Family Evening Prayer, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription) and Grace Aguilar

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17 May 2023 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

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Bedtime Shema

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family prayers, 19th century C.E., תחינות teḥinot, 56th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, teḥinot in English

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Family evening prayer.
	Almighty God! Creator of all things in heaven and earth, and sea, Father and Saviour of Thy people Israel, who hath in love and wisdom ordained seasons of labour and seasons of rest, we come before Thee with grateful and lowly hearts, to thank and bless Thee for all Thine abundant goodness shown us in the day just passed.
	We thank Thee, O our Father, for keeping us in health, and nourishing us with proper and healthful food: for keeping us from idleness and sin, for granting us seasons of recreation and joy.
	We bless Thee for all these things, merciful God, for we know they come from Thee, and we beseech Thee, in Thine infinite mercy, to render us more and more sensible of Thy never-failing love, and our own unworthiness.
	O, forgive us the many faults and secret sins we may have committed this day. We know that in Thy sight we are weak and sinful beings, and humbly and fervently we beseech Thee, Lord, to give us grace so to love and serve Thee, that through Thy divine aid, our evil propensities may at length be conquered and subdued. We acknowledge our inability to become worthy of ourselves, and implore Thy grace to render us faithful servants of Thee, and of Thy law.
	Take away from us all angry and rebellious feelings, whether they are excited towards our superiors, our companions, or inferiors. Grant us a spirit of charity and forgiveness towards all who have offended us, and of love and humility towards those we have offended. Let us not lie down in anger and in sin; merciful Father, take away from us all such wicked thoughts and feelings.
	O, guard us and all we love, be they present or far away, from the terrors of the night; be with them and with us, Lord, and let Thy Holy Spirit be at work within us while we sleep, that we may rise up to-morrow with hearts prepared to love and serve Thee, and willing to do our duty to our parents, teachers, and companions.
	Thy mighty arm is around us, merciful Father, Thou art about our paths and about our bed; we cannot see Thee, but we know Thou art ever close beside us, and canst penetrate our most secret thoughts and wishes. O, guard us from sin, even in thought, and we shall fear no evil, for Thou art with us now, and will ever be, as long as we call upon Thee, and trust in Thee.
	O, accept then our imperfect petitions, Almighty Father, and teach us to proclaim aloud in faith and love “Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,” (Deuteronomy 6:4) blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom for ever and ever.^[1] Mishna Yoma 3:8, Pesachim 56a, Bereishit Rabba 98:3, Midrash Tanchuma Buber Kedoshim 6, et al. “and these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt speak of them when thou sittest in thine house; when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and thou shalt bind them as a sign upon thine hands, and as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt put them on the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:5-9)
	Grant peace unto us, and unto all Israel, our Father, this night and evermore. — Amen.

“Family evening prayer” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 156-159. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 167-169.

Source(s)

Notes[+]

Notes
1	Mishna Yoma 3:8, Pesachim 56a, Bereishit Rabba 98:3, Midrash Tanchuma Buber Kedoshim 6, et al.

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Family Evening Prayer, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

Aharon N. Varady (editing/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.)

Grace Aguilar

Grace Aguilar (2 June 1816 – 16 September 1847) was an English novelist, poet and writer on Jewish history and religion. Although she had been writing since childhood, much of her work was published posthumously. Among those are her best known works, the novels Home Influence and A Mother's Recompense. Aguilar was the eldest child of Sephardic Jewish refugees from Portugal who settled in the London Borough of Hackney. An early illness resulted in her being educated by her parents, especially her mother, who taught her the tenets of Judaism. Later, her father taught the history of Spanish and Portuguese Jews during his own bout with tuberculosis which had led the family to move to the English coast. After surviving the measles at the age of 19, she began to embark on a serious writing career, even though her physical health never completely recovered. Aguilar's debut was an anonymous collection of poems, The Magic Wreath of Hidden Flowers. Three years later she translated Isaac Orobio de Castro's Israel Defended into English at her father's behest. Later her The Spirit of Judaism drew interest and sales in both Britain and the United States after being published in Philadelphia by Isaac Leeser. He added a preface to the work elucidating his differences with her, the first of many clashes her work would have with mainstream Jewish thought. In the 1840s her novels began to attract regular readers, and Aguilar moved back to London with her parents. Despite her success, she and her mother still had to operate a boys' Hebrew school to stay solvent, which she resented for the time and energy it took from her writing. In 1847, she became ill again with a spinal paralysis which she did not let prevent her from visiting her brother in Frankfurt. Her health worsened and she died there that September.

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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