Chad Gadya

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"Chad Gadya" (Aramaic: חַד גַדְיָה) is a playful cumulative song, written in Aramaic with Hebrew words interspersed. The song's title translates literally as "one young female goat [kid]". It is the last song sung before "L'shana Ha'ba'ah Birushalayim" (Next Year in Jerusalem) at the Passover Seder. It is believed to have developed from Medieval German folk music. The song is popular with children and similar to other cumulative songs such as "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly". ("Echad Mi Yodea", another cumulative song, is also in the Passover Haggadah.)

Contents

Many explanations have been written attempting to explain the song's lyrics. [1] One explanation is that the kid represent the idolatry of Egypt which is eventually destroyed by God. [2] A popular explanation is that Chad Gadya shows the different nations that have inhabited the Land of Israel with the child goat being the Jewish people, then the cat being Assyria, the dog Babylon, the stick Persia, the fire Macedonia, the water Rome, the ox Saracens; the slaughterer the Crusaders, the Angel of Death, the Turks. At the end, God returns to send the Jews back to Israel.[3]

  • A version of "Had Gadia" performed by Chava Alberstein bookends the Natalie Portman film Free Zone, with a slightly different translation of the lyrics used for the English subtitles than what is found below (the animal is a lamb, not a kid), and with an additional verse relating to the "hellish circle" of violence in the Middle East.[4]

  1. ^ Lazarus, Moshe. The History of the Haggadah. Ohr Somayach. Retrieved on 2007-11-01. “Literally hundreds of explanations have been written on it. The Chida (1734-1806) writes that the Vilna Gaon (1730-1798) alone wrote more than 10 different explanations!”
  2. ^ Prero, Yehudah. Pesach Answers - Chad Gadya. Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
  3. ^ Adler, Cyrus; George Alexander Kohut, Francis L. Cohen "ḤAD GADYA".. Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 2007-11-01. “According to the commentators, the legend illustrates how the people of Israel were for centuries oppressed and persecuted by all the nations of antiquity, and how the oppressors all perished one by one, and how Israel, the oppressed, survived.” 
  4. ^ BAC Films (2005-05-09). Free Zone electronic press kit. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-12-10.
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