Maoz Tzur
The Hanukkah hymn sung after the candles are lit, to its old Ashkenazi tune, for 2 to 4 singers, in Hebrew (the words are shown in Latin letters). Verse 1 praises Hashem, the rock of my salvation, and asks for the Temple to be rebuilt; verse 5 tells the Hanukkah story: the Greeks defiled the oil, a miracle came from the one jar left, and the wise set eight days of song. Each verse sings its last line twice, as Idelsohn printed it.
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The first verse
Words: Hebrew piyyut signed Mordecai in its acrostic (13th century)Tune: traditional Ashkenazi Hanukkah tune, from a 15th-century German folk song (printed by Baer after 1883 and Idelsohn 1911/12)
Maoz tzur yeshuati,lecha nae leshabeach.Tikon beit tefilati,vesham toda nezabeach.Leet tachin matbeach,mitzar hamenabeach.Az egmor beshir mizmor,chanukat hamizbeach.Az egmor beshir mizmor,chanukat hamizbeach.
About Maoz Tzur
Maoz Tzur is the Hanukkah hymn sung after lighting the Hanukkah lights, at first only at home and later in the synagogue too. The first letters of its stanzas spell the poet's name, Mordecai, and Eduard Birnbaum identified its tune as an adaptation of an old German folk song, "So weiss ich eins, dass mich erfreut", widespread among German Jews by about 1450. Our arrangement is read from A. Z. Idelsohn's Sefer ha-Shirim of 1911/12, in E major, on the harmony of his two and three voices. It is sung in Hebrew, transliterated, for 2 to 4 singers: verse 1, praising God, the Rock of my salvation, and verse 5, the Hanukkah story of the oil.
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