Mercha

Mercha (, 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) who 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
• Zarka: Same rule as the Pashta
• Tevir: Only if there is one syllable or less between the mercha and the tevir, as in .

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

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

The Aramaic word translates into English as elongation.

Total occurrences

Melody

In Etnachta group

In Sof Passuk group

First appearance (before Tipcha) <br /> Second appearance (after Tipcha)

References