Who Knows 13?

August 20th, 2009
religion
I was reading about cumulative songs and discovered that what I think of as the passover 'game' "who knows 13?" is more commonly the song Echad Mi Yodea (Who knows one?). In my father's family, we do it as a game where first we go around the table building it up to thirteen (person N goes from N down to 1, then asks person N+1 "who knows N+1), then we go around again trying to say the whole thirteen as many times as we can in one breath. But there is no melody or any sort of song to it. I should learn the song.

The other difference would be the words I know vs the words on wikipedia: (our version is from memory, so it might not be right, but I think it is)

"Popular version" from WP "Rhyming version" from WP Our version
Thirteen are the temperaments of god Thirteen are the attributes of hashem Thirteen are the attributes of divinity
Twelve are the tribes of israel
Eleven are the stars of joseph's dream
Ten are the commandments
Nine are the months of the pregnant Nine are the months til the baby's born Nine are the festivals
Eight are the days of the circumcision Eight are the days til the brit milah Eight are the lights of chanhukah
Seven are the days of the week Seven are the days of the week (ooh-ah) Seven are the days of the week
Six are the books of the Mishnah Six are the days of creation
Five are the books of the torah
Four are the matriarchs Four are the mothers
Three are the patriarchs Three are the fathers
Two are the tables of the covenant Two are the tablets that moshe brought Two are the tables of the covenant (and)
One is our god, in heaven and on earth One is hashem, one is hashem, one is hashem! In the heaven and the earth One is our god, in the heavens and the earth

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