May 24. Story of the Day: Chad Gadya (One Goat).

I probably should have done Chad Gadya as the very first story-of-the-day for this project as it is the chain-tale story (song) that is most alive in the world today, being part of Passover Seders in Jewish homes every year. It is not an ancient Jewish story, but instead a story that someone devised during the European diaspora, perhaps in the 15th century, and it then made its way into the Haggadah. I'm not going to even try to summarize the attempts scholars have made to trace its more specific origins; to find out more about that, one useful place to start is here: Had Gadya - Jewish Music Research Center.

The English version I've used below comes from an old booklet by George Alexander Kohut: Some Passover rhymes and their parallels.  For the Aramaic/Hebrew words, see Wikipedia.

As folklore, this is usually classified as ATU 2030 The old woman and her pig, although there is no explanation found in this song for what the goat is obstinately refusing to do; see my ATU 2030 page for other obstinate goats. Want more chain tales? Click here for previous Stories-of-the-Day.

And Nina Paley (yes, the same Nina Paley of Sita Sings the Blues!) has provided an embroidered animation for this song as part of her newest film, Sedermasochism. Here is her version of Chad Gadya... embroidered. To learn more about the "embroidermation" process, check out this blog post from Theo Gray, co-creator of this wonderful video project:

CHAD GADYA

A kid, a kid, my father bought
For two pieces of money:
A kid, a kid.

Then came the cat and ate the kid
That my father bought
For two pieces of money.

Then came the dog and bit the cat
That ate the kid
That my father bought
For two pieces of money.

Then came the staff and beat the dog
That bit the cat
That ate the kid
That my father bought
For two pieces of money.

Then came the fire and burned the staff
That beat the dog
That bit the cat
That ate the kid
That my father bought
For two pieces of money.

Then came the water and quenched the fire
That burned the staff
That beat the dog
That bit the cat
That ate the kid
That my father bought
For two pieces of money.

Then came the ox and drank the water
That quenched the fire
That burned the staff
That beat the dog
That bit the cat
That ate the kid
That my father bought
For two pieces of money.

Then came the butcher and slew the ox
That drank the water
That quenched the fire
That burned the staff
That beat the dog
That bit the cat
That ate the kid
That my father bought
For two pieces of money.

Then came the Angel of Death and killed the butcher
That slew the ox
That drank the water
That quenched the fire
That burned the staff
That beat the dog
That bit the cat
That ate the kid
That my father bought
For two pieces of money.

Then came the Holy One, blessed be He, and killed the Angel of Death
That killed the butcher
That slew the ox
That drank the water
That quenched the fire
That burned the staff
That beat the dog
That bit the cat
That ate the kid
That my father bought
For two pieces of money.

(Jewish Music Research Center)

CHAIN: kid - cat - dog - staff - fire - water - ox - butcher - Angel of Death - God