“The Menorah” by Miriam del Banco was first published in 1886 in The Menorah (the official magazine of Bnei Brith) volume 1, p. 36-37. Del Banco probably authored this poem especially for this inaugural edition.

As the featured image for this poem, I have associated an illustration of an orrery, a mechanical model of the solar system. Although del Banco does not mention an orrery outright, I sense its resonance in the seventh stanza “And as all thy branches in their twining / Towards the seventh, central light, do burn. / And as this itself, in splendor shining, / To the Holy Shrine doth ever turn,” and in the line in the last stanza, “Arch and post to gilded portal turning.” This last stanza, asserting that “Light is knowledge” and that Truth in art, science, and the humanities is synonymous with Torah, is a powerful revisionist framing of an enlightened Judaism. –Aharon Varady

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“The Menorah, a poem by Miriam del Banco (1886)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Miriam del Banco

Miriam del Banco (27 June 1858 - 6 November 1931) was a writer, poet, translator, and educator. She was the daughter of Rabbi Max Del Banco (1825-1864), a reform rabbi with a congregation in Evansville, Indiana at the time of his death. Johanna (née Meyer), Miriam's mother, moved to St. Louis and there Miriam began her education in its public schools, displaying remarkable poetic talent. Later she was sent to her uncle at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where she attended the State Normal School. After graduating with honors, she rejoined her mother, who in the mean time had moved to Chicago. There, in 1885, Ms. Del Banco began teaching in the public schools, and from 1889 onward, as the assistant principal at the Von Humboldt School. Later on she served as the principal of the McClellan and Motley schools in Chicago. In 1921, at the age of 63, she earned a PhD from DePaul University. She was a frequent contributor to both the Jewish and general press, having written a large number of poems, both Jewish and secular, and often under the pseudonym, "the Pansy" (after her favorite flower).

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.)

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Orrery (credit: ant_ix)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "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