Once, a bearded sage heard an old American song:
She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes
She'll be comin'round the mountain when she comes
She'll be comin' round the mountain, she'll be comin' round the mountain,
She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes
She'll be drivin' six white horses when she comes
She'll be drivin' six white horses when she comes
She'll be drivin' six white horses, she'll be drivin' six white horses,
She'll be drivin' six white horses when she comes
Oh, we'll all come out to meet her when she comes...
We will kill the old red rooster shen she comes...
Oh, we'll all have chicken and dumplings when she comes...
We'll all be shoutin' Hallelujah when she comes...
"Do you think," he asked, "that this song is talking about a real woman? Why should one person need six white horses? No, it is talking about the messianic age, when God's earthly presence - always referred to as she (the shekhina) - will once again reappear, rounding the corner of Mount Zion
The six white horses are a token of the Messiah's colt, mentioned by the prophet (Sak. 9:9), and if the song speaks of six it is because all this will come to pass in sixty years
Then everyone will be gathered from the earth's four corners to welcome the event
As for the old red rooster, this is the rooster Ziz (Ps. 50:11), companion of Leviathan, symbol of evil; both will be killed in the end of days to make the messianic meal - these are the chicken and dumplings - as tradition long ago foretold (Midrash Rabbah 19:4; Vajiqrah Rabbah 22:10; Pesiqta deRav Kahana 6:8)
Then Hallelujah will ring from every quarter"
That is what he said, and soon everyone was singing the old song - but now, its meaning was completely different
The words had not changed in the slightest, but what they meant had been transformed utterly
Henceforth no one could think of the old song the same way
- James Kugel, "How to read the Bible"
