Ma'oz Tzur

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"Ma'oz Tzur" (Hebrew: מעוז צור), widely known in English as "Rock of Ages", is a Jewish liturgical poem or piyyut. It was written in Hebrew. It is usually sung on the holiday of Hanukkah, after lighting the festival lights. It was originally sung only in the home, but has been used in the synagogue since the nineteenth century or earlier. Of its six stanzas, often only the first stanza is sung.

In English it is common to sing a non-literal translation by Marcus Jastrow and Gustav Gottheil, based on the German by Leopold Stein (1810-1882). [1]

Contents

[edit] Content

The hymn is named for its first two words in Hebrew, which mean "Stronghold of Rock" as a name or epithet for God.

"Ma'oz Tzur" may have been written in the middle of the 13th century, during the Crusades, as Zunz ("Literaturgesch." p. 580) is inclined to believe. The first letters of the first five stanzas form an acrostic of the composer's name, Mordechai (the five Hebrew letters מרדכי). He may have been the Mordecai ben Isaac ha-Levi who wrote the Sabbath table-hymn "Mah Yafit" (Majufes), or even the scholar referred to in Tos. to Niddah 36a. Or, to judge from the appeal in the closing verse, he may have been the Mordecai whose father-in-law was martyred at Mayence (now Mainz, Germany) in 1096.

Another acrostic is found in the first letters of the opening words of the final stanza. As in many examples of piyyut, they congratulate the poet with the word hazak (meaning "[may you be] strong").

The poem recalls the many times when Jewish communities were saved from the people around them. The second stanza tells of the exodus from Egypt. The third stanza tells of the end of the Babylonian captivity. The fourth retells the miracle of the holiday of Purim. The fifth tells of the Hasmonean victory that is commemorated by Hanukkah.

The first and last stanzas are written in the present tense. The first expresses hope for the rebuilding of the Temple and for the defeat of enemies, who are mentioned in canine terms (menabe'ach, barking). The final stanza once again calls for an uprising against the enemies of the Jewish people. The term "Admon", meaning "the red one", is understood by some to refer to the emperor, Friedrich Barbarossa, whose name means Frederick "Redbeard". This stanza was dropped from many printings of the poem, perhaps from fear of a Christian reaction against it.

In her book Ve-Higadeta Le-Vanekha (title meaning "you shall tell your children"), Mikhal Gur-Arie explains (in Hebrew) why "Ma'oz Tzur" is sung especially on Hanukkah rather than Purim or Passover, whose events are also mentioned in the poem:

On Passover we read in the Haggadah: "In every generation there are those who rise up to finish us off, but the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hands." On Purim, after the reading of the Megillah in the synagogue, we say the blessing "Blessed are You... Who plead our plea, ...and rose against those who would rise against us...." There is no need to say "Ma'oz tzur" except on Hanukkah.

Thus the singing of "Ma'oz tzur" on Hanukkah may be a substitute for the ritual storytelling that takes place on Purim and Passover.

[edit] Tune

The bright and stirring tune now so generally associated with "Ma'oz tzur" serves as the "representative theme" in musical references to the feast (comp. Addir Hu; Aḳdamut; Hallel). Indeed, it has come to be regarded as the only Hannukah melody, four other Hebrew hymns for the occasion being also sung to it (comp. Zunz, l.c. pp. 422, 429; D. Kaufmann, in "Ha-Asif," ii. 298), as well as G. Gottheil's paraphrase, "Rock of Ages," in the "Union Hymnal" (No. 107). It was originally sung for "Shene Zetim" ("Olives Twain"), the "Me'orah," or piyyut, next preceding the Shema 'in the Morning Service of the (first) Sabbath in the eight days of the Feast of Dedication. Curiously enough, "Shene Zetim" alone is now sometimes sung to a melody which two centuries ago was associated rather with "Ma'oz tzur." The latter is a Jewish-sounding air in the minor mode, and is found in Benedetto Marcello's "Estro Poetico Armonico," or "Parafrasi Sopra li Salmi" (Venice, 1724), quoted as a melody of the German Jews, and utilized by Marcello as the theme for his "Psalm XV." This air has been transcribed by Cantor Birnbaum of Königsberg in the "Israelitische Wochenschrift" (1878, No. 51)

The present melody for the Hanukkah hymn has been identified by Birnbaum as an adaptation from the old German folk-song "So weiss ich eins, dass mich erfreut, das pluemlein auff preiter heyde," given in Böhme's "Altdeutsches Liederbuch" (No. 635); it was widely spread among German Jews as early as 1450. By an interesting coincidence, this folk-melody was also the first utilized by Luther for his German chorals. He set it to his "Nun freut euch lieben Christen gmein" (comp. Julian, "Dictionary of Hymnology," s. v. "Sing praise to God who reigns above"). It is familiar among English-speaking people as the tune for a translation by F. E. Cox of the hymn "Sei lob und ehr dem höchsten gut," by J. J. Schütz (1640-1730). As such it is called "Erk" (after the German hymnologist), and, with harmonies by Bach, appears as No. 283 of "Hymns, Ancient and Modern" (London, 1875). The earliest transcription of the Jewish form of the tune is due to Isaac Nathan, who set it, very clumsily indeed, to the poem "On Jordan's Banks" in Byron's "Hebrew Melodies" (London, 1815). Later transcriptions have been numerous, and the air finds a place in every collection of Jewish melodies. It was modified to the form now favored by English Jews by the delicate liturgical taste of Mombach, to whom is due the modulation to the dominant in the repetition of the first strain, shown in the transcription above.

[edit] Modern creative mention

The piyyut inspired Israeli songwriter Naomi Shemer to write the song "Shivchei Ma'oz" (meaning "praises of the fortress"), as performed by the band Pikud Darom in 1969. In this song Shemer drew a connection between the Jewish hymn and the military positions that were attacked in the War of Attrition of the time.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Maoz Tzur (Rock of Ages)" at Jewish Heritage Online Magazine. Retrieved January 13, 2006.

[edit] Bibliography of Jewish Encyclopedia

  • Cantor Eduard Birnbaum, Chanuca-Melodie für Pianoforte, mit Vorbemerkung, Königsberg, 1890;
  • E. Breslaur, Sind Originale Melodien bei den Juden Geschichtlich Nachweisbar? p. 70, Leipsic, 1898;
  • Cohen and Davis, Voice of Prayer and Praise, No. 294 (and especially Mombach, in Nos. 64 and 66), London, 1899;
  • Journal of the Folk-Song Society, i. 36, London, 1900;
  • Jewish Chronicle (London), Nov. 23, 1888; Dec. 20, 1889; Dec. 5, 1890; Dec. 25, 1891;
  • Louis Lewandowski, Chanukka-Hymne (two voices and piano), Berlin;
  • J. Rosenfeld, Chanukka Hymne für Kinderstimmen, Berlin;
  • D. Rubin, Maoz Tsur für Chor und Orgel;
  • A. Schoenfeld, Nationalgesang zur Erinnerung an die Siege der Makkabär, Posen
This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain. [1]
by Cyrus Adler, Francis L. Cohen

[edit] External links

  • "Maoz Tzur", a literal translation into English at site of the Orthodox Union. Retrieved January 13, 2006.
  • Irwin Oppenheim, "Chanukah Songs" at Chazzanut Online. Web page includes MIDI audio of the German and Italian tunes for Maoz Tzur and of the Dutch tune for Shene Zetim.
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