Chava Alberstein’s anti-violence adaptation of the traditional Passover song was written and first sung in 1989, as the lyrics tell us, before Pesach, even before it was Spring. With gratitude for Chava singing with courage, honesty and love; and for the interfaith Rana Choir of Jaffa who perform Chava Alberstein’s version in Hebrew and Arabic.

The Green Shul hopes to release a 5781 edition of its Patchwork Passover Podcast this year; but for now, of all the hundreds of seder songs, chants and nigunim, let’s start with the last.

See below: 1. Rana Choir; 2. PDF of Hebrew/Aramaic lyrics + transliteration + singable English translation by #thebeatgreens; 3. link to Chava Alberstein‘s studio version; 4. Yahoram Gaon‘s version of the Sephardic “Un Cavretico” ––and for something completely different, 5. the immortal Romanian-American cantor Moshe Oysher brings Chad Gadya back to its Aramaic roots & ebullient major key, with the subtext that this song traditionally concludes a jubilant feast of freedom, complete with four glasses of wine! Is this is the version Louis Armstrong first heard at a seder with the Karnofskys, his “Jewish family” in New Orleans?

Gut YomTov! Next year may we be at peace–– free from all hatred, fear and dangers that plague us!