Ilana Kruger
9th grade
As a little kid, I loved to sing Chad Gadya. But, it always came at the very end of the Seder, and I was not always awake for it. When that happened, I would get to sing it with my mom in the morning. Now that I am older, I wonder what exactly this cute little song about a goat really means.
The Vilna Gaon explains each verse and what they come to teach us. “One little goat, one little goat, that my father bought for two zuzim.” The goat, or kid, represents the first-born rights that were taken from Esav, and which went to Yaakov, and then which returned eventually to Yosef. The cat that ate the goat is Yosef’s brothers because they acted as “jealously as a cat” and sold Yosef because of the first-born rights. The dog that bit the cat are the Egyptians who enslaved the Jews, and that was caused by the brothers’ sin of selling Yosef. The stick that beat the dog is the staff of Moshe, and the staff lasted until the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. Then came the fire that burnt the stick, which is the flame that destroyed the Beit Hamikdash. The water that put out the fire is the Men of the Great Assembly, who came back and rebuilt the Beit Hamikdash. Then the ox that drank the water is Edom, who destroyed the second Beit Hamikdash. The slaughterer that killed the ox is Moshiach ben Yosef (the first Moshiach), and the Angel of Death that killed the slaughterer is Samel, who will kill Moshiach ben Yosef. And, finally, comes Hashem, who will kill the Angel of Death, and then Hashem will bring Moshiach ben Dovid.
So, what does this all mean? Chad Gadya teaches the importance of faith in Hashem’s ultimate justice, meaning he rewards those who do good and punishes those who commit evil. Situations may arise that we don’t understand this, but Chad Gadya teaches us that Hashem’s rules guide everything that happened in past, as well as, in the present and future.
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