LOST GOAT, SON, 

SHEPHERD AND FATHER 

August 29, 2014

AN ARAB SHEPHERD IS SEARCHING 

FOR HIS GOAT ON MOUNT ZION

An Arab shepherd is searching for his goat on Mount Zion
And on the opposite hill I am searching for my little boy.
An Arab shepherd and a Jewish father
Both in their temporary failure.
Our two voices met above
The Sultan's Pool in the valley between us.
Neither of us wants the boy or the goat
To get caught in the wheels
Of the "Had Gadya" machine.

Afterward we found them among the bushes,
And our voices came back inside us
Laughing and crying.

Searching for a goat or for a child has always been
The beginning of a new religion in these mountains. 

© Yehuda Amichai

- A Jewish Poet.

Picture on top: 
Goat on a Mountain
in Garm Chasma,
Tajikistan

Had Gadya or Chad Gadya

is a song sung at the end 

of the Passover Meal.

It tells the story of a little
goat that a father 
pays 2 zuzim for it.