Father of Nations! Judge Divine! – a hymn on "Our Country" by Penina Moïse (Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim 1856)
Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=39845
open_content_license: Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication Date: 2021-10-19
Last Updated: 2021-11-08
Categories: Government & Country, United States of America
Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., ABAB rhyming scheme, English vernacular prayer, hymns, Patriotic hymns, South Carolina, United States
Excerpt: "Father of nations! Judge divine!" by Penina Moïse, was published in 1856, and appears under the subject of "Our Country" as Hymn 149 in Hymns Written for the Use of Hebrew Congregations (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1856), pp. 144-146. . . .
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Father of nations! Judge divine!
From Thy blessed realms above
Thine ear to prayers and hymns incline,
Breathed by patriotic love.
Is there one upon this earth,
Who in welfare or in woe,
For the country of his birth,
Feels not sympathy’s strong glow?
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Oh! may we not this feeling trace
To creation’s primal date?
When the great parent of our race
Felt the exile’s bitter fate?
His first tears were not for toil,
But for his lost flower-land—
Paradise, his native soil,
Closed on him by God’s command.
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That pure sentiment was nursed
When man’s innocence had waned;
His progeny, where’er dispersed,
Kept this virtue unprofaned.
Native to all human kind
Is the seed of Liberty!
Where no tyrant’s law may bind
Souls by nature’s God made free.
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Brethren! let hearts and voices blend
In one deep and earnest prayer,
That Heaven’s blessings may descend
Upon Freedom’s hallowed sphere;
Where untrammeled faith may sing
Fearless of the bigot’s frown,
But to One Celestial King
Bowing her pure spirit down.
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Where, upon wisdom’s equal plan,
Conscience no controller dreads,
Secure that on the rights of man
No usurping despot treads;
Where unto the highest throne,
Free-will offerings are brought,
Homage to that One alone,
In whose image we are wrought.
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Fountain of justice, truth, and peace!
May these virtues animate,
Until life itself shall cease,
All the sons of freedom’s state.
Grant, that when transferred to earth,
(As religion’s charter shows,)
In heaven, where our souls had birth,
They at last may find repose.
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“Father of nations! Judge divine!” by Penina Moïse, was published in 1856, and appears under the subject of “Our Country” as Hymn 149 in Hymns Written for the Use of Hebrew Congregations (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1856), pp. 144-146. –Aharon Varady
Source(s)
Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)
Co-authors:
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Name: Aharon N. Varady (editing/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
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Name: Ḳahal Ḳadosh Beth Elohim (Charleston, South Carolina)
Bio: 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.
Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahal_Kadosh_Beth_Elohim
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/kahal-kadosh-beth-elohim
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Name: Penina Moïse
Bio: Penina Moïse (1797-1880) was born to a large and wealthy family in Charleston, South Carolina, the progeny of her merchant father, Abraham Moïse (1736-1809), originally from Strasbourg in Alsace, France, and her mother Sarah from the Jewish community on the Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius in the Netherlands Antilles. Her brother, also named Abraham, was a leader in the Reformed Society of Israelites, and so we imagine she was closely associated with the reformist wing of the congregation it wished to and ultimately succeeded in reforming, Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim. Moïse wrote at least 187 prayers for Beth Elohim's hymn books published in 1842 and in 1856. Moïse was also a gifted teacher and, in 1845, became head of Beth Elohim’s religious school. Moïse was a prolific writer, earning praise for her 1833 collection of poems, Fancy’s Sketch Book, as well as her articles for various newspapers across the country. After the Civil War, she returned to Charleston and ran an academy with her sister and niece. Though her eyesight eventually deteriorated into blindness, she continued to work and write until the end of her life. (This short biographical sketch includes material adapted from her entry in the Jewish Women's Archive by Jay M. Eidelman.)
Website: https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/moise-penina
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/penina-moise
Featured Image:
Title: Our Country – Penina Moïse Cohen (1856) – cropped
Caption: Our Country - Penina Moïse Cohen (1856) - cropped
