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) 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 הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ ^[1]
• Zarka: Same rule as the Pashta^[2]
• Tevir: Only if there is one syllable or less between the mercha and the tevir, as in מַעְיָ֥ן וּב֛וֹר ^[3].

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 ^[4]

Mercha appears in the Torah 9117 times—the second most of any trope sounds. Only Tipcha occurs more often.^[5]

The Aramaic word מֵרְכָא translates into English as elongation.