U-BA LE-ẒIYYON ("And the Redeemer shall come to Zion"; Isa. lix. 20):
Opening words of the closing prayer of the daily morning service, before which one should not leave the synagogue (Shulḥan 'Aruk, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 132). The prayer consists of a series of texts, in which are included the Ḳedushshah following the lesson, with its Aramaic paraphrase (comp. Soṭah 49a), and two brief, ancient prayers embodying an aspiration for enlightenment through that and other studies. It is always preceded immediately or closely by Ashre (Ps. cxlv.; Ps. xx. intervening on ordinary week-days), and it is repeated in such association before the afternoon prayer on Sabbaths and festivals, and before Ne'ilah on the Day of Atonement.
"U-Ba le-Ẓiyyon" is not chanted at length; the greater portion is read in an undertone after the ḥazzan has intoned the introductory lines. The chant for these, in the ritual of the Ashkenazim, is founded on the prayer-motive of the Sabbath afternoon service (see Music, Synagogal); but in the tradition of the Sephardim there is employed a special chant, of which a variant is used for Ps. xvi., recited shortly afterward, at the expiration of Sabbath. It is this melody which is here transcribed. In the frequent repetition of a short phrase, and the modification of it to fit the text, it reproduces the chief peculiarity of the worship-music traceable to a Spanish source earlier than 1492.
