
As with any work of verse, Chad Gadya is open to
interpretation. According to some modern Jewish commentators, what appears to
be a light-hearted song is deeply symbolic. One interpretation is that Chad
Gadya refers to the different nations that have conquered the Land of Israel:
· The kid symbolizes the Jewish people;
· the cat, Assyria;
· he dog, Babylon;
· the stick, Persia;
· the fire, Macedonia;
· the water, Roman Empire;
· the ox, the Saracens;
· the slaughterer, the Crusaders;
· the angel of death, the Ottomans.
At the end, God returns to send the Jews back to Israel. The
recurring refrain of 'two zuzim' is a reference to the two stone tablets
given to Moses on Mount Sinai (or to Moses and Aaron themselves). This
interpretation, first widely disseminated in a pamphlet published in 1731 in
Leipzig by Philip Nicodemus Lebrecht, has become quite popular, with many
variations of which oppressor is represented by which character in the song.
Though commonly interpreted as an historical allegory of the Jewish people, the song may also represent the journey to self-development. The price of two zuzim, mentioned in every stanza, is (according to Targum Yonatan to I Shmuel 9:8) equal to the machtzit hashekel tax upon every adult Israelite male (in Shemot 30:13); making the price of two zuzim the price of a Jewish soul.
Also, we have these explanations:
Rabbi Yaakov Emden: a list of the pitfalls and perils
facing the soul during one's life.
Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschuetz: a highly abbreviated
history of Israel from the Covenant of the Two Pieces recorded in Bereshit 15
(the two zuzim), to slavery in Egypt (the cat), the staff of Moses (the
stick) and ending with the Roman conqueror Titus (the Angel of Death).
Rabbi Moshe Sofer (the Chatam Sofer): a description
of the Passover ritual in the Temple of Jerusalem. There the goat is purchased
for the Paschal sacrifice. The cat is an allusion to the Talmudic notion that
dreaming of a cat is a premonition of singing such as occurs in the seder.
Likewise, dogs bark after midnight which is the time limit for the seder. The Kohen
who led the cleaning of the altar on Passover morning would use water to wash
his hands; many people at the Temple that day would bring oxen as sacrifices, and
the Angel of Death is the Roman Empire that destroyed the Second Temple.
The Vilna Gaon: the kid is the birthright that passed from Avraham to Yitzchak; the father is Yaakov; the two zumin is the meal Yaakov paid Eisav for his birthright; the cat is the envy of Yaakov’s sons toward Yosef; the dog is Egypt where Yosef and his clan were enslaved; the stick is the staff of Moshe; the fire the thirst for idolatry; the water the sages who eradicated idolatry; the ox is Rome; the shochet is the Messiah; the Angel of Death represents the death of Moshiach; the Holy One is God, who arrives with Moshiach.