Our Creed, a Reform movement adaptation of Daniel ben Yehudah Dayyan’s Yigdal by Rabbi J. Leonard Levy (1902)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and J. Leonard Levy

Shared on:

24 December 2025 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., American Reform Movement, credal hymn, doctrinal, English vernacular prayer, פיוטים piyyuṭim, statements of belief, יגדל yigdal, זמירות zemirot

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	There is one only God Through nature’s vast domains; A God of Righteousness, Whose love fore’er remains.
	None can compare to Him, Eternal is His name, He was of old, He is, And will be e’er the same.
	He is the First and Last, And absolutely One, Without divided parts, And equal has He none.
	Unchanging is His law, Immutable His will, And though we often err, His mercy guards us still.
	Our inmost secret thought Before Him open lies, Our deeds are all observed By His all-seeing eyes.
	All goodness He rewards, On sin He sends a blight, The clean and pure of heart Are His supreme delight.
	This uncreated God, Of man, is Father, Friend; The heavens, earth and seas He made from end to end.
	He is the King of kings, Of lords the highest Lord, By all that has life’s breath He is to be adored.
	To love Him we must do True service for mankind, For thus, a paradise On earth we all shall find.
	In His most loving hands Our souls in faith we place, In life and death we trust His justice and His grace.

This Reform movement catechism by Rabbi J. Leonard Levy was first published as “Our Creed” in The Children’s Service for Use in Religious Schools (1902). In the second edition from 1904, it is found on page 207. There, Rabbi Levy’s verse is described as a “translation,” which from the credit of the melody to “Leoni” (Meyer Lyon, 1751-1797) might lead one to consider it a revised Reform movement adaptation of some setting of Thomas Oliver’s “God of Abraham” (ca. 1771, itself a Christian adaptation of Daniel ben Yehudah Dayyan’s “Yigdal”). A cross-comparison however reveals this is not the case. Over at the Hymnology Archive, Chris Fenner uncovered a rhymed English translation of Yigdal by Rev. Newton Mann (1836-1926) made at the request of Rabbi Max Landsberg (1845-1927). Chris writes,

When Max Landsberg (1845–1927), rabbi of the B’rith Kodesh Congregation in Rochester, New York, was assembling his Ritual of Jewish Worship (1885), he approached his friend Newton Mann, pastor of the Unity Church (Unitarian) in Rochester, about creating a version of the Yigdal in English rhyme. This appeared in the book, beginning “Extollèd be the living God and praisèd be his name,” in 9 rhyming couplets, effectively 8.6.8.6 (Common Meter). This text, unfortunately, did not have the same meter as the Hebrew and could not be used with existing Hebrew tunes. In his preface, Landsberg acknowledged Mann: “I cannot find adequate terms to express my obligations to my dear friend Rev. N.M. Mann, Pastor of Unity Church, for the kind interest he has taken in the preparation of Part First of this Ritual, and the valuable services he has rendered in making the English more idiomatic and perfect.”

Mann’s 1885 version appears to me to offer an English derivative of Yigdal that Rabbi J. Leonard Levy may have used for his revised catechism. Of derivatives of Mann’s work, find the translation of Yigdal in English translation by Mann’s successor at Unity Church, William Channing Gannet in Unity Hymns and Chorals (1911). Many thanks to the Hymnology Archive and to Chris Fenner for his work. –Aharon Varady

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.)

J. Leonard Levy

Rabbi Joseph Leonard Levy (1865-1917), born in London, was a Liberal/Reform movement rabbi in the United Kingdom and the United States. He was educated at Jews' College and University College (B.A.), London, at Bristol University, England, and at Western University of Pennsylvania (D.D.). Rabbi Levy was rabbi of the Bristol Hebrew Congregation (1885-1889) and of Bnai Israel Congregation, Sacramento, California (1889-1893); associate rabbi of the Keneseth Israel Congregation, Philadelphia (1893-1901); and, since 1901, has been rabbi of the Rodeph Shalom congregation, Pittsburg. In 1898 he was elected chaplain of "Keegan's Brigade," with which he served through the Spanish-American war. Levy was the organizer of a number of charitable and religious societies among the Jews of Philadelphia. He is the author of a translation of the tractate Rosh haShanah of the Babylonian Talmud (Philadelphia, 1895). He published also The Greater Lights (1895); Home Service for the Passover (1896); The Nineteenth Century (1901); A Book of Prayer (Pittsburg, 1902); The Jew's Beliefs (1903); The Children's Service and Hymnal (1903); Text-Book of Religion and Ethics for Jewish Children (1903); Sabbath Reading (1904); and eight volumes of Sunday lectures. Levy is the editor of the Jewish Criterion, published at Pittsburg.

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=65121

Associated Image:

Our Creed (J. Leonard Levy 1902)

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute the work to Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and J. Leonard Levy.
Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=65121>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of volunteer contributors, or its institutional partners.
We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.

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)

Our Creed, a Reform movement adaptation of Daniel ben Yehudah Dayyan’s Yigdal by Rabbi J. Leonard Levy (1902)

Source(s)

Read a comment / Leave a comment (moderated)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply