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EDITED by Arnold J . Band

INTRODUCTION by Nancy Perloff

INTRODUCTION

TRANSLATION

ICONOGRAPHY

VOCABULARY

M USIC

FACSIMILE

Published by the Getty Research Institute

ReSources
 ARNOLD J. BAND is professor emeritus of Hebrew and comparative literature
at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research focuses on the
relationship between texts and historical contexts in J e w i s h literature of all
periods and in modern Hebrew literature specifically. His publications
include Nostalgia and Nightmare: A Study in the Fiction of S. Y. Agnon (1968);
an annotated volume of translations of the Hasidic tales of Nahman of
Braslav; and articles on subjects such as Franz Kafka, Hayyim Nahman
Bialik, the Book of Jonah, semantic rhyme in Hebrew prosody, and modern
Israeli fiction and poetry. Dr. Band founded the U C L A Department of
Comparative Literature in 1969 and served as the director of the U C L A
Center for Jewish Studies from 1994 to 1996. He has received a U C L A Dis­
tinguished Teaching Award, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fel­
lowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

NANCY PERLOFF is collections curator of modern and new media collections

at the Getty Research Institute, where she focuses on acquisitions in European
ReSources makes available primary materials
and Russian modernism and in postwar music and the visual arts. Drawing
held by Special Collections of the Research Library
on the'holdings of the Getty Research Institute, Dr. Perloff has organized
of the Getty Research Institute. These holdings,
the exhibition Monuments of the Future: Designs by El Lissitzky (with Eva
which range in date from the fourteenth century
Forgacs, 1998) and the symposium "The Art of David Tudor: Indeterminacy
to the present, include rare books, unpublished
and Performance in Postwar Culture" (2001). S h e has published Art and the
manuscripts, sketches, prints, photographs, archi­
Everyday: Popular Entertainment and the Circle of Erik Satie (1991) and
tectural models, and the archives of artists, col­
essays on John Cage, Paul Gauguin, and the artistic partnership of El Lissitzky
lectors, critics, and galleries. Offering scholarly
and Kurt Schwitters. She is coeditor of Situating El Lissitzky: Vitebsk, Berlin,
analyses that place these rich visual and textual
Moscow (with Brian Reed, 2003).
materials in context, the facsimiles, translations,
monographs, edited collections, and exhibition
catalogs in this series showcase exceptional
sources that will further critical inquiry into all
forms of art.

—Thomas C r o w , Director, Getty Research Institute

THE GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE PUBLICATIONS PROGRAM PUBLISHED BY THE GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE, LOS ANGELES
T h o m a s C r o w , Director, Getty Research Institute G e t t y Publications
Gail Feigenbaum, Associate Director, Programs 1200 G e t t y C e n t e r Drive, Suite 5 0 0
Julia Bloomfield, Head, Publications Program Los Angeles, C A 90049-1682
Jeffrey Hurwit, J a c q u e l i n e Lichtenstein, A l e x Potts, and www.getty.edu
Mimi Hall Y i e n g p r u k s a w a n , Publications Committee © 2 0 0 4 J . Paul G e t t y Trust

HAD GADYA: THE ONLY KID 0 8 07 06 0 5 04 5 4 3 21

Edited'by A r n o l d J . B a n d
Elizabeth May, Manuscript Editor LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Hillary S u n e n s h i n e , Designer Had gadya. Polyglot.
A m i t a Molloy, Production Coordinator Had gadya = The only kid : facsimile of El Lissitzky's edition of 1 9 1 9 /
Printed and bound by Trifolio, V e r o n a , Italy introduction by N a n c y Perloff; edited by A r n o l d J . B a n d .
p. cm. - ( R e S o u r c e s )
Text of Had gadya in A r a m a i c and Y i d d i s h as part of illustrations,
All w o r k s by El Lissitzky are © 2 0 0 4 Artists Rights S o c i e t y with English translation; introd. in English.
( A R S ) , N e w Y o r k / V G Bild-Kunst, B o n n , and are r e p r o d u c e d Includes bibliographical references,
in this volume by permission. I S B N 0-89236-744-X
1. Passover-Liturgy-Texts. 2. Judaism-Liturgy-Texts. 3. Had gadya-ln art.
I. Lissitzky, El, 1 8 9 0 - 1 9 4 1 . II. B a n d , A r n o l d J . III. Getty R e s e a r c h Institute.
IV. Title: O n l y kid. V. Title. VI. S e r i e s .
BM670.H28L5712 2004
296.4'537-dc22
2003017471
INTRODUCTION
Nancy Perloff

WITH HIS ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF THE PASSOVER SONG "HAD GADYA" Vitebsk was within the Pale of Settlement, the region, comprised of
(The only kid), dated 6 February 1919, the Russian avant-garde artist El land annexed from Poland and Turkey, in which the majority of Russian J e w s
Lissitzky (1890-1941) had reached a pivotal moment in his career. For the past were forced to live from the late eighteenth century until 1917. A primary
four years, he had focused almost exclusively on the study of Jewish folk concern of the czarist state in creating the Pale was to keep J e w s from con­
culture and the design and illustration of books in Yiddish. Now, in summer ducting commerce in Russia proper. Periodically, however, permits to live
1919, he would join the faculty at the Popular Art Institute in Vitebsk (Vitebskoe outside the Pale were issued—to alleviate overcrowding or on account of an
Narodnoe khudozhestvennoe uchilishche), where, inspired in part by the individual's profession or education—and as a result Jewish communities
suprematist painter Kazimir Malevich, he would turn to abstract painting. emerged in places such as Smolensk and Pochinok, just east of the Pale. 2

Lissitzky's Had gadya marks the culmination of his artistic and personal Lissitzky's coming-of-age in and near the Pale would have been shaped
engagement with Judaica. One of the last works that he signed under his by a powerful Jewish solidarity, the community-wide response to the knowl­
Hebrew given name, Eliezer, the book displays Lissitzky's interest, at once edge that J e w s would never be considered true Russians. Throughout
playful and reverent, in the languages and symbols of the Jewish culture. much of Lissitzky's parents' and grandparents' lives, the Jewish experience
Instead of the traditional Aramaic, Lissitzky chose Yiddish for the song's in Russia was one of discrimination. During the 1820s, quotas were estab­
verses, which he set into architectural frames above the illustrations. Both lished to limit the presence of J e w s in Russian-language schools and uni­
Aramaic and Yiddish are written in the Hebrew alphabet, but Yiddish, then versities, and large numbers of Jewish boys were conscripted into the army.
the vernacular of Ashkenazic Jews, was apt to be more familiar to his audi­ Simultaneously, however, in an effort to assimilate J e w s into the mainstream
ence. Lissitzky did incorporate Aramaic, however, by introducing each new society, the state enacted policies of so-called Russification. For example,
verse with an Aramaic phrase, printed on the lower right-hand corner of the also in the 1820s, government schools were encouraged to retrain Jews in
page. A n d for the pagination, he used decorative Hebrew letters, each of fields other than trade, that is, as farmers, craftsmen, or professionals. By the
which has a numerical value. Though Lissitzky's focus in terms of subject early 1860s, after Czar Alexander N's relaxation of the conscription sys­
matter would soon change dramatically, in his experimentation with lan­ tem brought glimpses of freedom, J e w s were given reason to hope that
guage, typography, and architectural form, we can already see in the Had they could attain the status of true Russians. While the assassination of
gadya many of the elements that would define his avant-garde work in the Alexander II in 1881 set off a wave of pogroms that continued until the revo­
following decades. lution of 1917, the popular uprisings of the revolution of 1905 forced Czar
Lissitzky's decision to illustrate a traditional Passover song reflects both Nicolas II to institute reforms that transformed Russia from an autocracy into
his religious upbringing and his participation as a young artist in the Jewish a constitutional monarchy. Subsequently, many of the restrictions on J e w s
cultural revival that took place in Russia from roughly 1912 to the early 1920s. were lifted, enabling them to create political parties and become eligible for
Born in 1890 in Pochinok, a small market town just south of Smolensk, election to parliament. Though pogroms threatened the stability of this new
Lissitzky grew up in the Russian (now Belarussian) city of Vitebsk. He was order, the relative political and artistic freedom that J e w s enjoyed from 1905
raised by a pious Jewish mother and an intellectual father who prided him­ until the outbreak of World War I gave rise to a celebration of the Jewish heri ­
self on being fluent in Russian, Yiddish, German, and English and on his gifts tage, specifically secular, among Russian Jewish artists—and it was within
as a translator. During his secondary school years, Lissitzky moved between this context that Lissitzky first developed an artistic identity. 3

Smolensk, where he attended school and lived with his maternal grandpar­ At the center of this renaissance of J e w i s h secular culture was the
ents, and Vitebsk, where he learned to paint traditional J e w i s h genre influential art critic Vladimir Stasov. Based in Saint Petersburg, Stasov had III
scenes under the tutelage of Yehudah Pen, one of the few Russian J e w i s h close ties to leaders of the Jewish artistic and business communities who were
artists to be accepted by the Imperial A c a d e m y of Arts (Imperatorskaia seeking to uncover and revive traditional Jewish art forms. With Baron David
akademiia khudozhestv) in Saint Petersburg. After completing his studies, Gunzburg, the son of a wealthy businessman and philanthropist, Stasov helped
Pen had returned to Vitebsk to open his own school of art in 1892, where, in publish a book of Jewish manuscript ornamentation, entitled L'ornement hebreu
addition to Lissitzky, he also taught Marc Chagall. 1
(1905). Inspired by this work, the Jewish intelligentsia of Saint Petersburg
4
 began collecting and publishing eastern European Jewish artifacts, both
secular and religious. In 1912, with the financial help of Gunzburg's father,
Baron Horace Gunzburg, and with the guidance of the folklorist and play­
wright S e m y o n Ansky, the J e w i s h Historical and Ethnographic Society
(Evreiskoe istorichesko-etnograficheskoe obshchestvo) embarked on the Fig. 1. Eliezer (El) Lissitzky, title page in M o s h e B r o d e r z o n ,

first of its journeys into the Pale of Settlement to collect Jewish religious and Sihes hulin: Eyne fun di geshikhten ( M o s c o w : N a s h e Iskusstvo, 1917).
R e s e a r c h Library, Getty R e s e a r c h Institute, L o s A n g e l e s
folk materials. Traveling through towns and villages of Ukraine, the expedi­
5

tion collected folk iconography in the form of tombstone engravings, Torah

covers and breastplates, ark decorations, ornamental silver, spice boxes,
and woodcuts.
In 1916, Lissitzky took part in another expedition organized by the Jewish
Historical and Ethnographic Society. With Issachar Ryback, a young art
student who had undertaken an independent study of the wooden syna­
gogues in Belarus the previous year, Lissitzky was sent to explore the
synagogues of Ukraine. The two artists drew plans, made colored draw­
6

ings, and collected inscriptions from about two hundred synagogues. In an

article written in 1923, Lissitzky vividly recalled his study of the synagogue
in Mohilev: "Searching for our identity, for the character of our times, we
attempted to look into old mirrors and tried to root ourselves in so-called
'folk-art.' Almost all the other nations of our time followed a similar p a t h . . . .
A n d therein you have the logical explanation of why I set out one summer to
go among the people.'" Lissitzky praised the skillful work of the synagogue
painter, the ability to make a "whole great world" come to life with just a
few colors: "This is the very opposite of the primitive; it is the product of
great culture." Several sketches from Lissitzky's tour of the Mohilev syna­
7

gogue survive, including a black chalk and watercolor of a lion's head with a
human face (Jerusalem, Israel Museum, Boris and Lisa Aronson Collection),
an image that Lissitzky copied from the zodiac painting on the ceiling of
the synagogue.
Had Lissitzky and Ryback tried to publish inscriptions from the syna­
gogues they visited, they would have violated the Russian edict (ukaz) of
July 1915 that banned publications using either Hebrew or Yiddish words.
Indeed, despite the relative easing of restrictions on Jewish life in the Pale,
this edict forced Jewish presses to shut down since it was now unlawful to Fig. 2. Eliezer (El) Lissitzky, front c o v e r of M a n i Leib,
mail anything that was printed in either Hebrew or Yiddish. However, after
8
Yingl tsingl khvat (Warsaw: Kultur Lige, 1922).

the revolution of February 1917 and the overthrow of the czar, the new R e s e a r c h Library, G e t t y R e s e a r c h Institute, L o s A n g e l e s

Provisional Government abolished laws that had barred J e w s from citizen­

ship, and it repealed the decree prohibiting the printing of Hebrew letters,
thereby sparking a sudden flurry of activity among the Jewish presses. In
1917, Lissitzky moved to Kiev, a center of the Jewish revival, and immersed that he intended to couple the style of the story with the "wonderful" style
himself in the production of Yiddish book designs and illustrations. His first of the square Hebrew letters. In the magnificently colored title page (fig. 1),
9

IV commission was to design and illustrate M o s h e Broderzon's Sihes hulin: a peacock pulls a Hasid up to heaven, while the scribes on the left and at
Eyne fun di geshikhten (1917; A n everyday conversation: A story), which bottom look up at the peacock, saluting the bird's traditional role as a source
appeared in a small edition of 110 numbered copies; the majority were of spiritual inspiration. In 1918, with his original drawings for Mani Leib's Yingl
printed as small booklets, but a few were printed in the form of a scroll and tsingl khvat C\ 922; The mischievous boy; fig. 2), Lissitzky incorporated Hebrew
were encased in decorative w o o d e n boxes. Lissitzky explained in the letters and typography into his overall design, a technique that anticipates
colophon (set in an ornamental frame based on the shape of a Torah ark) his work in the Had gadya book. 10
 it as part of a complete illuminated Haggadah—of which many have been
produced over the centuries—indicates that he viewed the song both as a
message of Jewish liberation based on the Exodus story and as an allegorical
expression of freedom for the Russian people. Several stylistic and icono-
graphic elements that were incorporated into the final two plates for the litho­
graphs of 1919 underscore Lissitzky's interest in the song as a parable of the
Russian Revolution, of the defeat of the czarist rule and the victory and lib­
eration of the Russian masses.
The angel of death, for example, who is shown slaying the slaughterer
Fig. 3. Eliezer (El) Lissitzky, sketch for the final in verse 9 and then again as the victim of G o d ' s divine hand in the next
v e r s e of "Had gadya," 1917, watercolor, 29.8 x 26 c m
and final verse, wears a crown, absent in the 1917 sketches, whose shape
(11 /4 x 10 /4in).TretyakovGallery, Moscow
3 1

resembles that of czarist crowns as depicted in Russian folk art. In verse 10,
the hand of G o d is strikingly similar to an image of a hand that appeared on
one of the first series of stamps printed after the revolution of 1917. O n the
LISSITZKY'S EARLIEST ILLUSTRATIONS BASED ON THE "HAD GADYA" stamp, the hand is clearly a symbol of the Soviet people. A n d the angel of
song were a set of brightly colored, folklike watercolors that he painted in death, who is depicted as dying in the set of illustrations from 1917 (see fig.
1917 (fig. 3). Two years later, he returned to the Passover song, first creatin g 3), is now dead—clearly, in light of the symbolic link to the czar, killed by the
a series of watercolors and then, closely based on the watercolors, a set of force of the revolution. 13

lithographs. The secular Yiddish organization Kultur Lige, of which Lissitz ky The optimism expressed in Lissitzky's plate for the final verse is telling
and fellow artists Natan Altman and David Shterenberg were founders, pu b­ given the political situation in Russia in February 1919. The period in which
lished the lithographs in book form in 1919 in an edition of seventy-fiv e Lissitzky produced his lithographs was one of great violence. Although
copies. 11
From the earliest drawings to the final plates, subtle but significa nt the Provisional Government of 1917 had announced the transformation of
changes occurred in Lissitzky's treatment of the subject matter. By compa r­ Russia into a liberal democratic and pluralistic state and had abolished
ing the two versions, we can see that for Lissitzky the appeal of illustratin g laws restricting citizens on the basis of religion or nationality, in October
the song was twofold: not only did it enable him to create a modern piece of 1917 the Bolsheviks toppled the Provisional Government, and the country
Judaica but it also allowed him to represent and comment on the Jewis h descended into civil war. Yet even the potential victory of the Red Army was
experience in Russia during these volatile years. obviously a great source of hope for young Russian J e w i s h artists like
A folk song probably derived from a late medieval German sourc e, Lissitzky, and in the imagery of his Had gadya, and especially the prostrate
"Had gadya" was first included in the Passover service, the Seder, in th e angel of death, Lissitzky posited this hope.
fifteenth century. Though not part of the service proper, the song appea rs
12
In terms of the development of Lissitzky's artistic technique, the litho­
at the end of the Haggadah, the text used at the Seder. The song has a co n­ graphs reveal several fascinating and novel approaches to typography and
catenated, or linked, structure, and it introduces a series of characters, eac h design. Here we see an early example of Lissitzky's integration of letters and
one destroying the last: a cat devours the kid, a dog gobbles up the cat, a images: for each verse, he arranges the words of the story to form an archi­
stick beats the dog, fire burns the stick, and so on, until G o d slays the ang el tectural frame around the illustration. To connect text and image even fur­
of death, thus ending the chain of violence. The connection from verse t o ther, and perhaps to make the book more accessible to young audiences,
verse is not necessarily causal or logical; for instance, there is no particul ar Lissitzky invented a system of color coding in which the color of the princi­
reason why a cat would appear and eat the kid. The capricious nature of th e pal character in each illustration matches the color of the corresponding
song suggests that it may have been designed to capture and hold the atte n­ word for that character in the Yiddish text. For instance, the kid in verse 1 is
tion of young children until the conclusion of the Seder—certainly, it gav e yellow, and the Yiddish word y^VPE (kid) in the arch above is also yellow; the
Lissitzky the freedom to be whimsical in his illustrations. green hue of the father's face is matched by the green type used for the
The precise meaning of the "Had gadya" song is ambiguous, but, give n Yiddish word PONO (father). While the bold colors and two-dimensionality
14

the context of the Passover Seder, which celebrates the story of the Exodu s, of the lithographs are reminiscent of Chagall's work, the formal properties V
it is traditionally thought to be a parable for the divine deliverance of th e of the illustrations are also Cubistic in their use of geometric forms and
Jewish people, whom M o s e s led out of Egypt and freed from bondage. Th e Futuristic in their use of the spiral to evoke motion. With their colorful flat­
different characters worsted in the song have been interpreted, by extensio n, ness, expressive distortions of proportion, rhythmic simplification of form,
as nations that have attempted to destroy or o p p r e s s the J e w i s h peopl e. and humorous and sometimes grotesque faces of beasts and humans, the
Lissitzky's decision to let his Had gadya stand on its own, rather than publis h Had gadya illustrations yield a sense of childlike fantasy.
 In his three-paneled dust jacket—designed to wrap around the entire The dust jacket reproduced here is held by the Research Library of the
book—Lissitzky made a pronounced move away from the figurative, Chagall­ Getty Research Institute. It is one of only three known complete examples
like traits of his colorful lithographs toward an abstract, Cubo-Futurist lan­ and it belongs to the small edition of seventy-five copies of the Had gadya
guage consisting of fractured planes and triangles in ocher, black, and violet. book that Lissitzky made in 1919. That so few of the dust jackets have sur­
16

The dust jacket bears no date but must have been completed sometime vived may be explained by the fact that they were less sturdy than the book
after 6 February 1919, the date on the title page, and before he arrived in and so may have fared less well, particularly in children's hands. Also, whole
Vitebsk in M a y The complete verses of the Passover song appear on the copies of the 1919 edition may have been destroyed during the Stalin era.
left-hand interior panel of the dust jacket, while on the right-hand panel a cir­ Though primarily in Yiddish, which in Russia had a longer life in print than
cle overlaps a large polygon. In the center panel, set within another polygon, Hebrew since it was considered a proletariat language, the book would none­
are two smaller geometric shapes, each of which represents the Hebrew let­ theless have been associated with the traditional Jewish Passover service
ter yud ('). Yudyud is one of several ways of expressing the name of G o d in and so may have been more vulnerable to government censorship.
Hebrew letters. These letters are balanced by two other angular letters on Following the completion of his Had gadya, Lissitzky moved from Kiev
the right-hand panel, lamed (W and yud ('), most likely the first and last letters back to Vitebsk, where he taught painting alongside Malevich and where
of Lissitzky's surname. The mixture of decorative Hebrew letters and flat cir­ he developed his own abstract geometric language, which he named Proun
cular and triangular planes of color demonstrates the primacy of Lissitzky's (Proekt utverzhdenia novogo; Project for the affirmation of the new). He would
concern with design, which he would later espouse as the basis of an inter­ make brief reference to his Jewish background by publishing the article on
national language. The design of the dust jacket also suggests that Lissitzky the Mohilev synagogue in 1923 and also in several Proun works that incor­
already may have been familiar with the suprematist work of Malevich and porated Hebrew letters. But, chiefly, after the Had gadya project he pre­
Alexandra Exter: Malevich's paintings had been shown at the Tenth State Exhi­ sented himself as "El" Lissitzky, and he would soon travel to Berlin to further
bition: Non-Objective Creativity and Suprematism (Gosudarstvennaia vystavka: the exchange between the European and Russian avant-gardes.
Bespredmetnoe tvorchesto i suprematizm), which opened in M o s c o w in
January 1919, and Exter had her own studio in Kiev. 15

NOTES
1. S e t h L. Wolitz, "The J e w i s h National Art R e n a i s s a n c e in 6. Roskies, Against the Apocalypse (note 5). 12. Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion, s.v. "Had gadya."
Russia," in Ruth A p t e r - G a b r i e l , ed., Tradition and Revolution:
The Jewish Renaissance in Russian Avant-Garde Art, 7. El Lissitzky, "The M o h i l e v S y n a g o g u e R e m i n i s c e n c e s 13. A l a n Birnholz, "El Lissitzky and the J e w i s h Tradition,"
1912-1928, 2d ed., exh. cat. (Jerusalem: Israel M u s e u m , (1923)," trans. Louis Lozowick, in Peter Nisbet et al., Studio International, no. 186 (1973): 131. For a d i s c u s s i o n of
1988), 23. El Lissitzky 1890-1941, exh. cat. ( C a m b r i d g e : Harvard the iconography, specifically the czarist c r o w n and the
University Art M u s e u m s , 1987), 5 5 - 5 9 . hand on the printed stamp, s e e Haia Friedberg, "Lissitzky's
2. Michael Hickey, "Revolution on the J e w i s h Street: Smolensk, Had Gadia'," Jewish Art 1 2 - 1 3 ( 1 9 8 6 - 8 7 ) : 2 9 2 - 3 0 3 .
1917," Journal of Social History 31 (1998): 8 2 3 - 5 0 ; A v r a m 8. Wolitz, " J e w i s h National Art" (note 1), 41 n. 40; and
Kampf, Chagall to Kitaj: Jewish Experience in 20th Century Art, Roskies, Against the Apocalypse (note 5), 138. 14. Haia Friedberg introduced the idea of this color c o d i n g in
exh. cat. ( L o n d o n : Lund H u m p h r i e s / B a r b i c a n Art Gallery, her article "Lissitzky's Had Gadia" (note 13), 2 9 4 - 9 5 .
1990), 15; and Wolitz, " J e w i s h National Art" (note 1), 41 n. 9. 9. Ruth Apter-Gabriel, "El Lissitzky's J e w i s h Works," in
idem, ed., Tradition and Revolution: The Jewish Renaissance 15. Apter-Gabriel, "El Lissitzky's J e w i s h W o r k s " (note 9), 116.
3. For a d i s c u s s i o n of the history of the J e w s in Russia in Russian Avant-Garde Art, 1912-1928, 26 ed., exh. cat.
during this period, s e e M i c h a e l S t a n i s l a w s k i , "The J e w s (Jerusalem: Israel M u s e u m , 1988), 104. 16. J o h n Bowlt, as quoted in "The 'Vasari' Diary: A C h i l d ' s
and Russian Culture and Politics," in S u s a n Tumarkin Topography of Typography," Artnews 81, no. 7 (1982): 1 3 - 1 7 ,
G o o d m a n , ed., Russian Jewish Artists in a Century of Change: 10. Editions of Yingl tsingl khvat were published in 1919 and announced the first known c o p y of the dust jacket, which
1890-1990, exh. cat. (Munich: P r e s t e l / J e w i s h M u s e u m , 1922; s e e Peter Nisbet et al., El Lissitzky, 1890-1941, exh. cat. w a s acquired by a Paris collector from a private seller in the
N e w York, 1995), 1 6 - 2 0 . ( C a m b r i d g e : Harvard University Art M u s e u m s , 1987), 180 former Soviet Union (p. 17). A s e c o n d c o p y with a set of
(cat. no. 1919/7), 183 (cat. no. 1 9 2 2 / 1 ) . lithographs w a s sold at Christie's, L o n d o n , 26 J u n e 1986; s e e
4. Wolitz, " J e w i s h National Art" (note 1), 25; and Kampf, Nisbet et al., El Lissitzky (note 10), 179 (cat. no. 1919/1).
VI Chagall to Kitaj (note 2), 1 5 - 1 6 . 11. C e n t e r e d in Kiev, Kultur Lige played a prominent role in The dust jacket and lithographs reproduced here were obtained
the renaissance of J e w i s h secular traditions in Russia in the by the R e s e a r c h Library of the G e t t y R e s e a r c h Institute in
5. S c h o l a r s disagree about the date of the first expedition early part of the twentieth century. Its mission was to create a February 1997 from a private dealer in N e w York.
of the J e w i s h Historical and Ethnographic S o c i e t y ; s e e modern J e w i s h art that incorporated J e w i s h folk traditions.
Kampf, Chagall to Kitaj (note 2), 16; Wolitz, " J e w i s h National Kultur Lige published historic studies, teaching materials, liter­
Art" (note 1), 25; and David Roskies, Against the Apocalypse: ary journals, graphic work, and children's b o o k s ; s e e Hillel
Responses to Catastrophe in Modern Jewish Culture Kazovsky, The Artists of the Kultur-Lige (Jerusalem: C e n t e r for
( C a m b r i d g e : Harvard Univ. Press, 1984), 281. J e w i s h Art, 2003).
HAD CADYA THE ONLY KID
TRANSLATION by A r n o l d J . B a n d

The only kid, the only kid Then came the shohet and slaughtered the ox

That the father bought for two zuzim, That drank the water

The only kid, the only kid. That quenched the fire

That burnt the stick

Then came the cat and devoured the kid That beat the dog

That the father bought for two zuzim, That gobbled up the cat

The only kid, the only kid. That devoured the kid

That the father bought for two zuzim,

Then came the dog and gobbled up the cat The only kid, the only kid.

That devoured the kid

That the father bought for two zuzim, Then came the angel of death and butchered the shohet

The only kid, the only kid. That slaughtered the ox

That drank the water

Then came the stick and beat the dog That quenched the fire

That gobbled up the cat That burnt the stick

That devoured the kid That beat the dog

That the father bought for two zuzim, That gobbled up the cat

The only kid, the only kid. That devoured the kid

That the father bought for two zuzim,

Then came the fire and burnt the stick The only kid, the only kid.

That beat the dog

That gobbled up the cat A n d the Holy O n e came, Blessed be He, and slew the angel

That devoured the kid of death

That the father bought for two zuzim, That butchered the shohet

The only kid, the only kid. That slaughtered the ox

That drank the water

Then came the water and quenched the fire That quenched the fire

That burnt the stick That burnt the stick

That beat the dog That beat the dog

That gobbled up the cat That gobbled up the cat

That devoured the kid That devoured the kid

That the father bought for two zuzim, That the father bought for two zuzim,

The only kid, the only kid. The only kid, the only kid.

Then came the ox and drank the water

That quenched the fire

That burnt the stick

VII
That beat the dog

That gobbled up the cat

That devoured the kid

That the father bought for two zuzim,

The only kid, the only kid.

 ICONOGRAPHY

DUST JACKET-EXTERIOR The ornamental use of words and letters on this

O n the left-hand panel, the outside flap that the panel—the variations in placement, color, size, and
reader would have seen first, HH1 IV} (Had gadya) style—points to Lissitzky's growing interest in
is printed in stylized Hebrew letters. "Had gadya" typography as design.
was an Aramaic term that was absorbed into In the off-white triangle on the center interior
both Yiddish and Hebrew. The center panel, or panel are the Hebrew letters yud yud, a common
the back of the dust jacket, bears a logo, most shorthand for the tetragrammaton, yud, heh, vav,
likely the printer's, and the price, ten rubles. O n heh, a biblical name for G o d that is not supposed TITLE P A G E
the right-hand panel, the inside flap, is a circular to be pronounced. By stylizing the yuds and plac­ In his opening image, Lissitzky symbolically links
stamp depicting a man, a small boy, and a large ing them adjacent to each other, Lissitzky treats the central character of the song, a young goat,
animal: the man is holding an object similar in the two letters as a single graphic symbol that to a Jewish boy who holds in his hand an open
shape to the spice box used in the ritual of hav- merges with the surrounding abstract geometric book displaying the title of the s o n g . The over­
dalah, the ceremony marking the end of the shapes. That Lissitzky's letters form both a word lapping faces of these two kids—each provides
Sabbath. The w o r d s in the stamp are PI' ? mC3*?1p
1
and an element in the overall design implies not the other a second eye—strengthen their connec­
(Kultur Lige), the publisher of Lissitzky's Had only a respect for the s a c r e d n e s s of G o d ' s tion as one being.
gadya. Both the lettering and the graphic sensi­ name—the letters suggest the name as much as On the banner underneath the boy's feet are
bility of the drawing in the stamp suggest that it they express it—but also an acknowledgment of the publication details and the artist's name: the
was designed by Lissitzky. G o d ' s omnipresence. words aTa*rUNB '7 J1K flJrrXPI (drawn and litho­
,

Lissitzky incorporated stylized Hebrew letters graphed) are in yellow print, with the place of pub­
DUST JACKET-INTERIOR as well in the right-hand panel. In the triangle at lication, llP'p (Kiev), above and the date, a r m
All ten v e r s e s of the song are printed on the the top of the page are the lamed and the yud that (1919), below, both in black print. To the left of the
left-hand interior panel of the dust jacket. In pink refer to the first and last letters of his surname. boy's feet, also in black print, is Lissitzky's Hebrew
cursive at the top is the title, and directly below, The pair of triangular diacritical marks between name, rpro*? TTP^K.
in bold Yiddish, is the first verse of the song: the letters tells the reader to read them not as a
p^pa^t « "iK3 POKO T P I a a n p p K t h e word but as individual letters. In the circle below
father bought for two zuzim a kid). The subse­ is the name of the publisher, Kultur Lige, and a
quent v e r s e s , all in Y i d d i s h , are set in two surname, Kentzianavski, perhaps the name of the
columns. Each verse builds upon the last, adding actual printer.
a new line ("Then came the cat and devoured the
kid") to the preceding verse ("That the father
bought for two zuzim"). The phrase P'PPRX
VIII (the kid) cascades down the left side of each col­ DEDICATION P A G E
umn, graphically expressing the way that the The large cursive writing on this page is a dedi­
individual verses are chained together. In the cation— pr/ica Ilea (To Polyen)—though the identity
lower left-hand corner of the page, just below of the dedicatee is a mystery to Lissitzky scholars.
the final verse, the chain is completed: two of Lissitzky signed and dated this page as well: his
these phrases are joined together to form a circle. initials alef and lamed (*?K) appear above the
diagonal line; below are the date, written in Arabic God's promise to Noah after the Flood never again will change from black to orange in the following
numbers, and a place-name, probably Pushcha to curse mankind. Other images on this page antici­ illustration—Lissitzky will repeat this variation in
Vodytsya, which is located just outside of Kiev. pate the action of later verses: the tiny red cat in his depiction of the ox in the later verses.
the lower right-hand corner is the central charac­
ter of verse 2, while the well behind the boy's
back figures in verse 4. The image of the Jewish
shtetl, the clump of houses drawn in the lower
left-hand corner and also underneath the red cat,
recurs repeatedly, and with varying significance,
throughout the book.

VERSE 1 VERSE 4
Each illustration is crowned with an architectural Though Lissitzky gives a distinctive treatment to
frame containing the Yiddish verse. Through the the word ]Vp9QW (stick) in this verse, "Then came
use of color, Lissitzky keys the text to the illustra­ the stick and beat the dog," he does not color-
tion below, perhaps in an effort to make it easy for code it to the figure in the illustration below. In
the young reader to match word to figure. A s we addition to the shtetl imagery flanking the dog,
have seen, in this first verse, "The father bought there is an image of a figure either pushing or
for two zuzim a kid," the green of the word PQ8Q VERSE 2 running toward what appears to be a broken
(father) matches the green of the father's face, The action of the second verse, "Then came the shadoof, an ancient counterbalanced device used
while the yellow of the word P^PPX (kid) matches cat and devoured the kid," is viewed from above for hoisting water. The bucket that would have
the yellow of the kid. (Zuzim were silver coins; each by an eye set within a green circle. We will see a been attached to the now-dangling rope is mis­
zuz was worth a quarter of a silver shekel.) more detailed and conspicuous instance of this sing, but curiously the same rope seems to dangle
Below each illustration is a phrase from the image in the final verse of the song. The red cat from the end of the stick, suggesting some sort
original Aramaic version of the song. With the (f8p), the first murderer in the song, evokes Cain, of connection between the two objects. Given
exception of the phrase under the first illustra­ the first murderer in the Bible. Lissitzky's tendency to foreshadow the action of
tion, 828 p a n (that father bought), all the Aramaic In the folio, bet (1), Lissitzky drew a small later verses, it may be that the smoky blue of the
phrases are structured identically: 8U1B? 81181 figure, perhaps the dog from the next verse. clouds (and also of the word "stick" in the arch
(then came the cat), 83^3 8TI81 (then came the None of the remaining folios contain the kind of above) is a visual hint of the fire that will soon
dog), and so on. The Aramaic vav (l), from the
1
figurative decoration seen here and in the previ­ burn the stick. The connection between the well
biblical waw, can mean either "then" or "and." ous illustration. and the stick, then, might be the water that will
To mark the p r o g r e s s i o n of the pages, subsequently quench the fire.
Lissitzky placed decorative Hebrew letters in the
upper left-hand corner of each page: these letters
can be read simply as letters or as numbers, since
each letter in the Hebrew alphabet possesses a
numerical value. Note the small goat that Lissitzky
drew in the alef (8) above the first verse, perhaps
a flourish meant to underscore the goat's central-
ity in the song. VERSE 3
Lissitzky's illustrations are unified not only by Visually uniting this verse, "Then came the dog
the repetition of these compositional and typo­ and gobbled up the cat," are the spikes that we IX
graphical elements but also by the repetition of cer­ see on the teeth of the dog (TJin) and on the men­
tain images. In the above illustration, for example, acing ridges of the hills in the background. It is
the rainbow echoes the rainbow glimpsed on the interesting to note how Lissitzky varies the colors
inside cover, though here it assumes more promi­ of the animals from verse to verse: for instance,
nence—traditionally, the rainbow is a symbol of the cat is now green instead of red, while the dog
 angel of death, TIIDn ^*?D (mal'akh ha-mavet), is
used in Yiddish as well as Aramaic texts. The angel
of death appears in a doorway wearing a green
crown, most likely a reference to the Russian mon­
arch, and holding a sword in his right hand, a tradi­
tional image based on biblical descriptions and on
the folk belief that the angel of death killed his vic­
VERSE 5 VERSE 7 tims with a sword dipped in poison or gall. The
Drawing on a contemporary Yiddish phrase for Note that in the illustration of this verse, "Then candle burning above the shohet's head probably
arson, |XH "l^OTI N (a red rooster), Lissitzky vividly came the ox and drank the water," Lissitzky intro­ refers to the Jewish custom of placing a lit candle
represents the action of this verse, "Then came duces no ancillary images other than the shtetls at the head of a deceased person.
the fire and burnt the stick." The shtetl now occu­ on either side of the ox (OpN).
pies the foreground, and the stained-glass win­
dows to the left of the rooster identify the central
structure as a synagogue (these same windows
appear in the lower left-hand corner of the previ­
ous illustration). There are striking compositional
similarities between this image and a painting
by Issachar Ryback, entitled The Old Synagogue
(1917; Tel-Aviv Museum), made after the expedi­ VERSE 10
tion that Lissitzky and Ryback took in 1916 to VERSE 8 In terms of both its text and its imagery, Lissitzky's
study the synagogues of Ukraine. The fire ("1P"D)
2
With the exception of the small shtetl in the lower final illustration is complex. For example, in the
that burns the stick in this scene also burns the right-hand corner, Lissitzky limits his imagery here verse above the illustration, Lissitzky uses the
buildings, a reference to the burning of synagogues as well to the figures mentioned in the verse at Yiddish word 0*O (God), while in the Aramaic
and Jewish towns in the pogroms of the late nine­ hand: "Then came the shohet and slaughtered the below he uses the traditional H e b r e w phrase
teenth and early twentieth centuries. ox." The shohet (fllTO), or slaughterer, is a person «m i r a wnjm (the Holy O n e , B l e s s e d be He).
trained to butcher animals and birds according The letters in the lower left-hand corner of the
to Jewish law. Originally a Hebrew word, "shohet" page are Lissitzky's initials—printed almost identi­
was universally recognized and was used in both cally to those on the dedication page—and the
Yiddish and Aramaic. Thus, the word for "shohet" letters in the lower right-hand corner are pe nun
is the same both in the Yiddish verse and in the 02), an acronym for the Hebrew w o r d s "poh
Aramaic phrase at the bottom of this page, NJ1N1 nikbar" (here lies buried). The letters in the angel
anittf (then came the shohet). of death's hand are illegible.
Many of the images in Lissitzky's illustration
VERSE 6 of the final verse, "And the Holy O n e came,
Lissitzky's choice of a giant colorful fish to depict Blessed be He, and slew the angel of death," are
the action of this verse, "Then came the water and familiar to us: the kid and a bearded man, perhaps
quenched the fire," brings to mind the sea ser­ the father or perhaps a more mature version of
pent Leviathan, a biblical symbol of the forces of the young boy from the opening scene, now gaze
evil. Lissitzky's fish, however, has a beneficent upward in awe as G o d kills the angel of death; the
quality that may reflect the Jewish belief that the rainbow reappears, now spanning the entire sky;
X meat of the Leviathan is the reward in heaven for VERSE 9 and the eye that earlier observed the cat devour­
the righteous. The burning synagogue from the This is the only time that Lissitzky deviates entirely ing the kid is now clearly the all-knowing eye of
last illustration is now absent, and the fire—even from his system of color coding. In this case, the G o d . This depiction of G o d is striking given the

in relation to the small figure carrying the two verse, "Then came the angel of death and butch­ anti-iconic tradition in Judaism. However, repre­

buckets of water ("120*01), an echo of the figure ered the shohet," is printed in white on a black sentations of G o d are commonly found in illumi­

from verse 4—is quite small. ground. Like "shohet," the Hebrew term for the nated Haggadot, and in several examples from
the eighteenth century we find instances where suggests that the oppressive czarist monarchy, 2. For a discussion of the phrase "a red rooster" and
the painting by Ryback, s e e Haia Friedberg, "Lissitzky's Had
G o d is depicted similarly, through either an eye or symbolized here by the crowned angel of death,
Gadia'," Jewish Art 1 2 - 1 3 ( 1 9 8 6 - 8 7 ) : 2 9 8 - 9 9 .
a sword set within a circular cloud or sunburst. 3
was rendered powerless in the face of revolution­
Still, there is a forcefulness to Lissitzky's image ary justice. 3. For examples of these images, s e e Emile G . L. Schrijver
and Falk W i e s e m a n n , eds., Die Von Geldern Haggadah
that can be ascribed to a more contemporary und Heinrich Heines "Der Rabbi von Bacherach" (Vienna:
influence: on the first Soviet stamp—with which NOTES Verlag Christian Brandstatter, 1997), pi. 26r; and Haviva
1. It is interesting to note that in many of the words in the Aramaic Peled-Carmeli, Illustrated Haggadot of the Eighteenth Century,
Lissitzky certainly would have been familiar—an
phrases, Lissitzky represents the vowels as if he were writing in exh. cat. (Jerusalem: Israel M u s e u m , 1983), pis. 10511,107,117.
outstretched hand underneath a circular sun Yiddish. For example, in the word WW (came), Lissitzky positions
grips a s w o r d . The conflation of the hand of
4
the vowel point under the final alef, rather than under the preced­ 4. For an illustration of this stamp, s e e Friedberg, "Lissitzky's
ing consonant ta\z-WlK—as it would be in either Aramaic or Had Gadia'" (note 2), 302.
G o d with the hand of the Soviet people implies a Hebrew. Likewise, Lissitzky's word NQK (father) would be written
divine component to the revolution; but it also in Aramaic as his word (cat) as xyw, and so on.

VOCABULARY

YIDDISH ENGLISH YIDDISH ENGLISH ARAMAIC ENGLISH HEBREW ENGLISH

father devoured rrn "7n the only kid shohet

bought dog i that mon T*ftD the angel of

death
for tOP-BPaETTK gobbled up father
T-ra ttmpn the Holy One/
"TIX two stick P3T bought Kin Blessed be He
1

zuzim beat 1 then/and 2

a TP'*] fire came 1 3

kid burnt Him cat 1 4

came water dog n 5

NOTE
n the (fern.) quenched KTOITT stick Translated here are the Yiddish, i 6
A r a m a i c , and H e b r e w words—all
written in the H e b r e w alphabet—
TP! the (masc.) ox arm fire T 7
that appear in Lissitzky's illustra­
tions. The use of H e b r e w w o r d s in XI
an the (neut.) drank water Yiddish and Aramaic texts is dis­
n 8
c u s s e d a b o v e in the i c o n o g r a p h y
cat slaughtered Him ox section, as is Lissitzky's treatment 9
of v o w e l s in the Aramaic w o r d s .
and God *
10
 MUSIC

INTRODUCTION VERSE 7. V'a-ta to-ra v'sha-ta I'ma-ya 10. V'a-ta ha-ka-dosh ba-rukh hu
Had gad-ya, had gad-ya 2. V'a-ta shun-ra v'a-khal I'gad-ya d'kha-va l'nu-ra d'sa-raf I'hu-tra v'sha-hat I'malakh ha-ma-vet
d'hi-ka l'khal-ba d'na-shakh l'shun-ra d'sha-hat la-sho-heit
3. V'a-ta kal-ba v'na-shakh l'shun-ra
REFRAIN d'a-khal I'gad-ya d'sha-hat l'to-ra d'sha-ta l'ma-ya
d'a-khal I'gad-ya
Di-z'van a-ba bit-rei zu-zei, d'kha-va l'nu-ra d'sa-raf I'hu-tra
8. V'a-ta ha-sho-heit v'sha-hat I'to-ra
Had gad-ya, had gad-ya. 4. V'a-ta hu-tra v'hi-ka l'khal-ba d'hi-ka l'khal-ba d'na-shakh l'shun-ra
d'sha-ta l'ma-ya d'kha-va l'nu-ra
d'na-shakh l'shun-ra d'a-khal I'gad-ya
d'sa-raf I'hu-tra d'hi-ka l'khal-ba
d'a-khal I'gad-ya
d'na-shakh l'shun-ra
5. V'a-ta nu-ra v'sa-raf I'hu-tra d'a-khal I'gad-ya
d'hi-ka l'khal-ba d'na-shakh l'shun-ra NOTE
9. V'a-ta malakh ha-ma-vet
XII d'a-khal I'gad-ya This transcription reflects the S e p h a r d i c
v'sha-hat la-sho-heit pronunciation of the A r a m a i c lyrics to which
many m o d e r n singers of "Had gadya" are
6. V'a-ta ma-ya v'kha-va I'nu-ra d'sha-hat l'to-ra d'sha-ta l'ma-ya
a c c u s t o m e d . Lissitzky, however, w o u l d have
d'sa-raf I'hu-tra d'hi-ka l'khal-ba d'kha-va l'nu-ra d'sa-raf I'hu-tra been familiar with the A s h k e n a z i c pronuncia­
tion. Here is the s e c o n d v e r s e transcribed
d'na-shakh l'shun-ra d'hi-ka l'khal-ba d'na-shakh l'shun-ra
as L i s s i t z k y w o u l d have h e a r d a n d s u n g it:
d'a-khal I'gad-ya d'a-khal I'gad-ya " V ' o - s o shun-ro v'o-khal l'gad-yo."