On the Meaning of Chad Gadya-One Baby Goat A Passover Message from SWF Convener, Rabbi Dov Gartenberg

Thursday, April 10, 2024.  

A few years ago, a group of American scholars, journalists, and writers published the New American Haggadah. One of the commentators in the Haggadah is Jeffrey Goldberg who is now editor of The Atlantic. (He has been in the national new due to the Signal Chat incident.) He has a running commentary in the New American Haggadah that addresses the relationship between the texts and themes of the Haggadah and the modern American Jewish experience.  I will tap this thought-provoking commentary as part of SWF’s 6th night Seder: Freedom, Democracy, and Judaism. Here is an excerpt of his commentary about the Seder Song, Chad Gadya.  p. 146.  

“This is a highly amusing song with awesome meaning. If you accept the political interpretation of Chad Gadya, that the kid represents the Jewish people, and that the cat plays the part of Assyria, and Rome, the ox, and so on, then the message of Chad Gadya is nothing less than the message of the seder itself; it may seem that persecution will last forever, but it will not-and it will be the righteous God who brings it to an end. 

Chad Gadya teaches the importance of small acts. Follow the song all the way through. One little goat is ultimately responsible for the smiting of the Angel of Death by God. That’s some goat. 

Most great movements for change start with small acts by anonymous people, think of Shifra and Puah, the Hebrew Midwives who cleverly resist the commands of Pharaoh.  ... The power of a single human being is awesome, in part because so few individual acts occur in a vacuum. We all look to others for leadership, for positive examples. Which means that we have within us the power to be that example. We all have within us the power to spark revolutions through the lives we choose to lead. And it is our choice! Judaism, Jonathan Sacks wrote, “is the religion of the free human being freely responding to the God of freedom.” If a mere goat can bring about the smiting of the Angel of Death, just imagine what you, a free person could do, just by responding to the God of freedom.”