The Seder: Nirtzah
Access our full Pesach 2022 Order of the Seder schedule HERE.
Use the discount code ‘WebYeshiva‘ and enjoy 10% off a new Haggadah or the entire catalogue at Koren Publishers. CLICK HERE to order.
The Seder: Nirtzah: Nirtzah – Chad Gadya
In this final class on the Hagaddah of Pesach, we look at Nirtzah, the songs at the very end of the seder.
More specifically, we look at Chad Gadya, that ends the night for many people.
We ask whether it was originally a Jewish song, or was it borrowed from similar French or German songs. We learn that the Chida agreed that someone who makes fun of Chad Gadya should be excommunicated.
Then we look at several different interpretations of the song.
We have Rav Yehonatan Eybeschutz’s riddle about Chad Gadya.
Then I will suggest a new understanding of the song.
Rabbi David Sedley lives in Jerusalem with his wife and six children. He was born and raised in New Zealand before making Aliya in 1992. He left Israel temporarily (for eight years) to serve as a communal Rabbi in Scotland and England and returned to Israel in 2004. His latest book is "The Elephant of Deliberate Forgetfulness: and other unexpected interpretations of the weekly Torah reading". He has also translated Rabbeinu Yonah's commentary on Pirkei Avos and is the co-author of Sefiros: Spiritual Refinement Through Counting the Omer (both Judaica Press). Over the years Rabbi Sedley has worked as a journalist, a translator, a video director and in online reputation management. He also writes a weekly Torah blog on the Times of Israel.