The ''sof passuk'' (, ''end of verse'', also spelled sof pasuq and other variant English spellings. It is preceded by the silluq in the last word of the verse) is the

cantillation Cantillation is the ritual chanting of prayers and responses. It often specifically refers to Jewish Hebrew cantillation. Cantillation sometimes refers to diacritics used in texts that are to be chanted in liturgy. Cantillation includes: * Chant ...

mark that occurs on the last word of every verse, or '' passuk'', in the

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. ''

mercha'', '' tipcha'', and '' mercha'' in that order, including either all or some of these. However, these ''merchot'' and ''tipchot'' do not necessarily have the same melody as those in the etnachta group. Altogether, there are five possible arrangements how these can appear.

Total occurrences

Melody

Different melodies are assigned to the trope for each section of the Hebrew Bible: The Torah, the Haftarah, and the Megillot. Different Jewish communities also use different Torah tropes. The following should not be considered an exhaustive list of all possible cantillations.

Basic

Appears at the end of a verse.

''Sof parasha''/''sof hachelek''

Appears at the end of a ''

parashah The term ''parashah'', ''parasha'' or ''parashat'' ( ''Pārāšâ'', "portion", Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian , Sephardi Hebrew, Sephardi , plural: ''parashot'' or ''parashiyot'', also called ''parsha'') formally means a section of a biblical book ...

''.

In the Ten Commandments

There is controversy over the use of the ''sof passuk'' during the reading of the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten ...

. There are two versions of the trope sounds for the Ten Commandments, one that divides them into 13 verses, based on the number of ''sof passuk'' notes, and the other that divides them into ten verses, the actual number of commandments. It is for this reason that not all commandments actually have a ''sof passuk'' at the end of their own names.

Other versions

Sof parasha

The end of a single reading ( ''aliya'') which is chanted in a different melody, thereby giving the sound of finality to the reading. The tune for the end of the aliya can be applied to different verses based on different reading schedules, including the full parasha (on

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews ...

during

Shacharit ''Shacharit'' ( ''šaḥăriṯ''), or ''Shacharis'' in Ashkenazi Hebrew, is the morning '' tefillah'' (prayer) of Judaism, one of the three daily prayers. Different traditions identify different primary components of ''Shacharit''. E ...

in most synagogues), a partial reading (as is read on weekdays, Shabbat

Mincha Mincha (, ; sometimes spelled Minchah, Minhah, Mincho or Minchuh) is the afternoon prayer service in Judaism. Etymology The name ''Mincha'', meaning "gift" or "offering", is derived from the meal offering that accompanied each sacrifice offered ...

, and the selected readings of various holidays), or the

Triennial cycle The Triennial cycle of Torah reading may refer to either * The historical practice in ancient Israel by which the entire Torah was read in serial fashion over a three-year period, or * The practice adopted by many Reform, Conservative, Reconstruct ...

Sof sefer

At the conclusion to any ''sefer'' of the Torah, a special tune is used for the words ''"hazak hazak venithazek"'' after the reader finishes the book. These words are recited first by the congregation and then repeated by the reader.

Unicode

References

{{Torah reading Cantillation marks