Behind the Channukah Song: Ma'oz Tzur

[gnomi]

One of the best-known Channukah songs is "Ma'oz Tzur" (midi here). But it really has little to do with the holiday of Channukah. Only one of its six verses (the fifth, actually) is about the events celebrated on Channukah; three are about other Jewish historical events, and the other two -- the first and the last -- form a frame for the historical events.


The most well known of the verses is the first:

Ma'oz tzur y'shuati
L'kha na-eh l'shabei-ach
Tikon beyt t'filati
V'sham todah n'zabei-ach
L'eit tachin matbei-ach
Mitzar ha-m'nabei-ach
Az egmor b'shir mizmor
Chanukat ha-mizbei-ach

Rocky Fortress of my Salvation
It is delightful to praise You
Restore my House of Prayer
And there we will give thanks with an offering
When you have prepared the slaughter
for the blaspheming foe
Then I will complete with a song of hymn
the dedication of the altar

(translation and transliteration from Judaism 101.)

The next four verses tell the stories of:

-- The Jews' travails in and exodus from Egypt

Ra'ot sava nafshi
b'yagon kochi kilah
Chayai mar'ru b'koshi
B'shi'a'bud malchut eglah
Ub'yado hagdolah
Hotzei et ha segulah
Chail Paroh v'chol zar'oh yardu k'even bimtzulah

My soul had been sated with troubles,
my strength has been consumed with grief.
They had embittered my life with hardship,
with the calf-like kingdom's bondage.
But with His great power
He brought forth the treasured ones,
Pharaoh's army and all his offspring
Went down like a stone into the deep.

(transliteration mine; translation from the OU.)

-- The Jews' exile to Babylon and subsequent return to Israel

D'vir kodsho heviani
V'gam sham lo shakatiti
Uva nogesh v'higlani
Ki zarim avad'ti
V'yain ra'al masachti
Kim'at she'avarti
Ketz Bavel, Zerubavel
L'ketz shiv'im noshati

To the holy abode of His Word He brought me.
But there, too, I had no rest
And an oppressor came and exiled me.
For I had served aliens,
And had drunk benumbing wine.
Scarcely had I departed
At Babylon's end Zerubabel came.
At the end of seventy years I was saved.

(transliteration mine; translation from the OU.)

-- The Purim story

K'rot komat b'rosh bikesh
Aggaggi ben Ham'datta
V'n'hayta lo [l'fach u]l'mokesh
V'gav'a'to nishba'ta
Rosh y'mini nisayta
V'oyev sh'mo machita
Rov banav v'kinyanav
Al ha'etz talita

To sever the towering cypress
sought the Aggagite, son of Hammedatha,
But it became [a snare and] a stumbling block to him
and his arrogance was stilled.
The head of the Benjaminite You lifted
and the enemy, his name You obliterated
His numerous progeny - his possessions -
on the gallows You hanged.

(transliteration mine; translation from the OU.)

-- The Channukah story:

Y'vanim nikb'tzu alai
Azai b'yimei Chashmonaim
Ufartzu chomot migdalai
V'tim'u kol hashmanim
U'm'notar kankanim
Na'asah nes l'shoshanim
B'nei vinah, y'mei shmonah
Kav'u shir ur'na'a'nim

Greeks gathered against me
then in Hasmonean days.
They breached the walls of my towers
and they defiled all the oils;
And from the one remnant of the flasks
a miracle was wrought for the roses.
Men of insight - eight days
established for song and jubilation

(transliteration mine; translation from the OU.)

The final verse expresses our hopes for ultimate salvation:

Chashof zro'ah kodsh'cha
V'karev ketz hayeshua
N'kom nikmat dam avadecha
Me'umah har'sha'ah
Ki archa ha sha'ah
V'ain ketz l'y'mei ha'ra'ah
D'chei admon b'tzel tzalmon
Hakem lanu ro'im shiva

Bare Your holy arm
and hasten the End for salvation -
Avenge the vengeance of Your servants' blood
from the wicked nation.
For the triumph is too long delayed for us,
and there is no end to days of evil,
Repel the Red One in the nethermost shadow
and establish for us the seven shepherds

(transliteration mine; translation from the OU.)


So why has this song become associated with Channukah?

My guess (and that's all it is; I've done no research into this) is that it's because it has the word "chanukah" in the first verse -- "Az egmor b'shir mizmor chanukat hamizbe'ach": Thus, with a hymn of praise, I will complete the dedication of the altar. "Channukah" means "dedication," which is one of the main points of celebration for the holiday. We celebrate the reclamation and rededication of the Beit HaMikdash, the Temple in Jerusalem, following the Maccabees' victory over the Greeks.

A freilachen Channukah to everyone celebrating!

Comments

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

You have just made very clear something I never thought very carefully about. My family always did the first verse and the "Y'vanim nikb'tzu alai" verse. This then makes complete sense. You have provided a piece of information I didn't even know I needed. Thank you :).

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I've seen that tradition -- singing the first and fifth verses -- many times. It makes sense, singing the Introduction, as it were, and the holiday-specific verse. I've been known to sing the second verse on Pesach and the fourth on Purim.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

This was, as well, the subject of my first-ever LJ posting, two years ago.

Chag urim sameach!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I had not recalled that, in fact.

But I've been humming it on and off all day, and tonight seemed like a logical time to muse on the song's connection to Channukah. :-)

Chag sameach!

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

I always sing it at Purim, because it has as many Purim verses as it has Chanukah verses.

[sdelmonte]

It could even be said to have two, since the verse about the end of the first exile could be loosely connected with Purim, in terms of time frame.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Another possibility is that it's much more obvious that we need songs for Hannukah, given that it's got less to do and more time to do it in than Purim, for instance.

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

And the acrostic is Mordechai Chazak

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I often wonder if the last verse was added later, because the "Mordechai" part is the verses before that one and the "chazak" is within the first three words of the final verse.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Singing it at Purim is a lovely minhag.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Though there aren't all that many Purim songs, either... maybe Purim and Channukah can share "Ma'oz Tzur."

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Purim doesn't have a significant number of good songs, so giving Purim two verses of "Ma'oz Tzur" works for me. :-)

[magid.livejournal.com]

But Purim doesn't need any more songs:
- 1-day holiday
- with 4 associated mitzvot (megillah x 2 + mishloach manot x n = lots of time)
- plus a minhag of getting seriously sloshed.
Who has time for extra songs?