Yea, More Than They — a prayer-poem for Shabbat parashat Mas’ei by Alice Montefiore Lucas (1898)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Alice Montefiore Lucas

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24 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, Forgiveness, Mosheh Rabbenu, פרשת מסעי parashat masei, Prayers as poems

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. (Psalms 130:5-6)
	Yea, More Than They
	Yea, more than they, who through the gloomy night, Through sleepless hours, that loiter on their way, Watch for the dawn above the eastern height, Yea, more than they.
	Watching and waiting for return of day, My soul waits for the Lord, the Lord of might, With whom forgiveness is, my hope and stay.
	And when His mercy thrills my soul contrite, My soul rejoices in His pardoning ray, More than they joy to see the morning light, Yea, more than they.

“Yea, More Than They” by Alice Montefiore Lucas was written for “Sabbath—ⅩⅬⅣ,” (i.e., Shabbat parashat Mas’ei) and first published in her collection of prayers, The Jewish Year (1898), p. 98.

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 Death of Moses, as in Deuteronomy 34:1-12, illustration from a Bible card published 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company

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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)

Yea, More Than They — a prayer-poem for Shabbat parashat Mas’ei by Alice Montefiore Lucas (1898)

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