This paraliturgical adaptation in English of the well-known piyyut “Adon Olam” was written by David Nunes Carvalho (1784-1860). The adaptation was published as “Before the Glorious Orbs of Light” in Hymns Written for the Service of the Hebrew Congregation Beth Elohim, Charleston, S.C. (1842) and as “Unity of God (Adone Gnolam)” on page 8 of Hymns Written for the Use of Hebrew Congregations (1856). Gary Zola writes that it can be found in the “Carvalho Holograph” a supplement to the prayerbook prepared for use within the Reformed Society of Israelites by Carvalho sometime before 1830. The version of the work transcribed here is as the poem appears handwritten in the pages of a copy of the Constitution of the Reformed Society of Israelites (1825), including different wording and several additional stanzas missing in later printed works.

We call this work a paraliturgical adaptation instead of a translation for the following reasons: 1) Adon Olam has less stanzas compared to those in this hymn, 2) the stanzas in this adaption do not correspond to the piyyut without rearrangement, and 3) the adaptation corresponds more with the theme of the stanzas or lines they correspond to, rather than any exact or even inexact translation. I’ve set the adaptation side-by-side with the rearranged source text per what seems likely to be their inspiration. –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

“אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם | Before the Glorious Orbs of Light, a paraliturgical adaptation of Adon Olam by David Nunes Carvalho (ca. 1826)” 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.)

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.

Reformed Society of Israelites

The Reformed Society of Israelites (1824-1833) was a group of forty-seven congregants of Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, Charleston, South Carolina, who gathered in late 1824 to petition the congregation to modify the service of prayers with an adapted liturgy emphasizing English translations, original hymns, and other modifications. Among other reforms, the group called for shorter services and sermons conducted in English that would relate the weekly parashah to everyday life. Prominent leaders in the group were Isaac Harby (1788–1828), Abraham Moïse (1799-1869), and David Nunes Carvalho (1784-1860). After Harby's death in 1828, the group published a prayerbook (later reprinted by Barnett Elzas/Bloch in 1916). In 1833, the group dissolved but in rejoining Beth Elohim they also managed to succeed in their original mission in putting the congregation on a firm Reform movement trajectory.

David Nunes Carvalho

David Nunes Carvalho (1784-1860), born and educated in London, England, was a merchant, author, and ḥazzan for the Reformed Society of Israelites in Charleston, South Carolina, the first Reform congregation in the United States. He helped to compile the first Reform prayerbook in English, the fourth oldest Reform prayerbook in the world.

Works of related interest:

 

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם | Adaun Aulom, a paraliturgical adaptation of Adon Olam by Lise Tarlau (1907)

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (מנהג הספרדים)‏ | Adōn Olam (rhyming translation by Jacob Waley, before 1873)

Light of Truth (a/k/a Glad Tidings), a hymn by David Nunes Carvalho (Reformed Society of Israelites, Charleston, South Carolina, 1826)

God our Shepherd and Guardian, an adaptation of Psalms 23 by David Nunes Carvalho (Reformed Society of Israelites, Charleston, South Carolina, 1826)

Brotherly Love, an adaptation of Psalms 133 by David Nunes Carvalho (Reformed Society of Israelites, Charleston, South Carolina, 1826)

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (מנהג הספרדים)‏ | Adōn Olam (rhyming translation by David de Aaron de Sola, 1836)

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (מנהג הספרדים)‏ | Adōn Olam, rhyming translation by Rabbi David de Sola Pool (1937)

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