Maoz Tzur & Shavuot (part II)

[SamWeiss <SamWeiss...>]

Robert, thanks for keeping me on my toes on this point!
But before leaving this subject I want to address more directly the 
assumption underlying  your question:
<<As anomalous as it is that we sing "Ma'oz Tsur" only for Chanukah (as 
opposed to, say, Purim, or Passover), its singing, or reciting, on Shavuous 
would presumably be even odder, as it's one holiday that's *not* referred to.>>

To judge from the number of Piyyutim contained in any Machzor with English 
translation -- by which I mean any collection that would typify modern 
usage -- it is hard for us to imagine the many thousands of Hebrew prayers 
and liturgical poems that were written over the ages.  Some might have been 
recited in public once or twice by the author -- who could have been the 
cantor of the congregation.  Others could have had longer usage and/or 
wider circulation.  Still others could have been collected and included in 
one type of anthology or another (siddur, machzor, or other collection) 
determined by the vagaries of scribes, printers, publishers and booksellers 
just as much as by the patterns of liturgical usage.

What determined the "assignment" of a particular prayer to a particular 
liturgical occasion?  The original intent of the author?  Maybe.  The 
practice of the congregation?  Sometimes, perhaps.  But considering the 
sheer number of prayers and hymns that have accumulated over time (the vast 
preponderance of which have been -- to put it indelicately -- flushed down 
the great drainpipe of history), it seems to me that the practice of the 
congregation would more likely be determined by the contents of a book, 
rather than vice versa.  So the ultimate arbiter of much liturgical 
practice could very well have been the book publishers.

The travails of the Jewish Exile and the hope for redemption and the 
rebuilding of the Temple in Jeruslaem constitute one of the most common 
themes in Hebrew liturgical poetry.  Thank God (so to speak), we have 
plenty of liturgical occasions where this theme is suitable, including  the 
various fast days, the ten-day Penitential period starting with Rosh 
Hashanah, as well as the Holidays commemorating particular historical 
events.  If we consider the needs of a publisher who needs to fill his set 
of prayerbooks for the Three Festivals, holidays that have attracted many 
Piyyutim and the congregants to recite them, it is easy to see how he would 
have less of a problem with Passover & Succot -- week-long Festivals laden 
with rituals, historic references, Biblical texts, and associations with 
Temple sacrifices -- than with the short "simple" Festival of Shavuot.

Shavuot, however, has the "advantage" of also commemorating the receiving 
of the entire Torah, an all-embracing religious event that can easily 
include various particular historical events.  So, getting back to our 
example of Maoz Tzur, a "redemption" Piyyut enumerating several historical 
events related to different ("competing") holidays, one can see how any one 
of these holidays would actually hold a =disadvantage= to the less 
particular Shavuot for an anthology seeking to "spread out" a supply of 
Piyyutim among various liturgical occasions.

For a contemporary ilustration of how this process might have worked, think 
of the way our current collections of Shabbat Zemirot almost uniformly 
parcel out the songs between Friday night and Saturday morning, and this 
has become the "traditional" usage even though the content of many of the 
songs offer no compelling reason for this assignment.  One song ("Tzur 
Mishelo") offers no reason for an association with Shabbat 
altogether.  This, perhaps, would be analogous to a Shavuot hymn recounting 
the miracles of the other holidays.  (Maybe there's something about "Tzur"...)

_____________________________________________________________
Cantor Sam Weiss === Jewish Community Center of Paramus, NJ