God Our Light, a poem by Rosa Emma Salaman (1845)

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Date: 2017-08-08

Last Updated: 2025-05-09

Categories: Erev Shabbat

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Anglo Jewry, British Jewry, candle lighting, Derekh Hashem, divine light, dveykut, English Romanticism, English vernacular prayer, Prayers as poems, פוקח עברים Pokeaḥ Ivrim

Content:

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	God Our Light
כִּֽי־אַ֭תָּה תָּאִ֣יר נֵרִ֑י יְהוָ֥ה אֱ֝לֹהַ֗י יַגִּ֥יהַּ חָשְׁכִּֽי׃ (תהלים קיח:כט)	“For thou wilt light my candle, the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.” (Psalms 118:29.)
	With Thee, oh God! to give me light, No darkness will appear, And that which in my mental sight Is dim, Thou wilt make clear.
	Thou dost encircle with thy beams The earth Thou didst create; Nor is there any sphere but teems With light commensurate.
	Oh! never on the stormy sea Of life let me be driven, Without thy guiding light to see, And lead me on to heaven.
	How could I wander forth alone, In darkness and in fear, Unless thy heavenly light so shone, That I might feel Thee near.
	Oh! wilt Thou deign to shed a ray Of pure unclouded light Across my path, if I would stray One moment from thy sight?
	When Thee I seek, and sin I shun, When virtue I pursue, May every effort be begun With God, my light, in view!
	Oh! let thy countenance divine So beam upon my soul, That whether grief or bliss be mine Thy name I may extol.
	Then let no darkness make us fear, If God our light will be; And think, if light’s a blessing here, How blest eternity!

The poem, “God Our Light” by Rosa Emma Salaman, was first published in the Occident and American Jewish Advocate 3:8, Marḥeshvan 5606, November 1845, p.379-380.

Source

Click to access God-Our-Light-by-Rosa-Emma-Salaman-from-The-Occident-November-1845.pdf

Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Co-authors:

Name: Rosa Emma Salaman
Bio: Rosa Emma Collins née Salaman (1815-1898), was a poet and translator of Hebrew and German. Poems, published in 1853, was reportedly the only book accepted by Queen Victoria in the year of mourning following Prince Albert's death in 1861. In the United States, her poetry appeared in Isaac Leeser's Occident and American Jewish Advocate. The daughter of Simeon Kensington Salaman (b.1789) and Alice Cowan, Rosa Emma was one of fourteen siblings in a large and literary Jewish family in London, part of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community. Two sisters, Kate Salaman and Julia Goodman, were painters -- the former of miniatures and the latter, a prolific portraitist. Her brother, Charles Kensington Salaman, was a British composer and pianist. Her husband, Judah Julius Collins, was a warden of the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in London's West End, and purported to be a descendant of the Baal Shem of London. Their son, Edwin Collins, was a Jewish educator.
Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Emma_Salaman
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/rosa-emma-salaman

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

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Title: Pages from God Our Light by Rosa Emma Salaman from The Occident, November 1845
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