Adir Hu, a classic Pesaḥ song if ever there was one, is a part of Seder tables all over the planet. Its alphabetical list of God’s attributes, combined with its repeated pleas for a return to Jerusalem, make it a classic, to the point where the traditional German farewell greeting for Passover was not “chag sameach” or “gut yontef” but “bau gut” – build well. This interpretation, while not a direct translation by any means, has the same rhythmic pattern and alphabetical structure, giving a sense of the greatness of God.

The popular adjuration of the angels of peace and ministering angels, Shalom Aleikhem, in Hebrew with a German translation by Franz Rosenzweig.

“Óró sé do bheatha abhaile” is one of the most popular Irish rebel songs. Adapted from a folk song (with possible 18th century Jacobite origins), the most popular modern version, written by the poet and republical activist Pádraig Pearse and sung by the Irish Volunteers during the 1916 Easter Rising, is full of messianic and biblical imagery that makes it ripe for adaptation into a Hebrew piyyut. Presented here is “Hoy! Barukh Ha-Ba Ha-Bayta,” a Hebrew adaptation singable to the original melody.

A pizmon for Shabbat Zakhor and Purim, found in many Livorno siddurim (seen as the standard form for most Sephardic communities) as far back as the 18th century and possibly earlier. It is signed with the name Avraham, as well as the names Moshe and Aharon, but the author is otherwise unknown. Seder Mishmeret haKodesh (1847) inserts it as an introduction to the Mi Khamokha piyyut of Yehuda haLevi, recited on Shabbat Zakhor. The bouncy, joyous tune used for this piyyut, of Italian origin, is also used for Purim songs in multiple languages, such as Fate Onore al Bel Purim, Con Gran Placer Señores, and Haman Mamzer el Malo.

A popular piyyut for Simḥat Torah (4th hakkafah) originally composed as a piyyut for Shavuot and often referred to by its incipit, “Mipi El.”

This is a variation of Mipi El in Hebrew with a Judeo-Arabic translation found in the Seder al-Tawḥid for Rosh Ḥodesh Nissan, compiled by Mosheh Asher ibn Shmuel in 1887 in Alexandria.

A German-language Lied, or art song, retelling Ḥad Gadya, by the great cantor (and father of an even greater composer) Isaac Offenbach. First published in his 1838 “Hagadah, oder Erzählung von Israels Auszug aus Egypten” in Cologne, along with sheet music of a setting for voice and piano, it is here typed in modernized German spelling.

According to Joseph Judah Chorny’s On the Caucasian Jews, this acrostic piyyuṭ was customarily used as an epithalion before a wedding. He writes, “Before morning light, the bride is led to the groom’s house accompanied by many women and men, all carrying lit wax candles in their hands, and singing this song along the way.” Variants of this piyyut are found throughout the greater Sephardic world, generally in an abbreviated and slightly altered form. In Syria it is sung during the haqafot for Simḥat Torah, while in Livorno Sephardic practice (and subsequently in most Eastern Sephardic maḥzorim) it is a Shavu’ot piyyut.

A piyyut in Judeo-Greek for introducing the Decalogue.

This is a supplemental stanza for Maoz Tsur with regard to the present exile, written by a Rabbi Jeremiah, identified only as the av beit din of the town of Würzburg as compiled in the Kitzur Shnei Luḥot haBrit, a controversial yet influential work by Yehiel Michel Segal Epstein Ashkenazi published in 1683. If you know more about this Rabbi Jeremiah, please leave a comment or contact us.

A translation of Ḥad Gadya into Esperanto by Erin Piateski with a Hebraicization schema for Esperanto by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer. Piateski’s translation first appeared in her כוכב ירוק הגדה של פסח | Verda Stelo Hagado de Pesaĥo (2010).

Eḥad Mi Yodea has a place in Seder tables throughout Arda, and in many communities it was read in translation. This translation into Quenya is necessary for any good Lothlórien sedarim. But to be serious, Quenya was one of several languages developed by J.R.R. Tolkien. It serves as the sacred ancestral language of the Noldorin elves in the Middle-Earth legendarium. The editor here has developed this adaptation of the well-known seder table-song Eḥad Mi Yodea into Quenya, with thanks and credit to the experts at elfdict for their help. He has also transcribed it into a home-brewed transcription system into Hebrew script also used for his Min Yacincë translation of Ḥad Gadya.

A Judeo-Moroccan Arabic (Darija) adaptation of the Passover counting song Eḥad Mi Yodeaȝ, as found in Mahzor Moȝadé Hashem.

Eḥad Mi Yodéa is a counting-song that is a beloved part of Seders the world over. Counting up to 13, it is mostly written in Hebrew, but there are versions that can be found in many different languages. This translation is in the Judeo-Italian dialect of Siena, based on Geremia Mario Castelnuovo’s 1956 recording from Leo Levi’s collection of Judeo-Italian ethnomusicological recordings. A link to the original recording can be found here.

The text of the popular Passover song “Who Knows One?” in Hebrew set side-by-side with an Aramaic translation.

Eḥad Mi Yodéa is a counting-song that is a beloved part of Seders the world over. It is mostly written in Hebrew, counting up to 13, but there are versions that can be found in many different languages. This translation is in Bukhori, also known as Judeo-Tajik, as translated by the great Shimon ben Eliyahu Ḥakham (1843-1910), the chief rabbi of the Bukharan Jewish community in Jerusalem. His full translation of all liturgical additions in the month of Nisan for the Bukharan community can be found in חוקת הפסח Ḥuqat haPesaḥ (1904) – the source for this transcription on page 128-130 (see included). Shimon Ḥakham transcribed it into vocalized Hebrew script, which is included here alongside transliterations into Tajik Cyrillic and a Roman transcription.

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.

The text of the popular counting song “Who Knows One?” in its original Hebrew, with a translation in Latin.

The text of the popular Passover song “Who Knows One?” in its original Hebrew and Yiddish, with a translation in English.

By a 16th century paytan named Yitsḥaq, this is a Purim parody of the Havdalah (and Yom Kippur) piyyuṭ “HaMavdil,” found in Israel Davidson’s classic work Parody in Jewish Literature (1907), pp. 36-37.