The first prayerbook compiled by an American Jewish woman, and quite possibly by the first Jewish woman ever, is the hymn-book of Penina Moïse (1797-1880), prepared for her congregation Beth Elohim in Charleston, South Carolina in 1842. This is the second edition (revised 1856) containing 210 hymns, reprinting 73 of the hymns appearing in the 1842 albeit with changes, mostly to punctuation and capitalization, but sometimes with significant changes to wording and omission of entire stanzas. There are in total 137 hymns that are new to this edition (128 of which were written by Penina Moïse). The two other contributors providing new material to the work, identified by their initials, are Rabbi Moritz Mayer (1821-1866) and Caroline de Litchfield Harby (1800-1876). There are three hymns which are unsigned with any initials, but were likely to have been written by Penina Moïse and Moritz Mayer.
The 1842 edition of the hymn-book, Hymns Written for the Service of the Hebrew Congregation Beth Elohim, Charleston, S.C. (1842) was written over a decade before Fanny Neuda’s Stunden der Andacht (Hours of Devotion) in 1855, or Hester Rothschild’s English translation of the French anthology of tehinot and paraliturgical prayer, Imrei Lev (Prayers and Meditations, also in 1855). This edition, published within a year of the latter, is yet another indication of the popularity of prayer literature written by or for Jewish women at this time.
This work is in the Public Domain due to its having been published more than 95 years ago.
INDEX (1856 edition, new hymns)
One God! One Lord! One mighty King (Hymn 5)
O God! as we on nature gaze (Hymn 6)
Glorified throughout all time (Hymn 7)
Divine Disposer of events (Hymn 10)
Wherefore Hallelujah sing (Hymn 12)
I tremble not; Thou, Lord, art nigh (Hymn 13)
Not for affliction, gracious God (Hymn 14)
Weeping, and loth from all she loved to part (Hymn 18)
I will still remain with Thee (Hymn 21)
We look to Thee, ineffable King (Hymn 22)
Lo! he sleeps and slumbers not (Hymn 24)
O God! within Thy temple walls (Hymn 27)
Exult, my soul! in consciousness proud (Hymn 28)
God of power! in Thy gift (Hymn 29)
Oh! what avails my destination (Hymn 30)
In holiness, eternal Lord (Hymn 34)
Blest is the man to whom the Lord (Hymn 35)
Oh! how imperfect, blind, and false (Hymn 36)
The heavens, Almighty! Thy glory declare (Hymn 37)
Lord! my Redeemer and my Rock (Hymn 38)
A mournful lament for the dead (Hymn 41)
Though man of all the ruin hears (Hymn 42)
Through the valley of tears as we thoughtfully (Hymn 43)
To smile when we on life’s breakers are tossed (Hymn 48)
Blest are th’ enlight’ners of mankind (Hymn 50)
Glory not in a gift so vain (Hymn 52)
Formless and void creation stood (Hymn 53)
Deep silence reigned in Isaac’s tent (Hymn 56)
I weep not now as once I wept (Hymn 57)
God! to Thy paternal grace (Hymn 58)
Let thy heart for ever delight in the Lord (Hymn 59)
Though I from kindred meet but scorn (Hymn 62)
Why art thou cast down, my soul (Hymn 63)
When grief on the heart has weighed (Hymn 64)
Oh! love the Lord with all thy heart (Hymn 65)
With ardent love and reverence deep (Hymn 66)
To man, with reason’s gift endued (Hymn 67)
Affliction cometh not from dust (Hymn 73)
Healer of the wounded heart (Hymn 74)
Despond not, O my heart (Hymn 76)
Lord! let Thy countenance now shine (Hymn 75)
Many are the pains and sorrows (Hymn 77)
When I would smile, remembrance brings (Hymn 78)
God of the universe! unfailing friend (Hymn 79)
Frail, feeble, inefficient man (Hymn 80)
My God! my God! to Thee I cling (Hymn 81)
Why, O heedless mortal! dost thou fly (Hymn 84)
In glory, Lord! dost Thou appear (Hymn 85)
Hearken not, man! to the voice of self-love (Hymn 86)
Out of sorrow’s depths I cry (Hymn 87)
My God, my Father, and my Guide (Hymn 89)
On Shinar’s plain see Babel’s tower rise (Hymn 88)
In the great scales of human life (Hymn 90)
Oh! whence doth human happiness arise (Hymn 91)
On dim futurity with idle aim (Hymn 92)
Let me for present hours borrow (Hymn 93)
Oh! where is he who yesterday (Hymn 94)
Hear my voice and grant my pray’r (Hymn 95)
Let the standard of truth by Judah be planted (Hymn 97)
Father! will abstinence, or prayer, or song (Hymn 99)
The prophet to the people said (Hymn 100)
Who, God of glory! shall be found (Hymn 101)
Of all the virtues that we find (Hymn 102)
Oh! ever adverse to the scheme (Hymn 103)
Why, O man! is not thy soul’s desire (Hymn 104)
What cause hast thou, Israel! for tears (Hymn 105)
Let there be love! it is the light (Hymn 107)
Truly and tenderly should I (Hymn 108)
Intensely radiant was thy peak. (Hymn 110)
Bounteous Father! by what course (Hymn 115)
Oh! blest be he who ne’er forgets the poor (Hymn 116)
Stretched languidly upon his couch (Hymn 117)
Pray in the night, when silence and the stars (Hymn 118)
How oft has man, with “heart of stone” (Hymn 119)
Who is that angel of the universe (Hymn 120)
Pray when the morn unveileth (Hymn 121)
When night from nature’s kingdom flies (Hymn 122)
Though faith’s discordant worshipers may rear (Hymn 123)
In perilous probation here (Hymn 124)
Oh! worship God! approach His shrine (Hymn 125)
Refuge I seek at the shrine of devotion (Hymn 128)
Begin the holy hymn of praise (Hymn 129)
Extol the King who, throned above (Hymn 135)
All living souls shall bless Thy name (Hymn 136)
Above all honor and all praise (Hymn 137)
Glory and praise to the bountiful Sire (Hymn 138)
House of Judah, bless the Lord (Hymn 139)
If mortal vision may not meet (Hymn 140)
Princes of earth, bend lowly down (Hymn 141)
How sad the wintry hours seem (Hymn 146)
O Thou! who, as the great Unknown (Hymn 147)
Father of nations! Judge divine (Hymn 149)
Is there within the world’s wide bound (Hymn 148)
Oh! answer me, my God! this day (Hymn 150)
Have mercy on Thy servant, Lord (Hymn 151)
Leaders of Israel! arise (Hymn 152)
What painful mem’ries from the buried past (Hymn 153)
Oh! worship not at glory’s shrine (Hymn 154)
Unto Thine altar, King of kings (Hymn 155)
Exalted theme of human praise (Hymn 156)
From my voice shall virtue’s praise proceed (Hymn 157)
Cast me not from Thy presence, Lord (Hymn 158)
Stranger to that pure ambition (Hymn 159)
Oh! plaintive be the touch and tone (Hymn 162)
Creator of the universe (Hymn 163)
Gather and worship! the first star of eve (Hymn 164)
Daughters of Israel! arise (Hymn 165)
God of the Sabbath! to Thy praise (Hymn 170)
In harmony with heaven’s peace (Hymn 171)
Now let the hand of toil suspend (Hymn 172)
Praise the Lord God, the glorious Supreme (Hymn 173)
Hallow my Sabbaths! Will Israel respond (Hymn 174)
Prepare and purify my heart (Hymn 175)
Rest for the Lord! The work is done (Hymn 176)
Praise to the God of nations sing (Hymn 177)
Between the past and future year (Hymn 178)
Look down, O God! with gracious eye (Hymn 181)
Father of mercies! on this morning (Hymn 185)
Comfort ye, O Israel! and lift no more (Hymn 186)
Praise the Counselor supreme (Hymn 188)
Of heaven’s bounties let us sing (Hymn 190)
How great, how pure is my delight (Hymn 191)
Oh! let us mingle heart and voice (Hymn 198)
Hallelujah! praise to Thee (Hymn 199)
Hallelujah (Hymn 201)
God! to my spirit’s great delight (Hymn 205)
Happy he whom nature mouldeth (Hymn 206)
God of my fathers! in Thy sight (Hymn 207)
Moritz Mayer
God dwells in light (Hymn 193)
O God! to-day our joyful song of praise (Hymn 196)
Rejoice in God, our mighty Rock (Hymn 203)
With grateful hearts of song and praise (Hymn 209)
Almighty God! we pray to Thee (Hymn 210)
Caroline de Litchfield Harby
Arise! let the souls of the Hebrews rejoice (Hymn 194)
Unsigned
O man! frail child of finite pow’rs (Hymn 44)
O Thou! who dwell’st in heights supernal (Hymn 45)
Oh! fill our hearts, almighty King (Hymn 208)
