Mercha

Mercha (Hebrew: מֵרְכָא, also called מַאֲרִיךְ Maarich or מַאַרְכָא Maarcha) is a cantillation mark commonly found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books that are chanted.

Mercha is a conjunctive (mesharet) which precedes the following disjunctives (mafsikim):

• Tifcha
• Sof passuk
• Munach Legarmeh
• Pashta: Only when the mercha and the pashta are followed, without any syllable between them, as in הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙
• Zarka: Same rule as the Pashta
• Tevir: Only if there is one syllable or less between the mercha and the tevir, as in מַעְיָ֥ן וּב֛וֹר .

In some codex, when the tevir is not preceded by a darga or a mercha, and has a meteg because of a hateph-vowel, the meteg is then replaced by a mercha, as in וְנָ֥תְנ֛ו

Mercha appears in the Torah 9117 times—the second most of any trope sounds. Only Tipcha occurs more often.

The Aramaic word מֵרְכָא translates into English as elongation.

Total occurrences

Melody

References

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