Chanting the Bible

Ta'amei Ha-Miqra

The Jewish Cantillation of the Bible

This page presents the traditional cantillation melodies used in the synagogue for the chanting of the scriptural readings from the Pentateuch (Torah, "Five Books of Moses") and the Prophets, a section from which is chanted as a "conclusion"‚-"Haftarah"‚-of the Torah reading on Sabbaths and festivals.

These signs, which (like the vowels) are not written down in the "official" scrolls used in the synagogue, indicate both the syntactic structure and the musicial rendering of the Biblical verses, and often the accenting of the words as well.

They are divided into three main types:

Connecting accents, which lead on to the next word;
Separating accents, which create a pause;
and
"Stand-alone" accents, which do just that.

Some of the accents perform more than one function, and hence have been placed between columns.

The musical rendering used in this stack follows the Eastern European customs, found in most North American synagogues. Other communities, such as the German, Spanish or Yemenite Jews, have different versions (though the signs themselves and their syntactic functions) are universal. In addition, there are special renderings in use for other books of the Bible (e.g., Esther and Lamentations), or for special occasions (e.g., festivals).

Though the same cantillation signs are used (for the most part) for different books of the Bible, and they have the same accent and syntactical roles wherever they appear, they are actually chanted in different ways. This page presents samples of the main tunes used for the reading of the Torah and Prophets. Different tunes exist for other books or for certain festivals.

How to Use this Page

Click on the accent that you are interested in, indicating whether you wish to hear the Torah or the Haftarah tune associated with it. If you have a MIDI-capable plug-in installed in your browser (such as Crescendo© by LiveUpdate), you should see a sound control bar appear in the right-hand frame at the bottom of the screen.

The music will probably begin playing automatically and have to be paused manually. Otherwise, a separate window might be opened for the audio controller.

Notes that connect to the next word (Conjunctive)	Notes that separate from the next word: pauses (Disjunctive)	Notes that stand alone
Mahpakh For Torah For Haftarah	Pashta For Torah For Haftarah	Zaqef Gadol For Torah For Haftarah
Munah (preceding "Zaqef Gadol") For Torah For Haftarah	Zaqef Qaton For Torah For Haftarah	Geresh For Torah For Haftarah
	Munah (Preceding another Munah) For Torah For Haftarah	Pazer For Torah For Haftarah
		Telisha Gedolah For Torah For Haftarah
		Telishah Qetanah For Torah For Haftarah
Munah (Preceding a Revia') For Torah For Haftarah		Revia' For Torah For Haftarah
Munah For Torah For Haftarah	Merkha Kefullah For Torah For Haftarah	Shalshelet For Torah Not found Haftarah
Darga For Torah For Haftarah	Tevir For Torah For Haftarah
Merkha For Torah For Haftarah	Atnahta For Torah For Haftarah
Tifha For Torah For Haftarah	Silluq (Sof Pasuq) For Torah For Haftarah
Yetiv For Torah For Haftarah	Silluq (Sof Parashah) For Torah For Haftarah
Qadma ve'Azla For Torah For Haftarah		Gershayim For Torah For Haftarah
Zarqa For Torah For Haftarah	Segol For Torah For Haftarah
Yerah Ben Yomo For Torah Not found in the Haftarah	Qarnei Parah For Torah Not found in the Haftarah

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