Born into Judaism, Paul Christian Kirchner was baptized a Christian in 1713. In 1717, he first published the word “Jüdisches Ceremoniel” or “Jewish Ceremony,” for which he is most well known — a firsthand recollection (and, to be honest, criticism) of Jewish practices throughout the year and life cycle. While the work is written by an apostate for a Christian audience, and thus it is certainly not an unbiased source — and it had been almost a decade since he left the community so some of his memories are a bit muddled — it is still a fascinating work if only for its depiction of Jewish practices otherwise forgotten. In this portion of Kirchner’s description of the Seder night, he describes a ritual somewhat similar to the one still practiced in many North African communities to this day along with six — count ’em, six! — questions asked by the eldest (‽) child to the father.

A series of fourteen short couplets describing the fourteen traditional stages of the Haggadah, written in Judeo-Italian and first published in the famous 1609 Venice Haggadah of Isaac Gershon. The Italian used in the Venice Haggadah lacks a lot of the most divergent aspects of the Judeo-Italian languages, sticking to a more mainline Tuscan grammatical norm, but there are enough obsolete, poetic, or dialectal forms that several footnotes have been included to explain them. Also included is an original English-language rhyming translation!

A series of ten short couplets describing the ten plagues afflicting the Egyptians in Egypt, written in Judeo-Italian and first published in the famous 1609 Venice Haggadah of Isaac Gershon. The Italian used in the Venice Haggadah lacks a lot of the most divergent aspects of the Judeo-Italian languages, sticking to a more mainline Tuscan grammatical norm, but there are enough obsolete, poetic, or dialectal forms that several footnotes have been included to explain them. Also included is an original English-language rhyming translation!

This is a German translation of the first nine stanzas of the counting song popularly sung at the Passover seder, made by Paul Christian Kirchner in 1717.

This is a German translation of the Passover table-song Ḥad Gadya as translated by Paul Christian Kirchner in 1717.

In many communities, the practice of Yaḥats, or breaking the matsah before maggid, is done with liturgical and ritual additions. The additions included here are one practice out of many variants as found in the practice of Djerba, the island off the coast of Tunisia.

This is a variation of the “Baugesang,” a variation of the piyyut Adir Hu sung in German translation. Better known in form found in the 1769 Selig Haggadah, this is a variation published in 1717 by Paul Christian Kirchner.