Chad Gadya

chadgfullbig_0.jpg?itok=KcrL-uiO

As with any work of verse, Chad Gadya is open to interpretation. According to some modern Jewish commentators, what appears to be a light-hearted song may be symbolic. One interpretation is that Chad Gadya is about the different nations that have conquered the Land of Israel: The kid symbolizes the Jewish people, the cat, Assyria; the dog, Babylon; the stick, Persia; the fire, Macedonia; the water, Roman Empire; the ox, the Saracens; the slaughterer, the Crusaders; the angel of death, the Turks. At the end, God returns to send the Jews back to Israel. The recurring refrain of 'two zuzim' is a reference to the two stone tablets given to Moses on Mount Sinai (or refer to Moses and Aaron).  Though commonly interpreted as an historical allegory of the Jewish people, the song may also represent the journey to self-development. The price of two zuzim, mentioned in every stanza, is equal to the half-shekel tax upon every adult Israelite male; making the price of two zuzim the price of a Jewish soul. In 1994, Rabbi Kenneth Brander summarized the interpretations of three rabbis: as a list of the pitfalls and perils facing the soul during one's life, as a very abbreviated history of Israel from the Covenant of the Two Pieces recorded in Genesis 15 (the two zuzim), to slavery in Egypt (the cat), the staff of Moses (the stick) and ending with the Roman conqueror Titus (the Angel of Death), and as a description of  the Passover ritual in the Temple of Jerusalem - the goat purchased for the Paschal sacrifice, according to the Talmud dreaming of a cat is a premonition of singing such as occurs in the seder, the Talmud also relates that dogs bark after midnight which is the time limit for the seder, the priest who led the cleaning of the altar on Passover morning would use water to wash his hands, many people at the Temple that day would bring oxen as sacrifices, the Angel of Death is the Roman Empire that destroyed the Second Temple.

The real meaning of the song may be that, in jewish history, all creatures, all beings, all events, are connected. The goat, the cat, the fire, the water, the slaughterer, and the redeemer are all part of the story.

Sometimes stories are sad.  Still, it is important to tell them and retell them, to live them again and again, this year and next, when we shall meet again around this Seder table. 


haggadah Section: Songs