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Bible Encyclopedias
Eḥad Mi Yodea'

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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Ehrenkranz, Benjamin Wolf
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Initial words of a Hebrew nursery-rime which, with ḤAD GADYA, is recited at the close of the Seder on Passover eve. It consists of thirteen numbers, and was probably recited originally as a dialogue, if not in chorus.

This song, stated by Zunz in "G. V." p. 133 to occur only in German Pesaḥ haggadahs since the fifteenth century, was later found by Zunz himself in the Avignon ritual as a festal table-song for holy-days in general ("Allg. Zeitung des Judenthums," 3:469). The theory, therefore, advanced by Zunz, and worked out in detail by Perles ("Grätz Jubelschrift," 1887, pp. 37 et seq.; Brüll's "Jahrb." 4:97 et seq.), that it is an adaptation of a German folk-song, must be revised, notwithstanding the striking parallels brought by the former from Simrock's "Die Deutschen Volkslieder" (1851, p. 520), where it is shown that what was originally a peasants' drinking-song was adapted by monks, and the numbers (one to twelve successively) declared to signify: one, the Lord God who lives in heaven and earth; two, the tablets of Moses; three, the Patriarchs; four, the Evangelists; five, the wounds of Jesus; six, the jugs of wine at the wedding of Cana; seven, the sacraments; eight, the beatitudes; nine, the choruses of angels; ten, the Ten Commandments; eleven, the eleven thousand virgins; twelve, the twelve Apostles. Other German parallels are given in L. Geiger's "Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland," 3:93,234 (note), 238; while Sander ("Das Volksleben der Neugriechen," 1844, p. 328) has compared an old Greek Church song; Kohler, in Geiger, "Zeitschr." c. p. 239, an English Church song; and Green, in "The Revised Hagada," p. 98, London, 1897, a Scotch nursery-rime.

A peculiar feature of Eḥad Mi Yodea' is that it proceeds to the unlucky number thirteen (see "D. M. L. Z." p. 634, note), and stops there as if to make the Jew feel that with him thirteen(= ) is a holy, and therefore lucky, number. The origin of the numerical folk- or riddle-song has been traced by Kohler (c.) to ancient Oriental sources (comp. Cosquin, "Contes de Lorraine," 1876).

Bibliography:
  • Kohler, Sage und Sang im Spiegel Jüdischen Lebens, in L. Geiger's Zeitschrift für die Gesch. der Juden in Deutschland, 1889, 3:234-240.
K.
Bibliography Information
Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Eḥad Mi Yodea''. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​tje/​e/ead-mi-yodea.html. 1901.
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