Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: , ''end of verse'', also spelled sof pasuq and other variant English spellings, and sometimes called סילוק silluq) is the
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 that occurs on the last word of every verse, or '' passuk'', in the
mercha
Mercha (Hebrew: , also spelled Merkha and other variant English spellings) is a cantillation mark commonly found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books that are chanted.
Mercha is found in several trope groups, though the melody varies from one u ...
'', ''
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 ...
'', and ''
mercha
Mercha (Hebrew: , also spelled Merkha and other variant English spellings) is a cantillation mark commonly found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books that are chanted.
Mercha is found in several trope groups, though the melody varies from one u ...
'' in that order, including either all or some of these. However, these ''merchot'' and ''tipchot'' do not necessarily have the same melody as those in the etnachta group. Altogether, there are five possible arrangements how these can appear.
Total occurrences
Melody
Different melodies are assigned to the trope for each section of the Hebrew Bible: The Torah, the Haftarah, and the Megillot. Different Jewish communities also use different Torah tropes. The following should not be considered an exhaustive list of all possible cantillations.
Basic
Appears at the end of a verse.
''Sof parasha''/''sof hachelek''
Appears at the end of a ''
parashah
The term ''parashah'' ( he, פָּרָשָׁה ''Pārāšâ'', "portion", Tiberian , Sephardi , plural: ''parashot'' or ''parashiyot'', also called ''parsha'') formally means a section of a biblical book in the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh (Heb ...
''.
In the Ten Commandments
There is controversy over the use of the ''sof passuk'' during the reading of the
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ� ...
. There are two versions of the trope sounds for the Ten Commandments, one that divides them into 13 verses, based on the number of ''sof passuk'' notes, and the other that divides them into ten verses, the actual number of commandments. It is for this reason that not all commandments actually have a ''sof passuk'' at the end of their own names.
Other versions
Sof parasha
The end of a single reading ( ''aliya'') which is chanted in a different melody, thereby giving the sound of finality to the reading. The tune for the end of the aliya can be applied to different verses based on different reading schedules, including the full parasha (on
Shabbat
Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...
during
Shacharit
''Shacharit'' ( he, שַחֲרִית ''šaḥăriṯ''), or ''Shacharis'' in Ashkenazi Hebrew, is the morning ''tefillah'' (prayer) of Judaism, one of the three daily prayers.
Different traditions identify different primary components of ...
in most synagogues), a partial reading (as is read on weekdays, Shabbat
Mincha
Mincha ( he, מִנחַה, pronounced as ; sometimes spelled ''Minchah'' or ''Minḥa'') is the afternoon prayer service in Judaism.
Etymology
The name ''Mincha'', meaning "present", is derived from the meal offering that accompanied each sacrif ...
, and the selected readings of various holidays), or the
Triennial cycle
The Triennial cycle of Torah reading may refer to either
* The historical practice in ancient Israel by which the entire Torah was read in serial fashion over a three-year period, or
* The practice adopted by many Reform, Conservative, Reconstruct ...
.
Sof sefer
At the conclusion to any ''sefer'' of the Torah, a special tune is used for the words ''"hazak hazak venithazek"'' after the reader finishes the book. These words are recited first by the congregation and then repeated by the reader.https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/halakhah/teshuvot/19912000/goldberg_hazak.pdf