Zakef Katan ( he, זָקֵף קָטָ֔ן literally 'upright small'; various romanizations), often referred to simply as ''katan'', is a cantillation mark commonly found in the

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

, Haftarah, and other books of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

. The note is the anchor and final one of the Katon group, which also can include the Mapach, Pashta,

Munach The Munach (Hebrew: , also spelled ''Munah'' or ''Munakh''), translating to English as ''"to rest,"'' is a common cantillation sound. In Sephardi and Oriental traditions it is often called Shofar holekh. It is marked with a right angle below the co ...

, or

Yetiv Yetiv (יְ֚תִיב) is a cantillation mark found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books of the Hebrew Bible. It is found in the Katon group in some occurrences in lieu of the more common Mahpach-Pashta Pashta (Hebrew: ) is a common cantillatio ...

. It is one of the most common cantillation marks. There is no limit to the number of times the Katan group can appear in a verse, and often, multiple Katan groups appear in succession. The most times in succession the group occurs is four. The symbol for the Zakef katan is a colon (:). It is placed on the syllable of the word that is accented. Zakef katan occurs in the Torah 6992 times. Zakef katan is one of two versions of the ''Zakef'' trope, the other being

Zakef gadol Zakef may refer to: * Zakef katon, a trope sound from the Katon group * Zakef gadol, a common independent trope {{disambiguation ...

.Chanting the Hebrew Bible By Joshua R. Jacobson, page 117

The Katan group

In the Katan group, the trope can appear in the following patterns: *Mapach Pashta Munach Zakef-Katan *Mapach Pashta Zakef-Katan *Pashta Munach Zakef-Katan *Pashta Zakef-Katan *Munach Zakef-Katan *Zakef-Katan *Yetiv Munach Zakef-Katan *Yetiv Zakef-Katan

Total occurrences

Melody

References

{{Torah reading Cantillation marks