Before YHVH's Awful Throne, a hymn by David Nunes Carvalho (Reformed Society of Israelites, Charleston, South Carolina, 1826)
Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=39409
open_content_license: Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication Date: 2021-10-08
Last Updated: 2025-02-02
Categories: Shaḥarit l'Shabbat ul'Yom Tov
Tags: 19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, American Reform Movement, English vernacular prayer, hymns, South Carolina, United States
Excerpt: A hymn provided for opening or concluding the morning Sabbath service of the Reformed Society of Israelites (Charleston, S.C.) ca. 1826. . . .
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Before YHVH’s awful throne,
Ye nations, bow with sacred joy;
Know that the Lord is God alone;
He can create and he destroy.
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His Sov’reign pow’r, without our aid,
Made us of clay, and formed us men;
And when like wand’ring sheep, we stray’d,
He brought us to his fold again,
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We are his people, we his care,
Our souls, and all our mortal frame
What lasting honour shall we rear,
Almighty Maker to thy name?
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We’ll crowd thy gates with thankful songs,
High as the heaven our voices raise;
And earth, with her ten thousand tongues,
Shall fill thy courts with sounding praise.
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Wide — wide as the world is thy command,
Vast as eternity, eternity thy love;
Firm as a rock thy truth shall stand,
When rolling years shall cease to move.
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“Before YHVH’s Awful Throne” appears as Hymn 4 in The Sabbath service and miscellaneous prayers, adopted by the Reformed society of Israelites, founded in Charleston, S.C., November 21, 1825 (1830, Bloch: 1916), p. 55. Gary Zola writes that the prayer was written by David Carvalho for the Society as indicated in Abraham Moïse’s annotated copy of the 1830 prayerbook. I have replaced the vocalized Tetragramaton in the first line with ‘YHVH.’ I have preserved the wording as handwritten in the endpapers of the Constitution of the Reformed Society of Israelites, 1825. –Aharon Varady
Source(s)
Contributor: Reformed Society of Israelites
Co-authors:
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Name: David Nunes Carvalho
Bio: 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.
Website:
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/david-nunes-carvalho
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Name: Reformed Society of Israelites
Bio: 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.
Website:
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/reformed-society-of-israelites
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Name: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
Bio: 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.)
Website: https://aharon.varady.net
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/aharon-varady-transcription
Featured Image:
Title: Print; Carvalho, Solomon Nunes; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; Charleston, South Carolina, United States; 1838_Kaplan Collection Upenn
Caption: Print; Carvalho, Solomon Nunes; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; Charleston, South Carolina, United States; 1838_Kaplan Collection Upenn
