Mahpach (Hebrew מַהְפַּ֤ך, with variant English spellings) is a common

cantillation Cantillation is the ritual chanting of prayers and responses. It often specifically refers to Jewish Hebrew cantillation. Cantillation sometimes refers to diacritics used in texts that are to be chanted in liturgy. Cantillation includes: * Chant ...

mark found in the

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

Haftarah The ''haftara'' or (in Ashkenazic pronunciation) ''haftorah'' (alt. ''haftarah, haphtara'', he, הפטרה) "parting," "taking leave", (plural form: ''haftarot'' or ''haftoros'') is a series of selections from the books of ''Nevi'im'' ("Prop ...

, and other books of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

. It is part of the Katan group, and it frequently begins the group. The symbol for the Mahpach is <. Mahpach is always followed by a

Pashta Pashta (Hebrew: ) is a common Hebrew cantillation, cantillation mark found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books of the Hebrew Bible. It is part of the Zakef katan, Katan group. Its mark symbol is identical to that of the Kadma (trope), Kadma. W ...

. This is because Mahpach is a

conjunctive The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality s ...

, showing a connection with the word that follows. When the Mahpach is found, the < is placed under the syllable that is most heavily stressed. The variant

Yetiv Yetiv (יְ֚תִיב) is a cantillation mark found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books of the Hebrew Bible. It is found in the Katon group in some occurrences in lieu of the more common Mahpach-Pashta Pashta (Hebrew: ) is a common cantillatio ...

trope uses the same < symbol as the Mahpach, but does not have a Pashta that follows.Chanting the Hebrew Bible By Joshua R. Jacobson, page 221 Mahpach is found in the Torah 3042 times.Concordance of the Hebrew accents in the Hebrew Bible: Concordance ..., Volume 1 By James D. Price, page 6 The Hebrew word מַהְפַּ֤ך translates into English to ''reversal''. The original symbol looked more like a sideways U than a V (to represent going forward then turning back around), but this was changed because it was easier for printers to print, as modern keyboards have the "">< symbols.

Number of occurrences

Melody

References