Not Worthy, a prayer-poem for Shabbat parashat Vayishlaḥ by Alice Montefiore Lucas (1898)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Alice Montefiore Lucas

Shared on:

23 February 2026 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, פרשת וישלח parashat Vayishlaḥ, Prayers as poems

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. (Genesis 32:11)
	Commit thy way unto the Lord. (Psalms 37:5)
	Not Worthy
	I am not worthy of the least of all The mercies and the truth which thou hast shewed Unto Thy servant, for this road I traversed and this Jordan cross’d With but my staff for aid and load, And now I am become a twofold host.
	I am not worthy, Lord, I cry this day, Not worthy of the gracious heavenly care With which Thou guidest everywhere Thy children, though the path may be Narrow or stony, steep or bare, That leads at last earth’s pilgrim home to thee.
	I am not worthy of Thy holy word, That bids us unto Thee commit our ways, And move, illumined by the rays Of steadfast faith’s eternal light, Unharmed through life’s oft darkened days, Until we come where there is no more night.
	I am not worthy — yea, but greater far Is Thy great love than my unworthiness, Thy love, that cannot pitiless Our sorrows and our sins behold, That comes to pardon and to bless, And gives us peace as in the days of old.

“Not Worthy” by Alice Montefiore Lucas was written for “Sabbath—Ⅷ,” (i.e., Shabbat parashat Vayishlaḥ) and first published in her collection of prayers, The Jewish Year (1898), pp. 17-18.

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.)

Alice Montefiore Lucas

Alice Julia Lucas (née Montefiore) (2 August 1851 – 25 March 1935) was a British Jewish poet, translator, and communal worker. Alice Julia Montefiore was born in 1851, the elder daughter of Nathaniel M. Montefiore and Emma Goldsmid. Alongside her brother Claude Montefiore, she studied Judaism under Solomon Schechter at the Hochschule in Berlin. On 24 April 1873 she married barrister Henry Lucas, who later served as treasurer and vice-president of the United Synagogue. In 1900 she helped establish the Jewish Study Society, modelled after the Council of Jewish Women, of which she served as the first president. Lucas also sat on the women's committee of the Westminster Jews' Free School and its preparatory nursery, the Jews' Infant School.

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=66167

Associated Image:

we’re not worthy (Wayne’s World 1992)

(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 Alice Montefiore Lucas.
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=66167>.
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)

Not Worthy, a prayer-poem for Shabbat parashat Vayishlaḥ by Alice Montefiore Lucas (1898)

Source(s)

Read a comment / Leave a comment (moderated)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply