Torah Trope

This webpage is designed to help you recap and practise as you learn, but is not intended to teach you how to leyn from scratch. To learn to leyn, you will need a teacher or further guidance. Masorti Judaism, EAJL and synagogues run courses from time to time, or you can contact Chazzan Rebecca Blumenfeld for guidance or more information.

Based on the musical notation of Dr Chani Smith’s Learn to Leyn © original booklet and 2024 online resource published by Leo Baeck College, which can be purchased here.

With thanks also to Chazan Rebecca Blumenfeld and CantorEducator.com

When Torah is chanted out loud, this is called ‘leyning’ (Yiddish: “to read”). Symbols above or below the words, known as te’amim, indicate how to parse the word grammatically and also how to chant the word with the correct emphasis and what melody to use. There are a number of different melodic systems – or trope – that can be used to chant the Torah and indeed other texts within our tradition. The recordings on this page are Western Ashkenazi trope.

Each leyning group or family is colour-coded. This helps to identify which family we are learning (e.g. Sof-Pasuk, the Blue family), and will be useful when we are applying the leyning theory to the text as we will be able to colour-code our text too.

Each leyning family has a number of variants, which you can hear in the recordings. These variants will be accompanied by its music and transliteration. In the transliteration, the capitalised syllable is the emphasised syllable in that melody.

The transliteration and music notation (example below) are read left to right.

The diagram (example below) reads like Hebrew, from right to left.

These diagrams demonstrate where the leyning symbol (ta’am) is in relation to the word. For example, this picture shows you that all these leyning te’amim (symbols) occur underneath the word, with the rectangle boxes representing the words. If the box is white, this ta’am is conjunctive. This is punctuation that connects words together, and means that its melody can change if it is a munach, merkha or kadmah, depending on the ta’am that follows it.

If the box is grey, this ta’am is disjunctive. This is punctuation that separates ideas and we typically take a short pause after a disjunctive. Its melody will always be set, it will not change depending on what comes after it.

This is the end of every verse, where you see a : in the text.

sof-paSUK
סוֹף-פָּסֽוּק׃

merKHA
מֵרְכָא

tip’CHA
טִפְּחָא

merKHA
מֵרְכָא

טִפְּחָא סוֹף-פָּסֽוּק׃

מֵרְכָ֥א טִפְּחָ֖א סוֹף-פָּסֽוּק׃

טִפְּחָ֖א מֵרְכָ֥א סוֹף-פָּסֽוּק׃

מֵרְכָ֥א טִפְּחָ֖א מֵרְכָ֥א סוֹף-פָּסֽוּק׃

This appears once in almost every verse and denotes a pause.

et-nach-TA

אֶתְנַחְתָּ֑א

mu-NACH

מֻנַּ֣ח

tip’CHA

טִפְּחָ֖א

merKHA

מֵרְכָ֥א

טִפְּחָ֖א אֶתְנַחְתָּ֑א

מֵרְכָ֥א טִפְּחָ֖א אֶתְנַחְתָּ֑א

טִפְּחָ֖א מֻנַּ֣ח אֶתְנַחְתָּ֑א

מֵרְכָ֥א טִפְּחָ֖א מֻנַּ֣ח אֶתְנַחְתָּ֑א

This is a short pause in a verse. In this family, the trope signs are both below and above the word.

ka-TON

קָט֔וֹן

mu-NACH

מֻנַּ֣ח

pash-TA

פַּשְׁטָא֙

mah-PACH

מַהְפַּ֤ך

מֻנַּ֣ח קָט֔וֹן

מַהְפַּ֤ך פַּשְׁטָא֙ מֻנַּ֣ח קָט֔וֹן

פַּשְׁטָא֙ קָט֔וֹן

קַדְמָ֨א מַהְפַּ֤ך פַּשְׁטָא֙ מֻנַּ֣ח קָט֔וֹן

פַּשְׁטָא

מֻנַּ֣ח מַהְפַּ֤ך פַּשְׁטָא֙ מֻנַּ֣ח קָט֔וֹן

מֻנַּ֣ח מֵרְכָ֥א [פַּשְׁ]טָא֙ מֻנַּ֣ח קָט֔וֹן

קַדְמָ֨א מֵרְכָ֥א [פַּשְׁ]טָא֙ מֻנַּ֣ח קָט֔וֹן

מַקֵ֨ל-זָקֵ֔ף

t’VIR

תְּבִ֛יר

מֵרְכָ֥א תְּבִ֛יר

קַדְמָ֨א מֵרְכָ֥א תְּבִ֛יר

דַּרְגָּ֧א תְּבִ֛יר

קַדְמָ֨א דַּרְגָּ֧א תְּבִ֛יר

GE-resh

גֵּ֜רֵשׁ

קַדְמָ֨א גֵּ֜רֵשׁ

קַדְמָ֨א וְאַזְלָ֜א

r’VI-a

רְבִ֗יעַ

מֻנַּ֣ח רְבִ֗יעַ

דַּרְגָּ֧א מֻנַּ֣ח רְבִ֗יעַ

מֻנַּ֣ח | מֻנַּ֣ח רְבִ֗יעַ

This ta’am appears in various families, so it does not have its own colour. These are just a few examples of where you might find T’lisha K’tanah.

t’lisha k’taNA

תְּלִישָא קְטַנָּה֩