But there is at least one person who believed that the two songs were composed much earlier: Rav Yedidya Thia Weil, rav of Karlsruhe in the late 18th century and the son of Rav Nataniel Weil. In his commentary on the haggadah, Hamarbeh Lesaper, Rav Weil writes that he heard both songs were found in the beis medrash of Rav Eleazar Rokeach of Worms (c. 1185- c. 1230). This beis medrash burned down in 1349 and was rebuilt in the 1350s. Since we don’t know which beis medrash Rav Weil was referring to, we can’t say that the songs were written before 1350. But Rav Weil mentions elsewhere that he used a siddur written in 1406 for reference while he wrote his commentary. So perhaps the songs were written in the 1300s – and thus their origins are Jewish and Ashkenazic. But since we no longer have this siddur that Rav Weil referred to, no one today knows for sure.
Chad Gadya
While Chad Gadya’s history in print is the same as Echad Mi Yodeya, its life before the Prague Haggadah of 1590 is better known. As most people have noticed, the song doesn’t have anything to do with Pesach. In fact, there were some scholars who thought the song was just the Jewish version of some popular German folk songs. One such song, “For the Youngsters of Our People,” appeared in the early 1800s in a three-volume collection of folk songs called Das Knaben Wunderhorn. But since the German version printed in this book includes a “Shochet” and the “Malach Hammoves,” it appears it was the Jews who influenced the Germans and not the other way around.
In fact, it seems that Chad Gadya began as a popular folk song in Provence; a version appears in a 15th-century siddur written according to minhag Provence by a Sephardic Jew who was living there. Different versions appeared in Central-European kehillos. Therefore, one theory posits that when Jews were expelled from France during the 14th century they took the song with them.
The song only became popular with Sephardic and Mizrachi Jews much later, and it was eventually translated into Ladino, Arabic and other languages. But what is it doing in our haggadah?
Although it’s possible to see Chad Gadya as just a children’s song, our Sages found deep meaning in the song’s seemingly simple words. Rav Nasan Adler once used Chad Gadya to show the dangers of lashon hara (the dog shouldn’t have gotten involved in a quarrel that was none of its business, etc.). Rav Yaakov Emden and the Chida, Rav Chaim Yosef David Azoulai, saw a comparison between the small goat and the soul; the things that happen in the song have an effect upon the soul during its journey through life.
The Vilna Gaon saw allusions to events in Jewish history, the ups and downs as Yaakov does battle with Eisav. Rav Avraham Mordechai of Gur also saw the song as a parable of the history of Am Yisrael. While on the surface our history might seem like a series of chaotic and sometimes catastrophic events, this isn’t so. Hashem is ruling the world. Each event is actually a necessary step along the way to the Geulah Shleimah, the Final Redemption, may it come speedily in our days.
