One is on the evil Team Cat , defending those who would cause harm to the innocent . At this point , the child is deeply troubled . How can God be on the side of the cat that ate the goat ?!
For Rabbi Steinsaltz , the answer to this conundrum is clear : Chad Gadya could not possibly be a story about vengeance . The dog doesn ’ t bite the cat out of allegiance to the goat ; rather , biting cats is simply part of the dog ’ s nature . There is no Team Dog or Team Cat ; there are just various animals , objects , and individuals that act violently because of their own shortsighted motivations . The enemy of my enemy is not my friend .
And yet it ’ s not just children who are inclined to see the world with black-and-white moral clarity in which some acts of violence are absolutely noble and other acts of violence are absolutely evil . Chad Gadya is fated to continue until someone breaks the cycle .
Chad Gadya is a prominent trope in Israeli poetry about war and violence .
Yehuda Amichai prayed 42 that his son and his neighbor ’ s son wouldn ’ t get caught in the wheels of the fearsome Chad Gadya machine . Chava Alberstein sang 43 of the futility of Chad Gadya ’ s cycle of attackers being attacked and pursuers being pursued . And Levin Kipnis imagined 44 the
42
( 1987 , י ח י מ ע ה ד ו ה י ) ” י ד ג ש פ ח מ י ב ר ע ה ע ו ר
”
43
( 1989 , ן י י ט ש ר ב ל א ה ו ח ) ” א י ד ג ד ח
”
44
( 1942 , ס י נ פ י ק ן י ו ל ) ” א י ד ג ד ח
”
146