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) which 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 Genesis 1:2 Zarka: Same rule as the PashtaWhen there is a paseq before the zarqa, the conjunctive also turn into a mercha, but it is more likely to be an other cantillation (similar as Munach legarmeh) See Genesis 3:14 Tevir: Only if there is one syllable or less between the mercha and the tevir, as in Leviticus 11:36. 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 Numbers 15:38
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 BookNumber of appearancesTorah9117Concordance of the Hebrew accents in the Hebrew Bible: Concordance ..., Volume 1 By James D. Price, page 6 Genesis2415 Exodus1879 Leviticus1371 Numbers1859 Deuteronomy1595Nevi'im7672Concordance of the Hebrew accents in the Hebrew Bible: Concordance ..., Volume 1 By James D. Price, page 5Ketuvim5235
Melody
In Etnachta group
In Sof Passuk group First appearance (before Tipcha)
Second appearance (after Tipcha)
References