Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917.

By Mordecai ben Shabbethai (Trans. Nina Davis)

The Lifting of Mine Hands

THE LIFTING of mine hands accept of me

As though it were pure evening sacrifice,

And let my prayer be incense of sweet spice

Accounted right and perfect unto Thee.

And when I call Thee, hear; for day once more

Sinks to the hour when Israel brought of yore

The evening sacrifice.

My words before Thee shall be savours sweet,

O everlasting Rock; and all the waste

Of strength and body spent in this my fast

Shall seem to Thee a sacrifice complete.

Take mine heart’s prayer, which, these ten days within,

I have prepared like offerings for sin

And evening sacrifice.

Seek them this day that seek Thee; let them find

Thy mercy, sought from Thee by their lips’ fruit,

Look at their throng assembled destitute;

Cleanse them like silver seven times refined.

Accept their prayer like one lamb, where there stand

Two hundred sheep from Israel’s pasture-land

For evening sacrifice.

Count it a whole burnt offering when I call;

Prevail with him that is my wrongful foe.

O make my righteousness like light to glow

Before the sun shall set and evening fall.

Each man pours out his heart in this his word,

And brings his gift to offer to the Lord

An evening sacrifice.

Jeshurun, thy people, of Thy mercy sing,

Holding a goodly doctrine; bend Thine ear,

Open Thine eyes on them, and see, and hear

How good it is to stand thus tarrying

At portals of Thy pity, till Thou lift

Out of the hand of him that brings his gift

An evening sacrifice.

In Thy great mercy hear and understand

My words, my meditation; if I hold

Grace in Thy sight, O God, Who from of old

Hast been a dwelling-place, then from mine hand

Take Thou the gift I bring Thee, pleading here

With supplication when the hour draws near

For evening sacrifice.

God whom we have not found, whose might is whole

For them, Thou madest Thine in ages gone,

If man give much or little ’tis all one—

When he returns Thou wilt accept his soul—

If but his heart be true when he shall draw

Night with his offering: this is all the law

Of evening sacrifice.

When sanctuary and altar stood of old

Within their border on the ancient spot,

They made atonement, choosing forth by lot

He-goats for offering; now, if God should hold

That our transgression should our death demand,

He would not take burnt offering from our hand

Nor evening sacrifice.

But supplications do Thy people speak,

Seeking forgiveness with a bitter heart;

Behold them standing at the siege apart,

Watching, entreating Thee whose face they seek,

Hoping Thou wilt give respite for their debt

At even—saying “I shall appease him yet

With evening sacrifice.”

Jerusalem Thy city build again,

And all her cities strengthen round about,

And her oppressed prisoners bring out

To freedom, loosened from the binding chain,

Sweet be their offering as in days of yore,

And Thou wilt turn, Thou wilt accept once more

Their evening sacrifice.

All Israel’s outcasts, Judah’s scattered ones

Shall yet again be gathered to Thine hand,

And fed as by a shepherd in good land;

And God shall sit refining Israel’s sons

Like gold until their cleansing shall be wrought

And they shall be to Him as though they brought

An evening sacrifice.