Meditation on Work, by Lilian Helen Montagu (1895)

Contributor(s): Lilian Helen Montagu and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Shared on: 8 May 2023 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories: Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, teḥinot in English, תחינות teḥinot, West Central Girls' Club

TOGGLE COLUMNS (on/off):

ADJUST COLUMN POSITIONS: select the column header cell and drag it where you want. show me!

COPY INDIVIDUAL COLUMN(S): use CopyTables, a browser extension.

TABLE HELP

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Meditation on work.
	Thou, O Lord, hast ordered for me a life of work, for it is said that the labour of the righteous tendeth to life (Proverbs 10:16).
	It is impossible to understand life without work. A man or woman who lives in idleness does not really live at all. It is work which brings out and trains our powers. It is in our work that we can show our faithfulness unto Thee. It is through work that we can obtain peace of mind and earnestness of heart.
	It is to those who are idle that life seems hopeless. I shall cast my burden upon the Lord and He will sustain me (Psalms 55:22).
	It is because I work that I find rest so pleasant, for sweet is the sleep of the labourer (Ecclesiastes 5:12).
	On looking round me, I see people striving and toiling to earn their daily bread, and I sometimes ask myself what is the use of it all. But I know that they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles (Isaiah 40:31), and that though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I need fear no evil, for Thou art with me (Psalms 23:4).
	My mind cannot hope to understand why life is so difficult and hard, but I commit my way unto the Lord (Psalms 37:5), and trust that through resisting trouble I may become strong, and through turning from temptation I may be led unto my God.

“Meditation on Work” was written by Lilian Helen Montagu and published in Prayers for Jewish Working Girls (1895), pp. 5-6.

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Meditation on Work, by Lilian Helen Montagu (1895)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

Lilian Helen Montagu

The Hon. Lilian Helen "Lily" Montagu, CBE (22 December 1873 – 22 January 1963) was the first woman to play a major role in Progressive Judaism. Until the age of 15, she was educated at Doreck College, and privately educated thereafter. In 1893 she founded with Emily Marion Harris the West Central Jewish Girls Club (which subsequently merged into the Jewish Girls' Brigade). She was active in social improvement, particularly in respect to unemployment, sweat shops and bad housing. In 1901 and 1902, Montagu laid the groundwork for the establishment of the Jewish Religious Union in London. In February 1902 she arranged the first meeting of the Jewish Religious Union for the Advancement of Liberal Judaism at her sister Henrietta Franklin's house. The Union set up the first synagogue in Liberal Judaism in the UK and helped found the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Montagu was a founding member with her sister of the Jewish League for Woman Suffrage. She sat on the executive committee and led the meetings in prayer. Following the retirement of Leo Baeck, Montagu served for a brief stint (1955–1959) in her 80s as president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, before handing the reins over to Solomon Freehof.

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

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.)

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=50663

Associated Image:

meditation on work (Lilian H. Montagu 1895) – cropped

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in category pages and in shared links on social media.)

Source Data: XML | JSON

Re-formatted: HTML | ODT

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute the work to Lilian Helen Montagu and Aharon N. Varady (transcription).
Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=50663>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of volunteer contributors, or its institutional partners.
We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.

ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17

Pocket Reddit Facebook Bluesky Telegram WhatsApp SMS Email