Chad Gadya...Chad Gadya

Chad Gadya, Chad Gadya. Is it only a child’s song meant to entertain at the end of the seder? I think not. I would like to share two explanations I found this year as I was studying the haggadah.

The first explanation is by Elie Wiesel who wrote his commentary for A Passover Haggadah. In Wiesel’s words, “The song evokes the destiny of the Jewish people; that is clear. But who symbolizes the Jewish people? The goat? Surely not, for he disappears. Rather the Jewish people is symbolized by the child who receives the goat. The child, though saddened by the goat’s disappearance, remains till the end. But when is that? The end is when death is defeated. The end is the death of death. The real meaning of the song may be that, in Jewish history, all creatures, all beings, all events are connected. The goat and the cat, the fire and 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.”

The second explanation is by Rabbi Richard N. Levy, who edited On Wings of Freedom: The Hillel Haggadah for the Nights of Passover. He explains that the song “may date from as early as the thirteenth century. Perhaps it is the story of Israel, acquired by G-d through the two tablets of the covenant (two zuzim) and subsequently subjected to persecutions of those cats from Assyria, dogged by Babylonia, cudgel-wielding Persia, the fiery Macedonians led by Alexander, the floodwaters of Rome, the ox-like Saracens, the slaughtering Crusaders, and the Angel of Death- all of whom will ultimately be overcome by the Blessed Holy One. Perhaps this song is a promise of victory not only over external oppressors but also over those inner enemies that eat away at our souls. Ultimately those too, and death as well, will be overcome by the Holy One.”

Both interpretations would lead one to believe that Chad Gadyah is not just a different version of “there was an old lady who swallowed the fly,” but rather another statement about redemption. The Encyclopedia Judaica defines redemption as “salvation from the states or circumstances that destroy the value of human existence or human existence itself.” Some see redemption in terms of a messianic era ushered in by G-d. Others see it as a process of change executed by human actions to repair the world. And others see redemption as a personal process through which each individual finds release from vain pursuits.

The haggadah ends on an optimistic note when it ends with Chad Gadyah. It believes that the lot of the Jews and all of human kind will eventually change for the better. It recognizes the bitterness that has been part of history, but it does not accept that bitterness as an end. It dreams of a time when injustice and strife will cease. The core idea of redemption is that the future will be better than the present. In the words of Maimonides, “ In that era there will be neither famine nor war, neither jealousy nor strife.” Chad Gadyah, Chad Gadyah!