Passover songs are songs traditionally associated with the end of the
sederThe Passover Seder is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The seder is held on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar .-Overview:The Seder is an intergenerational family ritual prescribed according to Jewish law and based on...
, the festive meal associated with the
JewishJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
festival of
PassoverPassover is a Jewish and Samaritan holy day and festival commemorating the Hebrews' escape from enslavement in Egypt....
.
While most songs are in the second half after dinner, "Ma Nishtanah" and "Dayenu" are sung during the main part of the seder before the meal, called the "Maggid" of the seder. This part of the seder devoted to telling the story of the Exodus.
"Ma Nishtanah" or the "Four Questions" in English, is the four questions sung at the
PassoverPassover is a Jewish and Samaritan holy day and festival commemorating the Hebrews' escape from enslavement in Egypt....
seder by the youngest child at the table who is able.
Passover songs are songs traditionally associated with the end of the
sederThe Passover Seder is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The seder is held on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar .-Overview:The Seder is an intergenerational family ritual prescribed according to Jewish law and based on...
, the festive meal associated with the
JewishJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
festival of
PassoverPassover is a Jewish and Samaritan holy day and festival commemorating the Hebrews' escape from enslavement in Egypt....
.
Songs of the main part of the Seder
While most songs are in the second half after dinner, "Ma Nishtanah" and "Dayenu" are sung during the main part of the seder before the meal, called the "Maggid" of the seder. This part of the seder devoted to telling the story of the Exodus.
Ma Nishtanah
"Ma Nishtanah" or the "Four Questions" in English, is the four questions sung at the
PassoverPassover is a Jewish and Samaritan holy day and festival commemorating the Hebrews' escape from enslavement in Egypt....
seder by the youngest child at the table who is able. The questions are asked as part of the haggadah, after the Yachatz (יחץ), as part of the Maggid (מגיד).
Dayenu
"Dayenu" is a
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...
song, traditionally sung during the celebration of
PassoverPassover is a Jewish and Samaritan holy day and festival commemorating the Hebrews' escape from enslavement in Egypt....
. The word itself essentially means "It would have been enough for us." "Day" being the Hebrew word for "enough" and the suffix "enu" meaning "our".
The song goes through a series of gifts believed granted by God to the Israelites (such as
TorahThe term "Torah" , refers either to the Five Books of Moses or to the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts...
or
ShabbatShabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from sundown Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night...
), proclaiming that any of them alone would have been sufficient, to express greater appreciation for them as a whole.
It is 15 verses long, sequentially recounting each divine intervention in the story of the
ExodusThe Exodus, from the Greek word έξοδος, is an event that marked the departure of the Israelites from enslavement in ancient Egypt. The event is described in the Hebrew Bible, but no other original sources...
. After each divine act, the chorus "(if God had done only this) it would have been enough for us" is sung.
Songs of the Nirtzah
The following are traditionally sung in the Nirtzah, the last of the 15 subdivisions of the feast, devoted exclusively to singing.
Adir Hu
"Adir Hu"(English: Mighty is He, Hebrew אדיר הוּא) is a hymn sung by Jews worldwide at the
Passover SederThe Passover Seder is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The seder is held on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar .-Overview:The Seder is an intergenerational family ritual prescribed according to Jewish law and based on...
. It switches rapidly between saying the virtues of
GodGod is a deity in theistic and deistic religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
in an alphabet format (
Aleph* Aleph or Alef is the first letter of the Semitic abjads descended from Proto-Canaanite, Arabic alphabet, Phoenician alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, Syriac alphabet-People:*Aleph , an Italo disco artist and alias of Dave Rodgers...
,
BetBet or BET may refer to:* A wager in gambling* Basic Economics Test *Bet , the second letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician and Syriac...
, Gimmel,...), and expressing hope that God will "rebuild the
Holy TempleThe Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to a series of structures located on the Temple Mount in the old city of Jerusalem. Historically, two temples were built at this location, and a future Temple features in Jewish eschatology. According to classical Jewish belief, the Temple acts as...
speedily." Most of the virtues of God are adjectives (for instance, Holy (Kadosh) is he); however, a few are nouns. (Lord is he).
Adir Hu is sung towards the end of the Seder, and is used by many families to conclude it. The traditional melody is a bouncy, major one. Other melodies, however, have been composed for the alphabetical song.
The song is a plea to the
CreatorGod is a deity in theistic and deistic religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
to rebuild the temple soon in Jerusalem. Each line begins with a consecutive letter of the
Hebrew alphabetThe Hebrew alphabet , known variously by scholars as the Jewish script, square script, block script, and because of its place of origin, the Assyrian script is the better-known of two script standards used to write the...
.
Chad Gadya
"Chad Gadya" ("One Kid" 'i.e., baby goat]) is an
AramaicAramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship...
song describing the food chain from a goat, through a dog, an ox, fire, water, and the angel of death, all the way up to God.
Echad Mi Yodea
"Echad Mi Yodea", (Who Knows One?), a Hebrew song. Starting at one and going up to thirteen, each verse describes a different religious or worldly concept associated with its number. For example, the fifth verse is about the five books of Moses whereas the ninth verse describes the nine months of
pregnancyPregnancy is the carrying of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, inside the uterus of a female. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets. Human pregnancy is the most studied of all mammalian pregnancies. Obstetrics is the surgical field...
. After singing each new verse, all the preceding verses are repeated in decreasing order back down to one. The pattern is similar to the
ChristianChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
songs
Green Grow the Rushes, OGreen Grow The Rushes, Ho , is a folk song popular across the English speaking world. It is sometimes sung as a Christmas carol...
(which was originally written in Hebrew) or
The Twelve Days of Christmas"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is an English Christmas carol which enumerates a series of increasingly grandiose gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas, ultimately leaving the singer with 364 gifts from her "true love." First published in England in 1780, however, textual evidence may...
.
Eliyahu HaNavi
"Eliyahu HaNavi", in English, Elijah the Prophet is A Hebrew song entreating the prophet Elijah, an invited guest at the Passover meal, to return soon with the
MessiahMessiah literally means "anointed "...
. This song is also part of the traditional Saturday night
HavdalahHavdalah is a Jewish religious ceremony that marks the symbolic end of Shabbat and holidays, and ushers in the new week. In Judaism, Shabbat ends—and the new week begins—at nightfall on Saturday. Havdalah may be recited as soon as three stars are visible in the night sky. Some communities delay...
service.
| Transliteration |
English Translation |
Eliyahu haNavi
Eliyahu haTishbi,
Eliyahu haGil'adi -
Bim'hera v'yameinu yavoh eleinu,
im mashiach ben David. (x2)
|
Elijah the prophet
Elijah the TishbiteTishbite is a word used in the Bible to refer to Elijah . The phrasing can be reworded as "Elijah the Tishbite of Tishbe inGilead." The word is sometimes interpreted as "stranger," so that the verse might read "Elijah the stranger from among the strangers in Gilead." This designation is probably...
,
Elijah the GiladiteFrom the Scriptures, "Gilead" means hill of testimony or mound of witness, , a mountainous region east of the Jordan River, situated in the present-day Kingdom of Jordan. It is also referred to by the Aramaic name Yegar-Sahadutha, which carries the same meaning as the Hebrew...
-
In haste and in our days may he come to us
with the messiah son of David. (x2)
|
This is often sung at the opening of the door for Elijah, upon pouring the fourth cup.
Hatikva
"Hatikva" ("The Hope"), the
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
i national anthem, is often sung at the seder. It is found at the back of many haggadahs, though is not formally part of the sedar. Hatikvah is about the hope of returning to Israel, much like the Haggadah's story of the Exodus of Egypt into the Promised Land, and much like the concluding song of the seder, "L'Shana habah bi'Yerushalayim"
(see below).
L'shana Ha'ba'ah
"L'Shana haba bi'Yerushalayim" is sung at the end of the seder, and is the last line of the haggadah. The whole line means "Next year in Jerusalem!"
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