Gupho shel Pesach, o Hagadath Pesach Letinoketh Yisrael [“The Essence of Passover; or, A Passover Hagadah for Jewish Children”]

(HAGADAH)

Trebitsch & Son

Berlin

1830

Text in Judeo-German

Yerushalmi pl.90 and pp.72-3; Vinograd, Berlin 554

Acording to Yerushalmi, few copies are extant of this unusual Hagadah edition - he knows only of the copies in Harvard and the British Museum. Unique in its style and content, this “Hagadah” is in fact an anonymously penned Christian missionary tract seeking the conversion of Jewish youth. Its tone is surprisingly subtle and understated, its chosen format is a dialogue between a Jewish father and his son seeking to explore the deeper meaning of the Paschal Lamb. The subtlety of language distinguishes the publication from others of the genre, the theorem being exclusively within the framework of Jewish belief - “the technique is one of constantly raising doubts… rather than frontal attack” (Yerushalmi p. 73).