A Study of the Passover Haggadah of the Chinese Jews

 

In 1975, Rabbi Mark G. Loeb zl wrote a masters thesis at the Hebrew Union College on HUC 931, one of two Kaifeng haggadot.  You can find the manuscript here.  Leob reached some conclusions about this codex that fits well with the general Yemeni provenance of Kaifeng scrolls and books. 

Thought his comparison, Loeb finds parallels between HUC 931 and Yemeni haggadot.  Statements like this:

And this:

Loeb finds many parallels between Yemeni and Maimonides Passover rites, but many variations also.  In summation, he has this to say about the parallels and the divergences:

Loeb then catalogs a long list of what the Kaifeng codex leaves out.  You can see these examples on pages 74-84.  Please see the manuscript for these examples.  Like many researchers, Loeb is left wondering about the origin and evolution of this text.  He writes that their text largely derives from...

Which is seems plausible about all of the Kaifeng scroll and manuscripts.  The Jews of Kaifeng replaced damaged and worn books for centuries, and had to use available examples where they could find them.  The examples we have were filtered through various "eastern" Jewish community sources.  When we see them, we view a mix of Mizrahi and Yemeni sources, with some variations based on local Kaifeng custom, and probably some measure of scribal error.  We saw this in similarities with Mizrahi and Yemeni elements found in the Vienna Scroll.