This hymn was first written by David Nunes Carvalho for the second anniversary celebration of the establishment of the Reformed Society of Israelites (ca. 1825-26). The text of the hymn appears under the title of “Light of Truth” in the Cohn lithograph (The Isaac Harby Prayerbook, Edward Cohn, Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim 1974) and under the title “Glad Tidings” in the Carvalho Holograph. Many thanks to the American Jewish Archives for providing access to the manuscript. –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

Light of Truth (David Nunes Carvalho – Cohn Lithograph 1826)

Glad Tidings (David Nunes Carvalho – Carvalho Holograph 1826)

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

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.

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.

Stable Link:    https://opensiddur.org/?p=39603

Associated Image:   

Print; Carvalho, Solomon Nunes; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; Charleston, South Carolina, United States; 1838_Kaplan Collection Upenn

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

Source:    XML | JSON | HTML | ODT

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

1. Properly attribute the work to Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription), David Nunes Carvalho and Reformed Society of Israelites.
2. 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.)
3. Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=39603>.
4. 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 contributors, patrons, or 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-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. If you like what you've found here, please help keep our project alive and online with your financial contribution.

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

Works of related interest:

 

Before YHVH’s Awful Throne, a hymn by David Nunes Carvalho (Reformed Society of Israelites, Charleston, South Carolina, 1826)

Lift Up Your Hands, a hymn by David Nunes Carvalho (Reformed Society of Israelites, Charleston, South Carolina, 1826)

Universal Praise, a hymn by David Nunes Carvalho (Reformed Society of Israelites, Charleston, South Carolina, 1826)

Thanksgiving for Divine Mercy, a hymn by David Nunes Carvalho (Reformed Society of Israelites, Charleston, South Carolina, 1826)

The Glory of God, 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)

prev next