It's a Cat-Bite-Goat World

[rymenhild]

Many of you are literary critics. Many of you are amateur or professional scholars of Judaism. Most of you are talented at creative, bizarre works of extempore interpretation.

Therefore:

I propose a challenge. It shall be open to every reader of this journal, regardless of religion, race, gender, level of education, sexual orientation or status as a fictional character. (I should note that entries from fictional characters are especially welcome.) It's even open to non-readers of this journal. Advertise the challenge to your friends!

I challenge you to provide an interpretation for the following song:

Had Gadya (One Little Goat)

One little goat, one little goat,
that Father bought for two zuzim. *A zuz (plural, zuzim) is a coin. All I know about the exchange rate is that two zuzim buy a small goat.
One little goat, one little goat.

Then came a cat and ate the goat,
that Father bought for two zuzim.
One little goat, one little goat.

Then came a dog and bit the cat that ate the goat,
that Father bought for two zuzim.
One little goat, one little goat.

Then came a stick and beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the goat,
that Father bought for two zuzim.
One little goat, one little goat.

Then came fire and burned the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the goat,
that Father bought for two zuzim.
One little goat, one little goat.

Then came water and quenched the fire that burned the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the goat,
that Father bought for two zuzim.
One little goat, one little goat.

Then came an ox and drank the water that quenched the fire that burned the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the goat,
that Father bought for two zuzim.
One little goat, one little goat.

Then came the butcher and slaughtered the ox that drank the water that quenched the fire that burned the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the goat,
that Father bought for two zuzim.
One little goat, one little goat.

Then came the Angel of Death and killed the butcher who slaughtered the ox that drank the water that quenched the fire that burned the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the goat,
that Father bought for two zuzim.
One little goat, one little goat.

Then came the Holy One, blessed be He, and slew the Angel of Death that killed the butcher who slaughtered the ox that drank the water that quenched the fire that burned the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the goat,
that Father bought for two zuzim.
One little goat, one little goat.

A note of explanation: "Had Gadya" is traditionally sung at the end of the Passover Seder, a ritual dinner occurring in a week and a half. By that point in the ritual, everyone is (or should be) drunk and exhausted, and no one quite knows what they're singing or why. The song, as you may notice, has nothing obvious to do with freedom from slavery; it has nothing obvious to do with spring fertility rituals; it may possibly have nothing to do with anything. However, Jews are not content to take "meaningless" as an answer, so we keep making up interpretations.

Some interpretations from Jewish Heritage Online Magazine

According to one popular interpretation, the kid symbolizes the oppressed Jewish people, which was bought by the father (God) for two coins (Moses and Aaron). The subsequent players in the ballad represent the nations who persecuted the Jewish people over the centuries: the devouring cat represents Assyria; the dog–Babylon; the stick represents Persia; the fire Macedonia; the water is Rome; the ox, the Saracens; the shohet (ritual slaughter)–the Crusaders; and the Angel of Death, the Turks who subsequently ruled Palestine. The end of the song expresses the hope for messianic redemption: God destroys the foreign rulers of the Holy Land and vindicates Israel as "the only kid."

According to other, mystical interpretations, Had Gadya is an allegorization of the Joseph legend, or alternatively, of the relationship between body and soul as reflected in Jewish mysticism. (found here)

Clearly, we need more explanations for this song. Explain away! Points will be given for creativity, randomness, amusement value, plausibility, implausibility, and my mood at any given moment.

Here's a bizarre 80s Hebrew version of the song, complete with synthesizers and eerie drums, to get you in the mood.

Comments

[taylweaver.livejournal.com]

What I find rather interesting about this discussion is that most people assume that Chad Gadya is a song that is inherently Jewish - especially because it ties in so well with the theme of persecution after persecution with an ending of justice. It must be noted, however, that, as far as I can tell, Chad Gadya is not originally a Jewish song.

My senior year of college, while taking a class that involved using children's stories, I found one about a rooster (or some other animal, but I think it was a rooster), who is going to a fair. He gets mud on his beak, and he wants the grass to wipe it off for him. When the grass refuses, he asks - well, I can't remember, but I am fairly certain it was a goat - to threaten to eat the grass. When the goat refuses, I think he asks a cat to eat the goat, and on down the chain: a dog to bite the cat, a stick to hit the dog, a fire to burn the stick, water to quench the fire, and - here it differs - the sun to dry the water. So we don't have the ox, the angel of death or God in there, and I am a bit hazy on the details, but it matches up fairly well, and it is clear that the two stories are historically connected.

Now, the interesting part is that this is not an Eastern European folktale. If it was, I might wonder if it began with Jews and spread to other places. (Not that i have any idea if that is at all likely). I think that the book I found said it was a cuban story - or at least, from somewhere in Latin America. Someone else I spoke to thinks this song originated in Spain.

So the Jews didn't create it - they took it from somewhere else.

The biggest question is, why did the story change? In the version I was reading, there was bark but no bite - it was all empty threats. Once someone agreed to begin the chain of threats - the sun - the selfish bird who wanted the mud off his beak (which got there, I believe, because he stooped to pick up a coin - I wonder if it was a zuz?) got what he wanted, and no one got hurt. This stands in contrast to the version we know, where everyone gets hurt, except perhaps for God, who has to watch all of His creations get hurt. So I am wondering why it changed.

I have no further information, but I am thinking maybe that this migrated to Ashkenazi tradition when the Spanish Inquisition happened - but I am not sure how old it would have to be for the aramaic to make sense. If so, however, I am guessing the people who would be singing it - who were just expelled from Spain - would be rather disillusioned, and it would make sense to twist what seems to be a relatively innocent song of the swallowed a fly variety - despite its less than ideal message that you can get what you want if you have friends in high places who can threaten people below them - into a depressing song about the way they may have perceived the world - full of victims. Think about it: bird as persecutor - that's their version of the song; goat as victim - the one at the bottom of the chain - our version of the song.

So I guess they gave the song a sort of Jewish twist in which not only is everyone a victim of persecution, but everyone deserves a good guilt trip as well.