אַדִּיר הוּא יִבְנֶה בֵּיתוֹ בְּקָרוֹב.

G-d is strong; He will build His house soon

 

Adir Hu

- Jesse Goldmacher                               

 

 

This is a song that is sung in the portion of the Seder called Nirzah, which means means acceptance and conclusion; it contains many different songs to end off the seder night.

Adir Hu is praising G-d with many different adjectives. The adjectives used include every single letter in the Hebrew alphabet and appear in alphabetical order; this style of literature, the acrostic, is found in many Hebrew songs.¹ This song is a prayer for the messianic days to come and also the rebuilding of the Beit- Hamikdash¹.

At the beginning of Nirzah it is said, “Next year in Jerusalem.” I think that this song is re-iterating the theme of going to Israel. This is because the Beit HaMikdash is built in Jerusalem, and if Jews all over the world pray for the rebuilding of the Temple, it implies that the site of the Temple is the appropriate homeland for the Jewish people.

One of the adjectives is “Lamud Hu.” which we might take to mean that G-d is learned. However, we know that this cannot be true because G-d cannot “learn”, since we define G-d as being “all-knowing”, meaning He knew everything from the start. To avoid this difficulty, the Sefer HaAruch defines “Lamud” as “victorious”.²

There is a lot of repetition in this song, and repetition is often used in a song for emphasis.¹  What is clearly being emphasized here is the praiseworthiness of G-d.  There are twenty-two different adjectives used in this song. “Adir Hu” is the only description that is left secluded in its own stanza as an introduction. Thus, in the body of the song, there are twenty-one different adjectives used. Twenty one is a multiple of the number seven, which is a very symbolic number in Judaism. The Sabbath is on the seventh day, it took G-d seven days to create the world.  Twenty one is also a factor of three, suggesting that this song is talking about the building of the Third Temple.

I think that there may also be a symbolic reason for “Adir Hu” to be by itself on top of every other adjective. Every single adjective in some shape or form is signifying the uniqueness and excellence of G-d, and that there is no other. “Adir Hu” is showing G-d’s position and status in the world, that He is the lone Creator of earth, and is in charge of its future.

Finally, in light of the number of descriptions, I have gone back to the theory of using the numerical value for each Hebrew letter, which is known as ‘Gimatriah’. Judging by how one looks at the song he or she could pick out 21 or 22 adjectives (21 by taking out ‘Adir Hu’). In Gimatriah 21 would be כ"א and 22 would be כ"ב These two days are the last days of Passover; 21 would be the last day in Israel, and 22 anywhere else in the world. This symbolizes the end of Passover. The actual context of the song is talking about the end of days, when the Messiah will come as a savior of the Jewish people, and the Temple will be built. “The End” seems to be a message that this song is portraying both openly and in code. Even though the end of Passover is very different compared to the ‘end of days’ when the Messiah will come, the theme of ‘ending’ is seen.

 

1-       http://www.templesanjose.org/JudaismInfo/time/Pesach.htm

2-       Kitov, Eliyahu. The Heritage Haggadah. Feldheim Publishers. Jerusalem, Israel. 1999.