Candle #7: “What? ‘Rock of Ages’’ is a Jewish Song?”

  Christians have their “Rock of Ages,” and we have ours. It is a song based on the Hebrew Ma’oz Tzur and has been a Chanukah staple in the Reform synagogue since the start. Amazingly, it presents the story – or at least the special value – of our Festival of Lights in three powerful stanzas.

  One interesting note…a while ago one particular line was changed. The first sentence of the third stanza read “Children of the martyr race, whether free or fettered…” It disturbed us to be called, a) a race, and b) martyred. Sure, we had our share of martyrs, but enough of this victimization already especially in a song that glorifies our victory over evil, miraculous or otherwise. And so, it was changed to “Children of the Maccabees…” and I think most of us would rather be called that than the other.

  The whole matter of songs in English calls to mind the debate as to whether a non-Hebrew song should be sung in the synagogue. Of course, they should. If they’ve got meaning it’s good to understand what it is we’re singing. So many of our regular Shabbat melodies are more mantras than they are powerful “hymns,” sung because “that’s what we remember” as opposed to sung “because they mean something to me.” And not only that, more of them than we would believe are sung to the tunes of drinking songs that were heard in taverns all over Europe. 

   For Yom Kippur we sing “All the World Shall Come to Serve You,” and there’s no other song with such grandeur and meaning than that one. And for Chanukah we’ve got “Rock of Ages” as well as “Who Can Retell” (Mi Y’malel in Hebrew) and that beloved, “I Have a Little Dreidl” which is adorable but let it not stand as the end-all and be-all of Chanukah melodies!

   Almost a century ago, the wife of the rabbi of my Wilmington congregation wrote many hymns that appeared in our movement’s song books and hymnals. One of them written for Succot is “The Garland Song.” It goes, “Come bring the fairest garlands that autumn fields afford. We sing before God’s altar; we dance before the Lord….” and has a couple of other verses that are virtually indistinguishable from the first. Truth be told, coming from a synagogue in which you never heard English melodies, I HATED that song, but as some of you might imagine, these things grow on me. We sang it every Succot, evening and morning, and (I’m almost embarrassed to say), laughed through the whole thing. It is the most insipid tune…but it was OUR INSIPID TUNE and forever I was associated with it. My badge of honor indeed!

So “Rock of Ages” is a song I sing at our chanukiah lighting every night – all three verses – and I love it! It is not insipid; it is not Christian; it captures what Chanukah is all about.