Technical torah-reading question

[rhu]

Yesterday I noticed that Lev 17:5 contained a passage using zarka-zarka-segol (ignoring the fourth-level te'amim of munach and mercha). I was really surprised by this, since I always thought a zarka had to be followed directly by a segol (again disregarding munach and mercha). I would have expected the first zarka to be a revia instead. I'm wondering if this sequence is unique and if anyone has written about it.

There's nothing in the commentaries in the Simanim. Furthermore, Jacobson (2002) devotes a chapter to "Zarka - Level Three Under Segol" in which he parses out the zarka as the "final terminator" before a segol and revia as the "first terminator", which is consistent with what I would expect. He doesn't discuss Lev 17:5 as an exception.

ETA: Prof. Jacobson points out that in his chapter on Segol (p. 204) he covers this construction, which happens 26 times. It's a multi-level split under segol; the first subdivision is the revia earlier in the pasuk, and then the second-level subdivision is a zarka which is itself subdivided by a second zarka.

Comments

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

So I wrote a Python script to go over the corpus from the Open Siddur Project. Focusing only on Tanach (because the Taamei Emet get weird), there are a few other instances. Most are in the taamei elyon of the aseret hadibrot, so we can ignore them as outliers. The remaining ones are:

Bereshit 42:21
וַיֹּֽאמְר֞וּ אִ֣ישׁ אֶל־אָחִ֗יו אֲבָל֘ אֲשֵׁמִ֣ים ׀ אֲנַ֘חְנוּ֘ עַל־אָחִ֒ינוּ֒

Shmot 12:29
וַיְהִ֣י ׀ בַּֽחֲצִ֣י הַלַּ֗יְלָה וַֽיהוָֹה֘ הִכָּ֣ה כָל־בְּכוֹר֘ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֒יִם֒

and our pasuk, Lev 17:5
לְמַ֩עַן֩ אֲשֶׁ֨ר יָבִ֜יאוּ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל אֶת־זִבְחֵיהֶם֘ אֲשֶׁ֥ר הֵ֣ם זֹֽבְחִים֘ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י הַשָּׂדֶה֒

[cellio]

Wow, I didn't know that could happen. Interesting. And nobody comments on these relatively few cases?

[autotruezone.livejournal.com]

Nice timing. Just last night, I was teaching my son the rule that you can't have two revias in close succession. If there is a case where the parsing of the verse would otherwise put two revias in close succession, then the second revia turns into whatever the appropriate final "duke" is for the following "king". This happens quite frequently when the "king" is a zakef katon -- you get an extra pashta. As you've noted, it happens much less frequently under the reign of a segol, when you get a doubled zarka. It also occasionally happens under the reign of a tipcha, and you get a doubled t'vir.

Incidentally, a teacher I once had criticized the way the blessing before the haftarah is traditionally read (at least in Ashkenazi shuls -- I'm not sure about other traditions), where "Baruch atta Hashem Elokenu" is typically read "kadma mapach pashta pashta". Pashta is normally the final "duke" before a zakef katon, and so you can't have two consecutive pashtas, unless the revia rule comes into play. Since there's no revia at the beginning of the blessing, you can't have two pashtas.