Re: The saga of Khad Gadya

[Eliott Kahn <Elkahn...>]

Thank you Cantor Weiss for such a fascinating, well-researched, and 
well-written response.

While I will miss Wolf Krakowski's original and provocative contributions, I'm 
pleased that this list now has a genuine specialist in Jewish liturgy and 
nusah. It's a welcome addition and makes me happy to continue learning and 
sharing information with you folks.

Best wishes for a zissen Pesakh,

Eliott Kahn



>The article is wrong, but not simply.
>It states that Khad Gadya <<makes its first appearance as a Passover song in a 
>haggadah
>printed in Prague in 1590.>> It should have said that the first printed 
>Haggadah to contain
>the song appeared in Prague in 1590. Earlier manuscript versions exist. As far 
>as
><<It never was a part of the Sephardi (Spanish) and the Yemenite rituals>>,
>this should have been elaborated to say that these traditions crystalized their
>Haggadot without the song, though later borrowings from the Ashkenazi Haggadot
>might have taken place. This is similar to the way in which certain Sephardi
>Piyyutim (e.g. "Eyl Nora Alila" or "Shakhar Avakeshkha") have been entering 
>some
>modern Ashkenazi prayer books in the last several decades, even though one 
>would
>rightly say that these hymns "were never part of the Ashkenazi ritual."
>
>Your question about Aramaic gives me a justification to "reprint" the following
>article I wrote a few years ago on this general topic. Read it, delete it, or
>save it for the Seder.
>
>
>...........................................................
>
>SING A SONG OF PASSOVER
>by Sam Weiss
>
>The traditional Passover Haggadah is a mosaic of liturgical and narrative 
>texts designed to celebrate the Exodus experience. Included are a variety of 
>hymns similar to those that may be found in the prayer book (Piyyutim) or to 
>those sung around the Sabbath table (Zemirot).
>
>One such hymn is the well-known Dayyenu that is sung close to the midpoint of 
>the Haggadah; another example is the brief poem Khasal Siddur Pesakh ("Ended 
>Is The Passover Celebration") which marks the official conclusion of the Seder 
>ceremonies. Notwithstanding this explicitly "concluding" hymn, three 
>additional Passover Piyyutim were appended to the Haggadah in the Middle Ages 
>-- although they were composed in an earlier period. The refrains of these 
>Hebrew hymns are "It Happened At Midnight," "Say It Is The Passover Offering," 
>and "Beautiful Praise Is His Due."
>
>In a different category from these three songs are the three that appear at 
>the very end of the Haggadah, usually in the following order: Adir Hu ("Mighty 
>Is He"), Ekhad Mi Yode'a ("Who Knows One?"), and Khad Gadya ("One Little 
>Goat"). All three have no apparent connection to Passover, and they have an 
>unmistakable folk-like character -- in structure as well as content -- which 
>sets them apart from other Jewish liturgical songs.
>
>Reminiscent of West European cumulative songs, nursery rhymes, and counting 
>songs, these Jewish folksongs were perhaps translated from their original 
>vernacular language for inclusion in the Haggadah. Adir Hu, Ekhad Mi Yode'a 
>and Khad Gadya first began their close association with the Passover ritual in 
>the Ashkenazic tradition, appearing sporadically or not at all in the Haggadot 
>of other Jewish communities.
>
>Perhaps the most famous of this group is Khad Gadya, a cumulative narrative 
>about the goat which is eaten by a cat, which is bitten by a dog, which is hit 
>by a stick, and so on. A highly unusual aspect of this song is that it is 
>almost entirely in Aramaic. The notable Hebrew words are the terms for the 
>slaughterer, the Angel of Death, and for God. Interestingly enough, the other 
>cumulative Seder song, Ekhad Mi Yode'a, is mainly in Hebrew, with a sprinkling 
>of Aramaic words apparently used for rhyming purposes.
>
>Unlike the famous Aramaic passage at the beginning of the Haggadah, Ha Lakhma 
>Anya, the "invitation to the Seder" composed in Babylon around the 8th 
>century, Khad Gadya seems to have been written around the 15th century, a time 
>when this language had long ceased to be a Jewish vernacular. While some 
>Sephardic Kabbalists were still using Aramaic in the 16th century for 
>liturgical and esoteric writings (e.g. the Sabbath table song Yah Ribon by 
>Israel Najara), the singing of Khad Gadya was in fact an Ashkenazic custom 
>which only entered Sephardic practice in a limited way. Among those Sephardim 
>who today do sing the story of Khad Gadya, it is often done in a vernacular 
>like Ladino, French or Arabic. Scholars, moreover, have discovered a 
>Judeo-German version of the song that predates the earliest available Aramaic 
>version. Why, then, was it written in (or translated into) Aramaic rather than 
>Hebrew?
>
>As a closing Aramaic text, Khad Gadya mirrors the Aramaic text which opens the 
>Haggadah. This could have entered into the decision -- whether playful or 
>serious -- to choose Aramaic over Hebrew. Another factor to consider is that 
>the Seder celebration includes several customs intended to stimulate the 
>interest and curiosity of the children. While the content of this ditty would 
>certainly qualify it as a children's item, one would not expect even a 
>well-educated child to understand Aramaic. Perhaps the choice of this arcane 
>language was made precisely so that the child would inquire about its meaning 
>and be captivated by its story.
>
>But not only children have been intrigued by this goat's tale. Even if the 
>song was not written by a Kabbalist, it has traditionally been interpreted in 
>mystical and allegorical ways. Chief among these is the understanding of Khad 
>Gadya as a reference to the many persecutions of the Jewish people who, 
>according to the song's optimistic ending, will be redeemed by God Himself 
>"slaying the Angel of Death." Indeed, were it not for such an interpretation, 
>it would be difficult to understand the song's Jewish content, let alone its 
>connection to Passover. Taken as a symbolic text, the use of a mysterious 
>ancient language in which to shroud the ordinary content of the song makes a 
>certain kind of sense.
>
>Whether the song is interpreted allegorically or not, the main character of 
>the goat is intriguing, if only because a goat seems rather large to be eaten 
>by a cat. Perhaps the choice of a goat to represent the Jewish people is 
>explicable as a reference to the Biblical "Scapegoat," the classic sacrificial 
>"victim" for Jewish misdeeds. Further, the image of the goat also occurs in 
>Yiddish folksongs as some sort of alter ego of the Jew, as in the song 
>Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen.
>
>Apropos of Yiddish usage: the term "Khad Gadye" is used in that language to 
>mean "slammer," as a slang expression for "prison." The association here is 
>with a Polish word for "prison" that happens to sound something like "gadya". 
>Despite the obscure derivation, this familiar use of the song title 
>underscores the place that this "poor kid" occupies in the Jewish imagination, 
>at Passover-time and year-round.
>
>______________________________________________________
>Cantor Sam Weiss === Jewish Community Center of Paramus, NJ
>
>
>

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