Licht und Wahrheit | Light and Truth, translated by Felix Adler (1868) from a poem by Eduard Kley (1826)

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open_content_license: Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Date: 2022-08-03

Last Updated: 2025-02-02

Categories: Pesaḥ Yamei Ḥag

Tags: 19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., diaspora, English Translation, German Reform Movement, German vernacular prayer, hymns, liturgy of the wandering stars

Excerpt: "Licht und Wahrheit (Light and Truth)" is a hymn translated by Felix Adler from Allgemeines Israelitisches Gesangbuch: eingeführt in dem Neuen Israelitischen Tempel zu Hamburg (1833), hymn №125, pp. 155-157, and published in Hymns, for Divine Service in the Temple Emanu-El (1871), hymn №12, pp. 24-25. We have tentatively dated this hymn to 1868, since another hymn by Adler ("School-hymn, no. 36") can be found appended from another unattributed work in A Guide to Instruction in the Israelitsh Religion (Samuel Adler, trans. M. Mayer, Temple Emanu-El, 1864, 4th printing 1868). The hymn as printed in the Hamburg Temple Hymnal is nine stanzas long. That hymnal credits the hymn as printed in the collected sermons of Eduard Kley, Sammlung der neuesten Predigten (1826) where it appears on pages 49-50 in three stanzas as part of a discourse on Passover. . . .

Content:
Source (German) Translation (English)
Licht und Wahrheit.
Light and Truth
Selig, wen Dein Wort erquicket,
Gott! wer Dein Gesetz bewahrt;
Selig, wen Dein Licht erleuchtet
Auf des Lebens dunklcr Faint.
Sich und Anderen zum Scgen
Wallt er freudig seinen Lauf,
Und den Miiden nimmt der Frieden
Einst zu neuer Stärkung auf.
Happy he that never wanders
From the path of truth astray,
Whom the light of knowledge guideth
On life’s dark and stormy way.
Joyfully and well he labors,
Till his toil and cares are past,
And the weary pilgrim resteth
In eternal bliss at last.
In der Wüste dieser Erde
Schwindet, ach, so oft die Spur,
Tausend Wege geh’n zum Tode,
Einer führt zum Leben nur.
Weh’ dem Wandrer, der, verlassen,
Zweifelnd steht am Scheideweg:
Doch in Klarheit zeigt die Wahrheit
Deines Worts den sichern Weg.
In the desert of our wand’rings,
O’er life’s wide and trackless sand,
But a single path can lead us
Safely to the promised land.
But be strong, O man, and doubt not;
Look aloft! the radiant light
Of the star of truth will guide thee
In thy troubled course aright.
Der Du uns Dein Wort gegeben,
Lehr’ uns auch, es recht versteh’n;
Unserm Herzen schenke Frieden,
Unserm Geiste Kraft zum Seh’n.
Schaue segnend auf uns nieder,
Führ’ uns zu des Heiles Quell;
Deine Treue, Gott! erneue
Unser Leben rein und hell.
O, Eternal Father, teach us
Well Thy sacred word to know,
Light upon the soul, and quiet
On the anxious heart bestow.
May our life be pure before Thee,
Till its race on earth is o’er,
May Thy blessing rest upon us,
And Thy peace forever more,

“Licht und Wahrheit (Light and Truth)” is a hymn translated by Felix Adler from Allgemeines Israelitisches Gesangbuch: eingeführt in dem Neuen Israelitischen Tempel zu Hamburg (1833), hymn №125, pp. 155-157, and published in Hymns, for Divine Service in the Temple Emanu-El (1871), hymn №12, pp. 24-25. We have tentatively dated this hymn to 1868, since another hymn by Adler (“School-hymn, no. 36”) can be found appended from another unattributed work in A Guide to Instruction in the Israelitsh Religion (Samuel Adler, trans. M. Mayer, Temple Emanu-El, 1864, 4th printing 1868). The hymn as printed in the Hamburg Temple Hymnal is nine stanzas long. That hymnal credits the hymn as printed in the collected sermons of Eduard Kley, Sammlung der neuesten Predigten (1826) where it appears on pages 49-50 in three stanzas as part of a discourse on Passover. –Aharon Varady

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Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

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Licht und Wahrheit (Felix Adler 1871) – cropped
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