Adir Hu (English: Mighty is He, Hebrew אדיר הוּא) is a hymn sung by
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE. They traditionally speak Yiddish, a language ...
worldwide at the
Passover Seder
The Passover Seder is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar (i.e., at the start of the 15th; a Hebrew d ...
. It switches rapidly between saying the virtues of
God
In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
in an alphabet format (
Aleph
Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first Letter (alphabet), letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician ''ʾālep'' 𐤀, Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew ''ʾālef'' , Aramaic alphabet, Aramaic ''ʾālap'' � ...
,
Bet,
Gimel
Gimel is the third (in alphabetical order; fifth in spelling order) letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''gīml'' 𐤂, Hebrew ''gīmel'' , Aramaic ''gāmal'' 𐡂, Syriac ''gāmal'' ܓ and Arabic ''ǧīm'' . It is also rela ...
,...), and expressing hope that God will "rebuild the
Holy Temple speedily." Most of the virtues of God are
adjectives
An adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main parts of speech of the English language, ...
(for instance, Holy (Kadosh) is he); however, a few are
nouns. (Lord is he).
Adir Hu is sung towards the end of the Seder. The traditional melody is a bouncy, major one. Other melodies, however, have been composed for the alphabetical song.
History
The tune of Adir Hu has gone through several variations over the years, but its origin is from the
German minnesinger period. The earliest existing music for Adir Hu is found in the 1644
Rittangel Hagada. The second form is found in the 1677 "Hagada Zevach Pesach", and the third and closest form can be found in the 1769 "Selig Hagada". In the 1769 version of the
haggadah
The Haggadah (, "telling"; plural: Haggadot) is a foundational Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. According to Jewish practice, reading the Haggadah at the Seder table fulfills the mitzvah incumbent on every Jew to reco ...
, the song was also known in German as the "Baugesang" (the song of the rebuilding of the Temple). A traditional German greeting on the night of Passover after leaving the synagogue was "Bau Gut" ("build well"), a reference to Adir Hu.
A Yiddish version of Adir Hu () appears in several editions of the haggadah, beginning with the fifteenth-century Ms.
BNF Hébreu 1333
and with the 1526 Prague Haggadah.
Menachem Mendel Kasher points out that it is in fact unclear whether the Yiddish or the Hebrew version is original.
Text
Variants
Modern variants of the hymn have been written, such as a feminist version by Rabbi Jill Hammer.
See also
*
Passover Seder
The Passover Seder is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar (i.e., at the start of the 15th; a Hebrew d ...
*
Passover
Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, Egypt.
According to the Book of Exodus, God in ...
References
External links
ADIR HU yiddish passover songs rabbi yonatan shtencelHebrew text, transliteration, translation from the Zemirot Database
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Passover songs
Songs in Hebrew
Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish prayers and blessings