Lel Shimurim Oto El Hatzah

In the Ashkenazic rite (as well as the Provençal and Catalonian rites), the original Zulat (the piyyut before Mi Khamokhah), which continues the acrostic from the previous section, is missing, and instead there is an alternate Zulat which interrupts the alphabetic order. The alternate piyyut is longer, and it has its own independent alphabetic acrostic. Its theme is a comparison between the Exodus from Egypt and the future redemption, and it has alternating refrains: "In the days of the Passover festival" and "As in the days of the Passover festival." The original text is preserved in genizah fragments, and in the Italian and Romaniote rites.^[7]

In the Western Ashkenaz rite,^[8] before the conclusion of Hashkiveinu, there is an additional bikkur by Rabbi Meir sheliach tzibbur [he] Ezkerah Shenot 'Olamim ("I will remember the years of the past"), discussing the Passover sacrifice. In the other rites, this bikkur does not appear.

The piyyut has been translated several times, including Jenny Marmorstein's translation of the Rödelheim machzor.^[9] It also appears with an English translation in the Artscroll Passover machzor.

The piyyut is quoted in several early rabbinic works. For example, Sefer Ha-manhig [he], Laws of Passover^[10] says that 'There are those who say that Rav would not eat on the day of before Passover because Rav was a firstborn. And this is because God 'killed the firstborn of Ham (Egypt) and upon his firstborn son had mercy'. The phrase 'killed the firstborn of Ham (Egypt) and upon his firstborn son had mercy' is a direct quote from the alternate zulat recited in Ashkenazic communities.