Maoz Tzur. Your favourite Hanukah song—or not. But likely the one you know best.
But do you know the full story the lyrics tell? About Jewish journeys through Egypt, Babylonia, Judea to Christian Europe, and the United States?
Are you aware of the poet’s yearning? And how it might be alive today?
The Original Maoz Tzur: Evil Empires
The original Hebrew Maoz Tzur is a piyyut, a formal liturgical poem. It was published in the 14th century, and written in a 13th century style. Thus, it uses regular meter and complex rhyme. It speaks in biblical references. Finally, it tells us its author’s name. Take the first letter of each stanza, and you spell it: Mordehai.
The poet Mordehai riffs on the biblical book of Daniel (chapters 2,4 and 7). Daniel prophesies that four empires will rise and fall. Mordehai names the four empires as Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, and Macedonia. And he tells their story in five stanzas.
(1) God, you like praise through song. Slaughter our meat, slaughter our enemies, and we will be ready to sing.
(2) In Egypt, we groaned under the weight of our slave-labour. God, you sunk our enemies in the sea, like a stone.
(3) In our land, we had a temple. But we worshipped foreign Gods. So, Babylonia exiled us for 70 years. But you, God, appointed King Zerubavel to end our domination.
(4) Haman came to power in the Persian court. But he tripped over his own pride. So, you, God raised up the Benjaminite leader Mordehai. And Haman was hanged.
(5) Greek armies gathered against us in Hasmonean times. They broke our towers and tainted our oils. But you, God, worked a miracle. So our sages set eight days for song and praise.
The Missing Stanza: Christian Empire
Maoz Tzur ends with the triumph of Hanukah. Now that God defeated our enemies, we can finally sing!
But something is not quite right with this ending. Mordehai lives more than a thousand years after the Hasmoneans fell to Rome. Did Mordehai not bring his poem up to date?
It looks like a stanza might be missing.
What might that stanza say? Something too controversial to publish, perhaps?
Apparently, YES.
By 1700, three versions of the missing stanza were found. But only one ended up widely published. And it was published anonymously.
It says something like this:
(6) Now, God, bare your holy arm! Take revenge! The days of evil seem to never end. So, push out the evil empire that rules under the cross. Raise up our leader!
This stanza completes Mordehai’s line of thinking. It names the enemy still at large. Christian anti-Judaism. The stanza also fits Mordehai’s time. Riots, blood libels, and expulsions marked Jewish life in medieval Europe.
But publishing this 6th stanza would have been a risk. Until the 1700s, when ideals of religious equality became popular in Europe. And that’s when the missing stanza was “found.”
Rock of Ages: An American Maoz Tzur
The English-language Ma’oz Tzur has a few things in common with the Hebrew. The English title “Rock of Ages,” hints at the Hebrew title “Fortress of Rock.” Both poems have the same meter, so singers can set them to the same tune. And both have a verse about Hanukah.
But Rock of Ages is not a translation of the Hebrew Maoz Tzur. It is, in fact, a completely different song. Maoz Tzur is a resistance song, a plea for liberation. But Rock of Ages reads more like a song of allegiance.
Rock of Ages Let our song/ Praise thy saving power./ Thou amidst the raging foes/ Wast our sheltering tower./ Furious they assailed us/ But thine arm availed us./ And thy word broke their sword/ When our own strength failed us. … Yours the message cheering/That the time is nearing/ Which will see all men free/Tyrants disappearing.
Rabbi Marcus Jastrow (1829-1903) and Rabbi Gustav Gottheil (1827-1903) wrote “Rock of Ages.” Both of these German-born rabbis came to the USA as adults. They were part of a late 19th century wave of European immigrants. And they hoped that this Christian-majority country could be a safe home for Jewish immigrants fleeing poverty and antisemitism.
“Rock of Ages” expresses this hope. But in a uniquely American idiom. It speaks of a tower, a furious assault, trust in God, and a time of freedom. Thus, it echos a patriotic American song popular in the 1880s: The Star Spangled Banner, by Francis Scott Key.
O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light/What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming/ Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight/O’er the ramparts we watch’d/were so gallantly streaming?/ And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air/Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there/O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave/O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave…And this be our motto “in God we trust.”
Rabbis Jastrow and Gottheil invested decades of work in developing American Jewish institutions. Perhaps they hoped that the USA could be a different kind of home. One envisioned by the biblical prophets, built on justice and equity.
Reflecting on Maoz Tzur Today
There is so much yearning in Maoz Tzur. And so much hope in Rock of Ages. Reflecting on them deepens Hanukah for me. Sure, Hanukah is a time to enjoy friends, family, food, and fun. But it’s also a good time to take seasonal song and poetry seriously. To look at the ideals in the poems you know best. And to ask what they mean in light of current realities.
Do we still live under the cross? Have Christians unlearned anti-Judaism? Can we assess antisemitism when our own Jewish community cannot agree on what it is? What does the binary of freedom and tyranny look like today? Is it ethical for some to buy freedom through tyranny over others? And what would an empire built on justice even look like?
Image: Menorah by Manfred Anson, 1986. Info here.
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This post was originally written in 2019, updated in 2023, and reworked again in 2024. It is an original integration and interpretation based on the following sources. Rabbi Adam Stein (sermon at Congregation Beth Israel), Rabbi Dr. Yosef Wosk (conversation), Chancellor Ismar Schorsch (article “A Meditation on Maoz Tzur”), Professor Yitzhak Y. Melamed (blog post, “Maoz Tzur and the ‘End of Christianity'”), Annette Boeckler (article, “Rock of Ages in Changing Times. A History of Jewish Identity in Chanukkah Songs”), A. Katz (article, “The Last Stanza of Ma’oz Tzur,”) Catherine Bell (discussion of rituals of American identity in the book Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice). Thank you all.
Not just an expression of American Jewish liberation. Naomi Shemer wrote a version with Israeli military overtones.
Thanks, Avi! Nomi Shemer’s song is a lament, definitely not a Hanukah hymn.
Do you know the history of the “Liberty Enlightening the World” chanukiah? That’s an amazing cross-cultural piece of art.
Thanks (and thanks for that essay) —
. Charles C.
Thanks, Charles! I added a credit and link to the info above. Sorry that got lost in the 2024 updating. Here it is, as well: https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/closer-look-our-statue-liberty-hanukkah-lamp