Ehad Mi Yo'dea
Ehad M Yo'dea (Hebrew, "Who
Knows One?") is a song incorporated in the Ashkenazi
rite among the concluding songs of the Passover
Haggadah
,
whose aim was "to keep the children awake" until
the end of the seder (cf. Pes. 108b–109a).
The song consists of 13 stanzas, made up of questions
(Who knows One?.. Two?.. Three?.. etc.) and their
corresponding answers. The reply to each succeeding
question also repeats the previous answers. The last
verse reads: Who knows thirteen? I know thirteen.
Thirteen are the attributes of God; twelve the tribes
of Israel; eleven the stars (in Joseph's dream);
ten the Commandments; nine the months of pregnancy;
eight the days of circumcision; seven the days of
the week; six the books of the Mishnah; five the
books of the Torah; four the matriarchs (Sarah, Rebekah,
Leah, and Rachel); three the patriarchs (Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob); two the tables of the Covenant;
One is our God in heaven and on earth. (Some Haggadot have
substituted other answers for the eighth and ninth
questions of the traditional form. They read: nine
are the Jewish holidays of the year, eight the Ḥanukkah
lights.) In some places the song is chanted responsively:
one person, usually the leader of the seder,
asks the questions, and the whole company answers,
each person responding as quickly as possible in
an effort to finish the answer first.
Eḥad
Mi Yode'a is first found in Haggadot of
the 16th century and only in those of
the Ashkenazi ritual. Many scholars believed that
it originated in Germany in the 15th century.
Perles showed its similarity to a popular German
pastoral song, "Guter Freund Ich Frage Dich" (one
of the "Hobelbanklied" German folk
songs), the first stanza of which ends with the same
words as the Passover song. In fact, the identical
words of this line of the pastorale are given as
the German translation of the first answer of Eḥad
Mi Yode'a in many early Haggadot. The
Christian theme of the original was changed to one
of Jewish content. Zunz discovered that the Hebrew
song was used in Avignon as a festive table song
chanted on other holidays as well, and Geiger noted
other German counterparts. Since then it has been
found among the liturgical music of Jews from Ceylon
and Cochin, where it forms part of their Sabbath
songs for the entertainment of bride and groom. Some
scholars have even traced it to Greek or English
church songs and Scottish nursery songs.
Sources: Encyclopaedia
Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group.
All Rights Reserved.
D. Goldschmidt, Haggadah shel Pesaḥ, Mekoroteha ve-Toledoteha (1960), 98; C. Zibrt, Ohlas obradnich pisni … (1928). |