Mercha (Hebrew: , also spelled Merkha and other variant English spellings) is a

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 commonly 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 ...

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'' ("Pro ...

, and other books that are chanted. Mercha is found in several trope groups, though the melody varies from one use to the next. It is the beginning of the Etnachta group, can be found either once or twice preceding the

Sof passuk The ''sof passuk'' (Hebrew: , ''end of verse'', also spelled sof pasuq and other variant English spellings, and sometimes called סילוק silluq) is the cantillation mark that occurs on the last word of every verse, or '' passuk'', in the Tanak ...

, or can occasionally precede the

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

in the

Katon group Zakef Katan ( he, זָקֵף קָטָ֔ן literally 'upright small'; various romanizations), often referred to simply as ''katan'', is a cantillation mark commonly found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books of the Hebrew Bible. The note is the ...

or a

Tevir Tevir (Hebrew: , with variant English spellings including ''T'vir'' and ''Tebir'') is a cantillation mark commonly found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other Hebrew biblical books. It can be found independently or it can follow any number of other can ...

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

Tipcha Tifcha ( he, טִפְחָ֖א, also spelled ''Tifkha'', ''Tipcha'' and other variant English spellings) is a cantillation mark commonly found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books that are chanted. In Sephardic and Oriental traditions, it is cal ...

occurs more often. The Hebrew word מֵרְכָ֥א translates into English as ''comma''.

Total occurrences

Melody

In Etnachta group

In Sof Passuk group

References