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Baruch El Elyon

Baruch El Elyon is a piyyut attributed to Baruch ben Samuel of Mainz. The poem is acrostically signed "BaRUCH HaZaQ". Among Ashkenazic communities, it is a traditional zemer for Shabbat lunch. Though one manuscript lists it at the end of the order for the Sabbath, Israel Isserlein (1390-1460) already sang it on Sabbath morning.

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The piyyut contains seven verses, each four lines with 12 syllables per line. The first and last verses rhyme on an ABABABAB pattern, while the middle five verses follow an ABABABCD pattern, where C rhymes with A (4x) or B (1x) and D rhymes with the first verse. One 13th-century manuscript of Machzor Vitry contains verses 1, 2, and 4, spelling ברך. One 14th-century fragment includes verses 6-7. Another manuscript of Machzor Vitry contains all seven verses. MS Schocken 22, a machzor for the Jews of Corfu, also includes the piyyut. Hagadol version An early alternative version of the last verse is found in NLI Ms. Heb. 8°844, a 15th-century Sephardic siddur, where it is marked as a "pizmon for Shabbat Hagadol". The piyyut mentions the commandment to eat matza and the Exodus. ==References==
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