We learned a Jewish Passover song in Hebrew at Sunday School this week, and it was so much fun! There were only two in the class, brothers aged 9 and 10, and they caught on right away and just loved it. And at coffee time, several people gathered round and also wanted to learn this wonderful song. I heard it last year in Israel at Passover, and it thrilled my heart to the point where I could hardly stop singing it for the rest of the year!
It is the Echad Song, and Echad is the word for one, and the one they are singing about is One God. The E is pronounced ay as in hay, and the chad like you're clearing your throat. It is sung at Passover to amuse and teach the children about their nation and about God and the scriptures. It goes up to number 13, getting faster and louder as they go up the numbers,so it is a bit like the 12 Days of Christmas. Anyway, last year I was so privileged to be at a Passover meal in Israel held by the small fellowship co-led by our son-in-law Michael. Everybody in Israel was celebrating the Passover, but only those Jews who have accepted Jesus as their Messiah knew the full significance of it.
Passover is a real family occasion, and children are at the heart of it. It is fun, it involves a lot of tasty food, and most importantly, it involves scripture that shows God’s awesome dealing with the nation.
There were lots of songs, but the Echad Song just thrilled me.
Here it is up to 5 :
Echad (1) mi yode'a (One - who knows One?)
Echad ani yode'a (One - I know One)
Echad Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu sheba shamaim uva'aretz. (One God Creator....of the heavens and the earth)
Shnaim (2) mi yode'a (Two - who knows two?)
Shnaim ani yode'a (Two - I know two.)
shnei luchot habrit (Two tablets of the Law)
Echad Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu sheba shamaim uva'aretz. (One God Creator...of the heavens and the earth.)
Shlosha (3) mi yode'a, (Three - who knows three?)
Shlosha ani yode'a. (Three - I know three)
Shlosha avot, (Three forefathers)
shnei luchot habrit (Two tables of the Law)
Echad Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu sheba shamaim uva'aretz. (One God Creator...of the heavens and the earth.)
Arba (4) mi yode'a (Four - who knows four?)
arba ani yode'a (Four - I know four)
arba imahot (Four mothers)
Shlosha avot, (Three forefathers)
shnei luchot habrit (Two tablets of the Law)
Echad Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu sheba shamaim uva'aretz. (One God etc)
Chamisha (5), mi yode'a (Five - who knows five?)
Chamisha, ani yode'a (Five - I know five)
Chamisha chumshei torah (Five books of the Torah)
arba imahot (Four mothers)
Shlosha avot,(Three forefathers)
shnei luchot habrit (Two tablets of the Law)
Echad Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu Eloheinu sheba shamaim uva'aretz. (One God etc)
We have been going through the feasts of Israel in Sunday School, and the kids already knew about Passover, that great event in Jewish history when God rescued them from centuries of slavery inEgypt.
Pharaoh would not let them go, so God forced the issue by sending 10 plagues, and the last was the worst, when the Angel of Death went through the entire land and killed the firstborn of men and animals.
That night, the Jew were to sacrifice a lamb which they had kept separate for four days. Its blood was to be sprinkled on the doorposts and lintels of their houses. When the angel came, he would pass over every house which had the blood applied.
They were to eat the lamb in haste, ready to leave, sandals on feet, staff in hand, because they were going out, and they were not coming back. Their bread was unleavened, because leaven (yeast) takes time to rise, and they had no time, and leaven is a symbol for sin.
As the Angel of Death passed through the land, a great cry went up. The Egyptians could not get rid of the Jews fast enough then, and they also plied them with their wealth – wages for 400 years of slavery.
What an event; what a national memory to be treasured and never forgotten! No wonder the Lord told them to keep the Passover feast every year forever (Exodus chapter 12).
And as wonderful as that memory was, they missed the great significance of it – that the lamb was a prophetic sign of Jesus, the Lamb of God whose blood saves us from the terrible penalties of sin. Tragically, most Jews still miss the point, but thousands in Israel have come to faith, and for them the Passover is the fulfilled prophetic feast pointing straight to Calvary, Jesus’ death on the cross, the burial, and His resurrection from the dead.
This is because the Passover feast is really made up of three spring feasts – Passover (symbolic of Jesus’ death), Unleavened Bread (His sinless life and burial), and First Fruits (Jesus’ resurrection), when the high priest would offer a wave offering of barley sheaves, the first fruits of the spring harvest. Jesus is the first fruit – the first to rise from the dead in a new body, a resurrection body which can never die. (The people He raised, like Lazarus, had human, earthly bodies.)
So in Sunday School, I put the first two verses on a big board, one side in Hebrew and the other in English, so they could clearly see what they were singing. I also had some typed sheets and we learned it up to number five, so we had:
- 5 books of the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible);
- 4 mothers (Rachel, Leah, Zilpah and Bilhah who bore the 12 sons of Jacob);
- 3 forefathers (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob);
- 2 tablets of the Law;
- 1 God in heaven and earth.
If you type something like Passover Echad Song in your browser, you will find lots of sites singing it, some with children, some with men or women dancing, but all full of joy.
I happened to have a short video on my Ipad of my granddaughters singing it up to number 4, which is Hebrew is arba. The boys in Sunday School watched it and we sang with the girls. It was just a thrilling morning.
Over the last year, as the song has been running through my mind, I always change it to a gospel song, so from number 5, I make it:
- 5 little loaves that fed a crowd
- 4 gospels in God’s book
- 3 persons in one God
- 2 testaments, old and new
- 1 God, Creator God, (4x more) one God Creator of the heavens and the earth
With so many rather dull songs around, maybe some of you out there would like to learn this in Hebrew, or make your own Bible version to fit the tune. I had trouble thinking of something for number 5, until my daughter Annie said: "What about the five loaves?"
***Below are the words up to 13, my version in English:
One - Who knows one?
One - I know One – One God Creator God, Creator God, Creator God, Creator God, Creator God -
God the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
Two – who knows two?
Two – I know two
Two tablets of the Law
One God Creator God ,Creator God Creator God Creator God Creator God
God the Creator of the heavens and the earth
Three – who knows three?
Three – I know three
Three Dads of Israel (these are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob)
Two tablets of the Law
One God Creator God , Creator God, Creator God, Creator God, Creator God
God the Creator of the heavens and the earth
Four – who knows four?
Four – I know four
Four Mums of Israel (these are Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah), mothers of the 12 sons of Jacob)
Three Dads of Israel
Two tablets of the Law
One God Creator God, Creator God, Creator God, Creator God, Creator God
God the Creator of the heavens and the earth
(Then it goes on the same for each number…)
Five books of the Torah (First five books of the Bible)
Six days to make all things
Seven days in God’s week
Eight - the day for the brit (circumcision on the eighth day)
Nine months before a birth
Ten commandments of the Law
11 stars in Joseph’s dream
12 tribes in Israel
13 attributes of God
