("Only One Kid"). Title of a popular folksong, written in Aramaic, which is chanted at the end of the Passover Seder. Its authorship and date of composition are uncertain, but it probably had a medieval German prototype which derived from an old French nursery rhyme. Structurally, Ḥad Gadya comprises ten stanzas with a constant refrain, each stanza incorporating all of the previous lines (this structure has been compared with that of an 18th-century English nursery rhyme, "The House that Jack Built"). By the later Middle Ages, Ḥad Gadya had become popular among Ashkenazi Jews, the text appearing (with a Yiddish translation) in an Italian Haggadah of the 15th century. Until recently, it was unknown to Sephardi and Oriental Jewry as a "table song" for Passover.
Primarily intended to amuse young children and keep them awake until the conclusion of the Seder, Ḥad Gadya has lent itself to many interpretations. Beneath the outward trappings of a secular ballad, it has been suggested, lie an historical allegory and religious message. The "only kid that father bought for two zuzim" is thus taken to represent the Jewish people, acquired by God at Sinai with the two tablets of the Law (or, alternatively, through the agency of Moses and Aaron). The remaining figures in the story wouId then personify nations that successively oppressed Israel, each being overthrown in its turn by a new tyranny. Assyria or Babylonia (the cat) fell to Persia (the dog), which succumbed to Greece (the stick), which was swallowed up in the Roman Empire (the fire); Rome fell to the Barbarians (the water), who were vanquished by the armies of Islam (the ox), which yielded to the Crusaders (the slaughterer). Finally, in the Angel of Death, one is intended to see the latest conqueror or persecutors whom the God of history will bring to account. Concealed within this allegory, therefore, would be the Jewish concept of retributive justice. The religious message maintains that all men will be held accountable for their deeds, while the people of Israel may take comfort in the knowledge that their survival and ultimate vindication will be assured under Divine providence. Ḥad Gadya is sung to a wide variety of melodies in a rapid tempo; some of these melodies are traditional, others (in Israel especially) are still being composed.
