This is revised with added notes from a short piece I wrote on the well-known Chanukkah piyyut, Ma’oz Tzur, and its cultural contexts, for Shabbat Chanukkah 5779 in a local newsletter. Of the rich tradition of piyyut composed for Chanukkah, today two are customarily used: Ha-Nerot Hallalu and Ma’oz Tzur, which are sung after lighting…
