Sidor Belarsky with choir, accompanied by Vladimir Heifetz
Ezra Aharon - Pesah Bat Qol
April 2026
Pesah Bat Qol Yishama’
Written by
Bat Qol Yishama play button
Pesah Bat Qol
Sometimes, obscure sections of the Jewish liturgy are set to popular tunes, becoming independent songs. Such is the fate of the following verse:
פסח בת קול יישמע ממרומים, ישראל נושע בה' תשועת עולמים, פסח לעתיד.
It roughly translates as: “Passover, a voice will be heard from on high; Israel is saved in Adonai with eternal salvation, Passover for (or: in) the future.” This is the second line of the ma’ariv, “Pesah emunim shir shoreruhu,” a piyyut added to the main text of the liturgy, in this case to the benediction ma’ariv ‘aravim (“who speaks the evening into being”), preceding the recitation of “Shema Israel” in the evening prayer (Ma’ariv in the Ashkenazi tradition) of the second day of Passover.
The author of this piyyut is Yosef bar-Yaakov (Kala’i), a paytan who lived during the time of Rashi. The poem features an alphabetical acrostic followed by the acrostic of the poet’s name. It enumerates the miracles performed during the redemption from Egypt and contrasts them with the miracles and feats that He will perform in the future. As the saying goes, in the month of Nissan Israel was redeemed, and in the month of Nissan Israel will be redeemed. The poet therefore compares the “Passover of Egypt,” the holiday we celebrate in the present, with the final redemption yet to come, which he calls the “Passover of the future.” This concept is grounded in the prophecy of Ezekiel (45:21) concerning the special Temple offerings of Passover in the future, and was further developed in the Talmud (e.g., Yerushalmi, Pesahim 10a).
“Pesah bat qol” was set to a Hasidic niggun by the prolific music educator, critic, and composer Menashe Ravina (Rabinowitz, 1899–1968). Born in Pereiaslav, Central Ukraine (also the birthplace of Sholom Aleichem), Ravina moved to British Mandate Palestine in 1924, where he became a pivotal figure in diverse musical circles. His activities included the publication of new Hebrew songs on behalf of the Keren Kayemet le-Israel (the Jewish National Fund). As the late musicologist Natan Shahar details:
In March 1932... the JNF produced a series of twelve “songs on postcards” edited by Menashe Rabinowitz (later Ravina)… Appearing on the front side of each postcard was music, the Hebrew text with vowels and a transliteration, plus the tag line, “Songs of the Homeland” [Mishirei hamoledet]... Two months after publication, almost the entire series of some 5,000 sets had sold out. Buoyed by its success, JNF officials asked Rabinowitz to edit two additional series of ten postcards each… By the beginning of 1935, a total of five “songs on postcards” series had been published, consisting of fifty-two new songs. (Natan Shahar, “The Eretz Israeli Song and the Jewish National Fund,” in Jonathan Frankel, Peter Y. Medding, and Ezra Mendelsohn (eds.), Modern Jews and Their Musical Agendas: Studies in Contemporary Jewry [1993], pp. 85–86.)
One of these musical postcards includes “Pesah bat qol,” with the title reading: “text adapted by Menashe Rabinowitz.”
Figure 1. Detail of postcard with “Pesah bat qol,” titled “Shir Pesah – zemer ‘amami” (Song of Passover – folk melody)
Ravina probably heard this niggun from Hasidim in Palestine/Eretz Israel. Thanks to our database Nigunimbimbom, conceived and designed by Michael Lukin, we were able to locate another version of this niggun (no. 1276 in the database). Published by Joachim Stutschewsky in Hassidic Tunes: Festivals and Holy Days (Tel Aviv, 1971, p. 37), it is attributed to the Slonim Hasidic dynasty, which has had a strong presence in Eretz Yisrael since the mid-nineteenth century. In this source, the niggun is set to the piyyut by Yehudah Halevi, “Yom le-yabbashah,” a Sephardic poem for the Seventh Day of Passover that was eventually adopted by Ashkenazi Jews as early as the fourteenth century—not only for Passover, but also for Shabbat Shirah (the Sabbath when the Song of the Sea is chanted) and brit milah (circumcision).
The setting of “Pesah bat qol” apparently did not gain wide popularity. Nevertheless, it was recorded by the Kol Zion la-Gola Choir and the Kol Israel Orchestra (today the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra) in 1957, arranged by Marc Lavry, and in 1962 by singer Sidor Belarsky with choir and piano accompaniment arranged by Vladimir Heifetz. Belarsky may have accessed this song through its publication in Philip Goodman’s The Passover Anthology (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1961, p. 287, under the title “Pesach Emunim”).
Figure 2. Back cover of Seder Nights with Sidor Belarsky, Artistic Enterprises 112-13. “Pesah bat qol” appears simply as “Pesah – Hassidic.”
Bat Qol Yishama play button
Pesah Bat Qol
Sidor Belarsky with choir, accompanied by Vladimir Heifetz
More recently, the Israeli ensemble Ha-lev veha-ma’ayan, directed by contrabassist Naor Carmi, recorded this Hasidic melody set, as in Stutschewsky’s anthology, to “Yom le-yabbashah”—in their album Shira Hadashah (2010). The following story (translated from Hebrew) accompanies the recording of this song:
“The Hasid R. Meir Leib was a student of R. Nathan of Breslov, a prominent disciple of Rabbi Nachman, and was the only composer in Breslov in that generation. The most famous of his compositions is ‘Oz vehadar lebusha.’ He used to retreat to the fields and forests day and night, as instructed by Rabbi Nachman, where he would compose his melodies, which were received with joy by the Hasidim. This melody is sung at all circumcision feasts and on the Sabbath of Passover among the Hasidim of Breslov.”
It remains unclear whether R. Meir Leib is the composer of this melody. In any case, the Bratslav Hasidim have adopted it as their own, as can be heard in instrumental versions of this tune.
Bat Qol Yishama play button
Yom le-yabbashah, Ha-lev veha-ma’ayan
Shira Hadashah
Why did we become interested in “Pesah bat qol” in the first place? The answer lies in a most unexpected source: the archive of the Iraqi Jewish musician Ezra Aharon (Azuri al-Awwad). A voluminous score containing most of his compositions from the 1930s and 1940s includes a setting of “Pesah bat qol,” indicating that he composed it “anew in Adar 5699 [1938/39].”
Figure 3. Ezra Aharon, “Pesah bat qol,” Ezra Aharon Archive, National Library of Israel, Mus. 0294 A.
Aharon’s joyful melody, in a major mode, is as far removed from the Hasidic niggun in minor that Ravina set to this poem as it is from his predominantly Arabic compositional style. We know that Ravina and the Iraqi Jewish master maintained a close relationship of mutual respect and admiration, despite some critical remarks by the Ukrainian-born music critic toward the Baghdad-born musician. It is therefore not inconceivable that Ravina commissioned this setting from Ezra/Azuri. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain how the Iraqi composer became familiar with such a rare text from the Ashkenazi liturgy.