The prayer-poem “Where We Can Find God” first appears in Hebrew with English translation by Eugene Kohn in the Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1945). It is not entirely clear who composed the prayer-poem; by way of attribution, the editors of the Sabbath Prayer Book only write that it was “adapted from passages in David Frishman’s [Hebrew] translation of [Rabindranath] Tagore’s Gitanjali” (see p.570). Several lines in the poem can indeed be found in Frishman’s translation of Gitanjali from English to Hebrew. (Gitanjali‘s translation into Hebrew, published in 1922, was one of the final works David Frishman (also Frischmann, 1859-1922) completed in his lifetime.)

Tagore’s Gitanjali (Song Offerings) is comprised of 103 “songs” or cantos. I’ve provided notation indicating which of Tagore’s songs in Gitanjali have inspired lines and stanzas in “Where We Can Find God.”

I am nearly certain that “Where We Can Find God” was composed by Eugene Kohn. Tagore’s canto 35 includes the lines, “Wherever words come out from the depth of truth / Wherever tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection” and David Frishman’s Hebrew translation has בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יוֹצְאִים הַדְבָרִים מִמַּעֲמַקֵי הָאֱמֶת. בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר שׁוֹלַֽחַת מַשְׂאַת־הַנֶּֽפֶשׁ אֶת־זְרוֹעוֹתֶֽיהָ בְּלִי מַעֲצוֹר אֶל כׇּל־שָׁלֵם. In “Where We Can Find God” the Source (Hebrew) has the exact wording of Frishman while Kohn’s Translation (English) provides the exact wording from Tagore’s canto 35. My conclusion is that since the author of “Where We Can Find God” was equally familiar with Gintanjali’s original English and David Frishman’s translation, it makes sense to see that the listed translator, Eugene Kohn, was also the prayer-poem’s author.

The prayer-poem has been incorrectly attributed at least twice. First in Rabbi Morrison David Bial’s An Offering of Prayer where it is attributed directly, albeit “freely adapted” to Tagore. Chaim Stern in his own translation appearing in Gates of Prayer (1975 CCAR Press) seems to attribute the prayer to David Frishman: “Page 659: “Lord where can I find You? You glory fills the world…” Translation by Chaim Stern from David Frischmann’s Hebrew version of Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali. Cf. Chaim Stern’s earlier translation in Service of the Heart [1967] pp. 225ff. and Eugene Kohn’s translation in Recontructionist Sabbath Prayer Book [1945], pp. 342-9.”

I have made some very light editing to “Where We Can Find God,” mainly to replace ‘Thee,’ ‘Thy’, and ‘Thou’ with ‘you’ and ‘your.’ And I have also made other subtle changes to bring the English translation closer to the Hebrew. –Aharon N. Varady.

Source(s)

“הִנֵּה שָׁם אֶמְצָאֶךָּ | Where We Can Find Yah, a prayer-poem by Eugene Kohn (1945) inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali (Song Offerings, 1912)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Aharon N. Varady (editing/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.)

Eugene Kohn

Eugene Kohn (January 26, 1887 - April 1, 1977) was an American Reconstructionist rabbi, writer and editor. Born in Newark, New Jersey he attended the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and in 1912 received ordination. It was here that he met Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan who taught him homiletics. Between 1912 and 1939 he served as a congregational rabbi in Conservative synagogues in the U.S. states of Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Wisconsin and Ohio. He also served as the president of the Rabbinical Assembly 1936-1937. He played a central role in the Reconstructionist movement. He edited its journal The Reconstructionist and, alongside Kaplan and Ira Eisenstein, edited The New Haggadah (1941), The Sabbath Prayer Book (1945) and The Reconstructionist Prayer Book (1948). Alongside Jack Cohen, Eisenstein and Milton Steinberg he was one of Kaplan's main disciples.

David Frischmann (translation)

David ben Saul Frischmann (also Frishman and Frischman, Hebrew: דָּוִד בֵּן שָׁאוּל פְרִישְׁמַן, 31 December 1859 – 4 August 1922) was a Hebrew and Yiddish modernist writer, poet, and translator. He edited several important Hebrew periodicals, and wrote fiction, poetry, essays, feuilletons, literary criticisms, and translations.

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941, and also known by his sobriquets Gurudev, Kabiguru, and Biswakabi) was a Bengali polymath, poet, musician, and artist from the Indian subcontinent. He reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse" of Gitanjali, he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as "the Bard of Bengal".

Works of related interest:

 

গীতাঞ্জলি | גִּיטַאנְיַ׳אלִי (קרבן־זמרה)‏ | Gitanjali (Song-offerings), by Rabindranath Tagore (1912); translated into Hebrew by David Frischmann (1922)

יָהּ, אָנָה אֶמְצָאֶךָּ | Yah, Where shall I find you?, a piyyut by Yehudah haLevi (ca. early 12th c.)

א דוּדעלע (אַיֵּה אֶמְצָאֶךָּ)‏ | A Dudele (Where shall I seek you?), by Rabbi Levi Yitsḥaq of Berditchev (ca. 18th c.)

An American Covenant of Brotherhood, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan and Eugene Kohn (1945)

Hashem is Everywhere! — a song by Rabbi Yosef Goldstein (1972)

Closing Prayer for New Year’s Day, adapted by Mordecai Kaplan & Eugene Kohn from a prayer by Members of the Faculty of the Colgate Divinity School (1947)

Opening Prayer on the Significance of Washington’s Birthday, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, J. Paul Williams, and Eugene Kohn (1951)

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