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When morning paints the eastern sky
In rich and varied hues of light,
Before Thy Throne, Lord! most high,
Let all confess Thy pow’r and might.
When twilight’s shadows gently fall,
When evening’s thousand stars appear,
When midnight’s gloom o’ershadows all,
We’ll think of Thee with hope and fear.
We seek Thee in the hour of joy,
In sorrow bow before Thy will;
Thou canst life’s feeble chords destroy,
In death each pulse for ever still.
But Thou wilt still preserve the soul,
When purified from earthly stain,
When soaring to that heavenly goal,
It seeks immortal life to gain.
“When morning paints the eastern sky,” by Cordelia Moïse Cohen (1809-1869), first published in 1842, appears under the subject “Immortality of the Soul” as Hymn 54 in Hymns Written for the Service of the Hebrew Congregation Beth Elohim, South Carolina (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1842), p. 57. That page is missing in the one copy of the first edition we know to exist. Thankfully, the hymn appears under the same subject as Hymn 40 in Hymns Written for the Use of Hebrew Congregations (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1856), p. 44. –Aharon Varady
Source(s)
“When Morning Paints the Eastern Sky, a hymn on the Immortality of the Soul by Cordelia Moïse Cohen (Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim 1842)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal 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 naqeniשְׁגִיאוֹת 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.)
Cordelia Moïse Cohen
Cordelia Moïse Cohen (1810-1869) was born in Charleston, the younger daughter of Cherie (Cherry) Moïse and Esther Moses. She married Dr. Philip Melvin Cohen of Charleston in 1832 and with him had eleven children. In The Moïse Family of South Caroline (1961) Harold Moïse writes that "she is remembered by her gift for poetry. She wrote a series of hymns for Congregation Beth Elohim which supplemented those of her aunt Penina Moïse. Cordelia, keen in wit and repartee, was the center of a brilliant circle of admirers. She suffered bitterly from poverty and anxiety during the Civil War, her physician husband in the service of the Confederacy, her family scattered. They were in Columbia when that city was burned by Sherman." She died in Charleston in 1869.
Ḳahal Ḳadosh Beth Elohim (Charleston, South Carolina)
Ḳahal Ḳadosh Beth Elohim (Hebrew: קהל קדוש בית אלהים, also known as Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, or more simply Congregation Beth Elohim), founded in 1749 in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the oldest Jewish congregations in the United States. The founding members of the synagogue were Jews of Spanish and Portuguese descent (Sepharadim), who arrived into Charleston via London, England. Before 1830 Ḳahal Ḳadosh Beth Elohim was a place of worship for Spanish and Portuguese Jews using Portuguese rituals as done in Portugal before the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions. A splinter group animated by the European Reform movement, the Reformed Society of Israelites, formed in 1824. While at first this group did not succeed in reforming Beth Elohim, by the mid 1830s Beth Elohim had reabsorbed its members and its ḥazzan, Gustavus Poznanski (1804–1879), joined the Reform camp in 1840. After the first synagogue building was destroyed by fire in 1838, it was rebuilt two years afterward (in a Greek Revival style designed by Cyrus L. Warner) with an organ to the chagrin of the traditionalists. Ḳahal Ḳadosh Beth Elohim is recognized as the oldest Reform Jewish congregation in the Americas.
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