Adir Hu (English: Mighty is He, Hebrew אדיר הוּא) is a hymn sung by
Ashkenazi Jews worldwide at the
Passover Seder
The Passover Seder (; he, סדר פסח , 'Passover order/arrangement'; yi, סדר ) is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew c ...
. It switches rapidly between saying the virtues of
God in an alphabet format (
Aleph
Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac , Arabic ʾ and North Arabian 𐪑. It also appears as South Arabian 𐩱 and Ge'ez .
These letter ...
,
Bet,
Gimel,...), and expressing hope that God will "rebuild the
Holy Temple speedily." Most of the virtues of God are
adjectives (for instance, Holy (Kadosh) is he); however, a few are
nouns.
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, ...
(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 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.
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 (; he, סדר פסח , 'Passover order/arrangement'; yi, סדר ) is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew c ...
*
Passover
References
External links
ADIR HU yiddish passover songs rabbi yonatan shtencelHebrew text, transliteration, translation from the Zemirot Database
{{Passover Footer
Passover songs
Hebrew-language songs
Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish prayers and blessings