Obj. ID: 39567  Haggadah shel Chag ha-Pesach kefi Minhag ha-Yisraelim ha-Karaim......, Jerusalem, 1953

This text was prepared by William Gross:

An edition of the Pesach Haggadah according to the Karaite tradition, printed especially for the Karaite community in Israel.
The traditional Karaite Haggadah comprises mostly of verses from the Tanakh, and is almost entirely a retelling of the Exodus. As the Karaites reject all of the Oral Torah (Mishnah and Talmud), the Karaite Haggadah does include stories about Mishnaic Rabbis or delve into Midrashic interpretations of the Biblical narrative. Instead, it uses Biblical quotations to tell the story of the Exodus, interspersed with short explanations and blessings.
The Karaite Haggadah exists in two versions, the "Egyptian" and the "Russian" versions, each of which developed in the two great centers of late Karaism (Cairo and Crimea, respectively). Both versions are written entirely in Hebrew and this division represents two of the major historic centers of Karaism. The two versions have similarities but also diverge drastically at some points. In general, the Russian version seems fuller while the Egyptian seems abridged. For example, the Egyptian will often quote a single verse dealing with the Exodus while the Russian will quote the entire Biblical passage. The "Blessing after the Meal", which takes up about a third of the Haggadah in the Egyptian version and about a fourth in the Russian version, is identical in the two versions except that the Russian version omits the section from "These are the feasts" until "as He has commanded us". Despite all the differences there can be no doubt that the two versions derive from a single earlier version which evolved differently in these two centers of Karaism.