch and store rainwater. They range in capacity from a few litres to thousands of cubic metres ....
248.83 to 432 L
When used with "homer" , this is a liquid measurement. Homer (heap

Heap

Heap may refer to:In computer science:* heap , a tree-like data structure* The heap is the area of memory used for dynamic memory allocation...
) is used for dry measurement.

Coins and weights

"Pruta" (pl. prutot) - a copper
Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....
coin (Hebrew ????? prutah
Prutah

Sorry, no overview for this topic
) - 0.022 g

"Issar" (pl. issarim) - a Roman
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
copper coin (As
AS

AS may refer to:...
) - 0.177 g

"Pundion" (pl. pundionim) - a Roman copper coin (Dupondius
Dupondius

The dupondius was a brass coin used during the Roman Empire and Roman Republic valued at 2 as .The dupondius was introduced during the Roman Republic as a large casting coin, although even at introduction it weighed less than 2 pounds....
) - 0.35 g

"Ma'ah" (pl. ma'ot = "money") - a silver
Silver

Silver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal....
coin, (Hebrew gerah
Gerah

A gerah Hebrew "???" is an ancient Hebrew unit of weight and currency. One gerah is one-twentieth of a shekel, or 500 grams divided by 60 divided by 20....
) - 0.7 g

In Hebrew it is called a Gerah

Gerah

A gerah Hebrew "???" is an ancient Hebrew unit of weight and currency. One gerah is one-twentieth of a shekel, or 500 grams divided by 60 divided by 20....
(as in twenty gerah is a Shekel

Shekel

Shekel, also rendered sheqel, refers to one of many ancient units of weight and currency. The first known usage is from Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement around 3000 BC....
, Exodus

Exodus

Exodus is the second book of the Jewish Torah and of the Christian Old Testament. It tells how Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the Mountain of God Sinai....
); (litt. grain

GRAIN

GRAIN is an international non-governmental organization based in Barcelona, Spain, which works toward sustainable agriculture. It was formed upon the realization that the genetic diversity of the world's food crops are being drastically eliminated....
; also gram

Gram

The gram , ; symbol g, is a Physical unit of mass.Originally defined as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of a metre, and at the temperature of melting ice" , a gram is now defined as one one-thousandth of the SI base unit, the kilogram, or Scientific notation kg, which itself is...
derives from it).

"Dinar" (pl. Dinarim) - a Roman silver coin (Denarius
Denarius

The ancient Roman currency system included the 'denarius' after 211 BC, a small silver coin, and it was the most common coin produced for circulation but was slowly Debasement until its replacement by the antoninianus....
(pl. denarii, (Hebrew Zuz
Zuz (coin)

A Zuz was an ancient Hebrews silver coin struck during the Bar Kochba revolt. They were overstruck on Roman Empire denarii or Roman provincial coins drachmas of Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Trajan and Hadrian....
pl. zuzim) - 4.25 g

In Hebrew this was called a "Zuz" to avoid confusion with the gold Dinar

Aureus

The aureus was a gold coin of ancient Rome valued at 25 silver denarius. The aureus was regularly issued from the 1st century BC to the beginning of the 4th century AD, when it was replaced by the solidus ....
.

"Shekel" (pl. shkalim) - a Jewish silver coin (Shekel
Shekel

Shekel, also rendered sheqel, refers to one of many ancient units of weight and currency. The first known usage is from Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement around 3000 BC....
, (Hebrew ???) - in grams: 14

Moshe Rabeinu instituted as the standard coinage. From 8.5 to 16 grams (Chazon Ish) or .51 troy ounces of pure silver. (Main article Shekel

Shekel

Shekel, also rendered sheqel, refers to one of many ancient units of weight and currency. The first known usage is from Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement around 3000 BC....
)

"Sela" (pl. selo'im) - a silver coin (Tetradrachm
Tetradrachm

The tetradrachm was an Ancient Greece silver coin equivalent to four Greek drachmas. It was in wide circulation from 510 to 38 BC.Most tetradrachms were minted around the middle of the 5th century BC, when they were used in transactions....
) - 17 g (a sela equals two shekel
Shekel

Shekel, also rendered sheqel, refers to one of many ancient units of weight and currency. The first known usage is from Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement around 3000 BC....
).

The Thaler

Thaler

The Thaler was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in various currencies as the dollar or Slovenian tolar....
, Taler and finally the Dollar

Dollar

The dollar is the name of the official currency in several countries, including the US, Australia, and Canada, dependencies and other world regions....
derive from it.

"Dinar" (pl. dinarim or dinerei) - a gold Roman coin (Aureus
Aureus

The aureus was a gold coin of ancient Rome valued at 25 silver denarius. The aureus was regularly issued from the 1st century BC to the beginning of the 4th century AD, when it was replaced by the solidus ....
) (Hebrew "Dinerei zahav") - 8 g of gold (106.25 g in silver)

"Minah" a silver coin (Hebrew ) - (pl. ) 425 g

Not to be confused with "maneh

Maneh

Maneh may refer to* A small sector in the northwest of Bojnurd, Iran* An older spelling for mina , an ancient weight...
" which is 100 "zuzim

Zuzim

The Zuzim were a primitive tribe who lived in Ham, a land east of the Jordan River between Bashan and Moab, according to the Hebrew Bible. The Zuzim were conquered by the Elamite King Chedorlaomer ....
".

"Kikor" (pl. kikorei) - a Jewish silver weight of two Issar - 0.354 g.

Jewish and Biblical Units of Measurement

Length

Area

Volume

Coins and weights

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