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First edition of this important German language commentary on the popular Pesah song, Had Gadia, sung at the conclusion of the seder, by Philip Nicodemus Lebrecht. The title page describes it as Ein Zicklein, das Ist, ein Merckwürdiges Rätzel aus der Jüdischen Oster-Liturgie Welches in Sich Begreifet die Begebenheiten und Schicksahle des Jüdischen Volcks, so Sie von Ausgang Ægyptian biss auf die Zukunft Ihres Annoch Täglich [zu] Erwartenden Messiæ Darunter Verstehen. The text is in German in Fraktur, with occasional Hebrew, excepting Had Gadia which is given entirely in Hebrew and in Yiddish translation. The song itself reads "One only kid, one only kid, which my father bought for two zuzim. One only kid, one only kid. The cat came and ate the kid, etc. Then came the dog, and bit the cat, etc. Then came the stick, and beat the dog, etc. Then came the fire that burned the stick, etc. Then came the water, and quenched the fire, etc. Then came the ox, and drank the water, etc. Then came the slaughterer, and killed the ox, etc. Then came the angel of death, and slew the slaughterer, etc. Then came the Most Holy—blessed be He !-and destroyed the angel of death that slew the slaughterer that killed the ox that drank the water that quenched the fire that burned the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the kid which my father bought for two zuzim. One only kid, one only kid."
Had Gadia has been the subject of an extensive and interesting literature, beginning with this work in 1731 by Philip Nicodemus Lebrecht, a baptized Jew. It was published at Leipsig with a commentary borrowed from the Latin of Herrmann von der Hardt, who in 1727 published at Helmstadt an explanation of the "riddle," under the title, "Aenigmata Judaica". In 1732 Christian Andreas Teuber published in Leipsic another treatise, based upon Lebrecht's, entitled, h. e. Wahrscheinliche Muhtmassung von dem Alten und Dunckeln Jüdischen Oster-Liede: Ein Zicklein, ein Zicklein." Wolf (l.c. iv. 1044) gives full information concerning the contents of this book. A number of other Christian writers have published and commented upon this nursery-rime, as though it were a profound philosophical poem.
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