A Stranger and a Sojourner Am I, a prayer-poem for Shabbat parashat Ḥayyei Sarah by Alice Montefiore Lucas (1898)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Alice Montefiore Lucas

Shared on:

22 February 2026 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

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19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, immigration, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Settlement, Prayers as poems, פרשת חיי שרה parashat Ḥayyei Sarah

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	Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. (Psalms 39:13)
	A Stranger and a Sojourner Am I
	A stranger and a sojourner am I With Thee, O Lord, who hast on me bestowed For a brief space, a pilgrim’s scant abode, A little field and toilsome husbandry.
	A stranger and a sojourner! I sigh, And fain had rested, when the noon-day glowed, Neath the cool shade, where crystal waters flowed, But time speeds on apace, the hours fly.
	A stranger! yea, but Thou, O Lord, art nigh; A sojourner! yea, but the weary load I bear, Thy hand that traced the wanderer’s road Shall ease me of, beneath the sunset sky.

“A Stranger and a Sojourner Am I” by Alice Montefiore Lucas was written for “Sabbath—Ⅴ,” (i.e., Shabbat parashat Ḥayyei Sarah) and first published in her collection of prayers, The Jewish Year (1898), p. 10.

Source(s)

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Alice Montefiore Lucas

Alice Julia Lucas (née Montefiore) (2 August 1851 – 25 March 1935) was a British Jewish poet, translator, and communal worker. Alice Julia Montefiore was born in 1851, the elder daughter of Nathaniel M. Montefiore and Emma Goldsmid. Alongside her brother Claude Montefiore, she studied Judaism under Solomon Schechter at the Hochschule in Berlin. On 24 April 1873 she married barrister Henry Lucas, who later served as treasurer and vice-president of the United Synagogue. In 1900 she helped establish the Jewish Study Society, modelled after the Council of Jewish Women, of which she served as the first president. Lucas also sat on the women's committee of the Westminster Jews' Free School and its preparatory nursery, the Jews' Infant School.

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The Banishment of Hagar by Jan Mostaert (ca. 1475 –1552/1553)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)

A Stranger and a Sojourner Am I, a prayer-poem for Shabbat parashat Ḥayyei Sarah by Alice Montefiore Lucas (1898)

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