The text of Ma’aseh Yehudit, the story of Judith, as found in Sefer Ḥemdat Yamim, a mystical compilation of customs and tiqqunim first published in İzmir in around 1731. (This text is also found as “Maaseh Yehudit, Version 2” in Judah David Eisenstein’s monumental Otzar Midrashim compilation.) Sefer Ḥemdat Yamim is a unique work, likely compiled by a Sabbatean but largely based on earlier pre-Sabbatean mystical sources, and because of this any specific text in it is quite difficult to date. This specific version of the story of Judith shows substantial influence from the Septuagintal text not found in earlier Jewish variants, giving a likely terminus post quem of several generations after the Inquisition when Spanish benei anusim brought their knowledge of the Vulgate’s apocrypha with them to Judaism. Even so, it is very clearly a fundamentally Jewish work. It is appropriate to recite on Yom haBanot (1 Tevet) or any time throughout Ḥanukkah, perhaps with Esther cantillation.

This is the translation of Ḥad Gadya into Judeo-Valyrian with a Hebraicization schema for Valyrian by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer.

Ḥad Gadya 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 Ḥad Gadya into Quenya, as well as a home-brewed transcription system into Hebrew script included here (PDF | ODT). This translation uses several fan-made terms, such as cuimacir for “butcher” and luhtya- for “extinguish”, as well as one original neologism, yacincë for “kid-goat.”

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).

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.

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

Ḥad Gadya has a place in Seder tables throughout the Jewish quadrant, and in many communities it was read in translation. This adaptation into the language of the Na’vi is very useful when celebrating liberation from the tyrannical RDA.

In our timeline, the Kaifeng Jewish community had originally spoken Persian as their lingua franca, before adopting the Kaifeng dialect of Mandarin that their neighbors spoke. But just change a little and all of history could be different! This is a translation of Ḥad Gadya in a timeline where Judeo-Aramaic was a little more prevalent in eastern Persia all those years ago. In this timeline, instead of speaking Judeo-Persian before adopting Chinese, the Kaifeng Jews spoke Aramaic. And this dialect of Aramaic, like many other languages spoken in the greater Chinese cultural sphere, underwent tonogenesis!

Ḥad Gadya has a place in Seder tables throughout the Jewish world, and in many communities it was read in translation. Probably not this one though, seeing as it was written more than five hundred years after the Tocharian language family went extinct. But maybe, in an alternate timeline, some of the Radhanites who traded along the Silk Road in the heyday of the Tocharians ended up settling in the Tarim Basin (in present-day Xinjiang/East Turkestan), and in this timeline where Tocharian survived the Jews of that region might sing something like this at their sedarim. This is a Tocharian B translation and Hebrew-script transcription of Ḥad Gadya. Unicode does not currently have Tocharian-script coverage, but in the event that it is ever introduced I’ll type it up!

A Luganda translation of Ḥad Gadya. Luganda is the vernacular language of the Abayudaya Jewish community of Uganda. Also included is a system for Hebrew transliteration of Luganda texts!

This is a translation of Ḥad Gadya into Guaraní, a vernacular language in Paraguay and central South America.

Ḥad Gadya has a place in Seder tables throughout the Jewish world, and in many communities it was read in translation. The Caribbean island of Curaçao is home to the oldest Jewish community west of the Atlantic, and its local creole language of Papiamentu has substantial Jewish influence. This is a translation of Ḥad Gadya into Papiamentu, along with a transcription into Hebrew according to a new methodology for Papiamentu in Hebrew.

A Judezmo/Ladino translation of the popular Passover song, Ḥad Gadya.

A Judeo-Berber translation of the popular Passover song, Ḥad Gadya.

A Judeo-Tajik translation of the popular Passover song, Ḥad Gadya.

A Judeo-Tajik translation of the popular Passover song, Ḥad Gadya.

A Čveneburuli (Judeo-Georgian) translation of the popular Passover song, Ḥad Gadya.

A Yevanic (Judeo-Greek) translation of the popular Passover song, Ḥad Gadya.

A Judeo-Tunisian translation of Ḥad Gadya, as performed by Nathan Cohen in this recording.

A Judeo-Arabic translation of the popular Passover song, Ḥad Gadya.