Ilustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Zarka is a special note that appears only a handful of times in each parashah.
It looks like a swirling line and the sound of the note matches: listen and you will hear a bunch of notes moving down and then up and then down, just like it looks! The word zarka means “throwing” or “scattering.” Three times in the Torah, the zarka doubles up and gives a really special sound, like in this phrase from our parashah:
אֲבָל֮ אֲשֵׁמִ֣ים ׀ אֲנַ֘חְנוּ֮
But we are guilty
Zarka is an interesting note, because it always comes at the end of the word, no matter where the accent is. So even though the word above is a-NAH-nu, the zarka is placed at the end (but is not pronounced a-nah-NU).
Zarka is always followed by a סֶגוֹל (segol), which we will learn about next week!
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