I am repeating this article from last year, because I have to correct a major mistake that I made — as I will explain towards the end …

We do not know who authored this prayer or precisely when it was authored. But the author did inscribe his name in an acrostic in the first five stanzas, מרדכי. There is also a sixth stanza that begins “chasof zeroa kadshecha,” generating the acrostic חזק. There is a debate about whether the sixth stanza was a later addition. But, scholars have pointed out that it would be very unusual for a stanza that has a חזק acrostic to be a later addition. Probably, it was there originally and preserved orally, but was omitted in writing due to Jewish self-censorship.

The sixth stanza did not appear in print until 1702. It is for this reason that many see it as a later addition. But, both the 2014 and 2016 articles that I cite below take the position that it was included in the original composition.

The earliest manuscript we have of the prayer dates from the late-fourteenth or early-fifteenth century. But, it is a fragmentary one … The several pages that have survived continue only to the middle of the fourth stanza, so we cannot tell if the sixth stanza was once there!

Both the first and sixth stanzas attack Christianity. This fits the period of 12th century Germany, as Jewish communities in Germany were devastated by the First Crusade (1096) and the Second Crusade (1147). A recent scholarly article on the prayer suggests it was composed in Germany between 1160 and 1190. See the article by Avraham Frankel in Ha-Maayan 208 (2014). (Another important article is at thetorah.com (2016), by Yitzhak Melamed, “Ma’oz Tsur and the ‘End of Christianity.’”)

That the חזק acrostic is within one stanza — and not spread over three — is consistent with a German origin for the prayer. See Frankel, page 13. The prayer was not part of the Sephardic ritual until recent times. The four middle stanzas narrate — in the past tense — events of four persecutions of the Jews: by the Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians and Greeks (Syrian Greeks). Regarding the first and sixth stanzas, Melamed writes that they are “both written in the present tense and complement each other, and thus express the mindset and wishes of the poet at the time of the composition of the hymn.”

The earliest reference to the prayer in a work of halacha is found in the “Leket Yosher,” who was a student of Rabbi Israel Isserlein. Rabbi Isserlein was the author of the “Trumat Ha-Deshen,” and lived in Germany and Austria in the 14th century. Leket Yosher writes that his teacher, after reciting “Ha-Nerot Hallalu,” would sing our prayer. He adds that, sometimes, it would be recited ‘בדילוג. This means that his teacher would skip certain parts. (Perhaps, he meant the sixth stanza.)

Maoz Tzur is not mentioned by either Rabbi Caro or Rabbi Isserles in the Shulchan Aruch.

In the first stanza, we have the following: “Prepare the house of my prayers and there, I will offer a thanksgiving offering. When you have prepared the slaughter for the barking (מנבח) enemy, then I will conclude with a psalm song for the dedication of the altar.” The root נבח only appears one time in Tanach, at Isaiah 56:10. It is referred to as something that dogs do, so it is translated as “barking.” “Prepared the slaughter for the barking enemy?” This is not mild language!

We know from the writings of Rabbi Ephraim of Bonn (12th century) that references to an enemy who is נבח are references to Christianity. See Frankel, pages 18-19. There may be an allusion to Jewish-Christian debates here, as well. “Prepare the slaughter” is based on Isaiah 14:21.

The last stanza has the phrase: “Deche Admon — push away the red one.” Esau is called “Admoni” in Genesis 25:25. In rabbinic literature, Esau symbolized Rome and Christianity. The precise term “Admon” was used for Esau by Rabbi Eleazar Ha-Kallir (circa 600 CE) in several piyyutim. (One is cited by Rashi in Genesis 30:22, without mentioning “Kallir” by name.)

There are those who argue that “Admon” referred to the German Emperor, Frederic Barbarossa, who ruled from 1152-1190. “Barbarossa” means “redbeard” in Italian. (In Germany, he was called something similar: “Rotbart.”) It is possible that “Admon” refers to “Edom” (Rome/Christianity), but also alludes to “Barbarossa.”

An issue is whether the prayer was written for Chanukah. An alternative view is that it was composed for some other purpose and included an overview of Jewish history, and was then borrowed into the Chanukah ritual due to the “Yevanim” paragraph. But, because the first stanza includes the word “chanukat” (and incorporates it into its climactic ending), and the historical section of the prayer ends with the story of Chanukah, it is very likely that the prayer was written for Chanukah. This is much more likely than the alternative scenario.

Here is the mistake I made last year … I wrote that the prayer was recited by Rabbi Eliezer ben Nathan of Mainz (RaBaN) (circa 1090-1170). I wrote this, because it is found at pages 518-19 in the text of a work published in 1991 called: “Siddur Ha-RaBaN.” Literally, this means the siddur of this Rishon. But, I did not read the introduction to this work carefully. In the introduction, the authors explain that the purpose of this work was only to publish the siddur comments of this Rishon, and that the text that they published as the siddur text was not connected to this Rishon! (There are also no comments of the RaBaN included on it.) So, there is no evidence whatsoever that RaBaN recited our prayer, despite it being printed in this modern siddur named for him. (If you have my “Words for the Wise” book, please make the corrections at pages 65 and 70.)

(This is a frequent problem that arises in publishing commentaries of a Rishon. If you publish the comments alone, very few will buy the work. If you want to publish the comments together with the work they were commenting on, you typically do not have the actual text of the work that they were commenting on, and what you choose to publish as a text will not always match their comments.)

Last year, I called our prayer “Maoz tzur.” I have since done further research on this topic. The proper way to parse the first three words is “Maoz, tzur yeshuati.” Thus, our prayer can be called “Maoz” or “Maoz, tzur yeshuati,” but not “Maoz tzur.” (I was going to publish a column explaining all this now, but — instead — I did this column explaining my RaBaN error.)

The Koren siddur (translation by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks) translates correctly: “Refuge, rock of my salvation.” This is also the translation in the siddur “Avodat Halev” (the new RCA siddur). Incorrect is the Complete ArtScroll siddur: “Mighty rock of my salvation.” You will have to wait until next year for my explanation of all of this … (But it is in my new book, “Words for the Wise.”)

Mitchell First can be reached at [email protected]. I would like to thank Yonatan Brander for pointing out my error of misunderstanding the “Siddur Ha-RaBaN.” (I did wonder why neither the 2014 or 2016 articles I cited above mentioned the RaBaN, as a source for the recital of our prayer. Now I know!)