Torah Trope 101 – taught by Michael Siedel – via Zoom

TORAH TROPE 101  

Michael Seidel  

Offered by Adult Education  

Congregation B/nai Israel 

Program length: 8 weeks, Beginning February 7, 2024 through March 27, 2024 

Session length: 1 hr 

Participant weekly time commitment: 1 hr group class, 30 min chevruta,  individual practice time Minimum class size: 4 

Cost: $36 

Class Summary  

This 8-session class offers participants the fundamentals of Torah trope for  Shabbat. Since the Torah is written without punctuation, it is the job of the  trope to impart the context and grammar of the verse. Each lesson focuses  on a family of tropes, along with a discussion about technique. Not only will  participants learn the trope melodies, but they will be paired up with a  chevruta (study buddy) and will also gain practice being a gabbai, the one  who follows along with the reader, offering constructive corrections as  needed. During the week between each session, chevruta will meet on their  own to learn from each other, while one partner practices their chanting, the  other partner practices being a gabbai.  

Participants can come to the class having selected a Torah reading to work on for a future Shabbat, or the Days of Creation can be divided between  participants to work on.  

Participants receive handouts and recordings to practice with.  Interested persons contact:  

Doris Duhigg d.duhigg@mac.com. or Suzy Savage sesavage46@gmail.com

TORAH TROPE 101 

MICHAEL SEIDEL 

MICHAELSEIDELMUSIC.COM 

exploring judaism through contemplative song

Program length: 8 weeks 

Session length: 1 hr 

Participant weekly time commitment: 1 hr group class, 30 min chevruta, individual practice time Minimum class size: 4 

Class Summary 

This 8-session class offers participants the fundamentals of Torah trope for Shabbat. Since the Torah is  written without punctuation, it is the job of the trope to impart the context and grammar of the verse.  Each lesson focuses on a family of tropes, along with a discussion about technique. Not only will  participants learn the trope melodies, but they will be paired up with a chevruta (study buddy) and will  also gain practice being a gabbai, the one who follows along with the reader, offering constructive  corrections as needed. During the week between each session, chevruta will meet on their own to  learn from each other, while one partner practices their chanting, the other partner practices being a  gabbai. 

Participants can come to the class having selected a Torah reading to work on for a future Shabbat, or  the Days of Creation can be divided between participants to work on. 

Participants receive handouts and recordings to practice with. 

Session Outline 

Lesson 1 

Introduction 

Historic background  

Class structure and expectations 

Chevruta pairings 

Hebrew pronunciation fine tuning 

Selecting portion to work on over the class 

Lesson 2 

Technique – Conjunctives and disjunctives Trope family – Merkha, Tipkha, Sof Pasuk 

Lesson 3 

Technique – Word stress 

Trope family – Mapack, Pashta, Zakef-Katon,  Y’tiv 

Lesson 4 

Technique – Wordy weirdness 

Trope family – Revi’i 

Lesson 5 

Technique – When we read 

Trope family – Zarka, Segol 

Lesson 6 

Technique – Special melodies 

Trope family – Tevir, Darga, T’lisha K’tana 

Lesson 7 

Group practice 

Trope family – Others 

Lesson 8 

Pulling it together