Towards Better Davening and Torah Reading

Towards Better Davening and Torah Reading
The difference between a PASHTA and a KADMA.
Take a look at part of B'reishit 33:10 -
VAYOMER YAAKOV AL NA IM NA MATZATI CHEN B’EINECHA...
AL NA (please no), IM NA... (if I found favor in your eyes)...
The two words NA have TROP marks that look the same. The first one, however, has the mark at the extreme left of the word. The second NA has its mark over the middle of the word (actually, over the middle of the accented syllable, which in this case is the whole one-syllable word).
The first NA's mark is a PASHTA, which is a third level "pause causer", and so the word NA is followed by a slight pause. (The word CHEIN above, also has a PASHTA.)
The second NA's mark is a KADMA (often, but not always, paired with an AZLA), which is a "linker", without a pause after it, connecting itself to the next word.
A skilled BK (Baal Kri'a, a.k.a. Baal Korei) will "sing" the PASHTA and KADMA differently, but at least one should be careful to pause where a pause belongs and not pause where one doesn't. (Sometimes - not in this case - the meaning of a phrase can be changed by switching these notes.)

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