[Prayer for] Saturday night, by Grace Aguilar (14 January 1837)

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

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

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Motsei Shabbat

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

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Meditations—Saturday night, Jan. 14, 1837.
	Merciful Father! I thank Thee for permitting me to devote this day to Thee. Thou hast given me grace to pray, to meditate on Thy Word, to read Thy Holy Law, to give pleasure to my mother in my humble effort to explain Thy Word.
	Blessed art Thou, oh Lord! blessed be Thy name! Glory, glory, glory unto Thee! Teach me how to praise Thee, my God. My lips refuse to utter the thanksgivings due to Thee. Teach me how to frame words of praise acceptable to Thee.
	A fortnight of the new year hath passed away, and Thy blessings are yet extended over me. Thy spirit, oh Lord my God, hath been granted me during that short interval. Thy grace alone enabled me to conquer depression during my mother’s renewed attack. Thy mercy alone removed anxiety. I did implore Thy blessing in a decision — Thy guidance; and both were beneficently granted me. Oh, how can I praise and thank Thee sufficiently for that mercy, which hath given me so many enjoyments at home! I pine not to leave my mother, when duty bids me stay.
	Oh, merciful God, Thou seest how I dread my religious feelings should ever change. I know not the events of one hour; I shrink from the dreadful thought that the close of the year may find me sunk in guilt, or at least retrograding, not advancing, in Thy holy path, where Thy right hand may lead me. The dawning year is to me as wide, as unmarked a blank as the pages of this little book.^[1] Written at the commencement of a new book of Sacred Communings and Prayer.
	Oh, merciful and gracious God, may this year be spent in Thy service, even as I dedicate this book most solemnly to Thee. Oh guide my thoughts that they may be of Thee, my words that they may glorify Thee, my actions that they may prove, in sorrow or in joy, in health or disease, in life or death, how good it is to trust in Thee.
	Oh, merciful Father, I fear to fall; my soul shrinketh in dread lest my actions should deny my words, lest goodness should dwell upon my lips, and not within my heart. Thou alone canst enable me to live up to the spirit of the religion I profess. Blessed Lord, oh permit me to do so. Let me be a chosen servant of Thy Law. Let me ever feel that wherever I may be.
	Thou, oh God, art near me; Thou wilt protect me while I call upon Thee. “Lord, Thou hast heard the desire of the humble; Thou wilt cause thinner ear to hear.” (Psalms 10:17) “Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? whither shall I flee from Thy presence.” (Psalms 139:7) Oh, how blessed is the thought that I cannot fly from Thee! Thou knowest my heart; Thou readest my thoughts; “there is not a word on my lips, but lo, Thou, Lord, knowest it.” (Psalms 139:4) “I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God, hear the voice of my supplications, oh Lord,” (Psalms 140:7) and graciously permit my meditations this day to be pleasing in Thy sight. — Amen.

“Meditations—Saturday night, Jan. 14, 1837” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 200-202. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 123-124. The US edition includes a note by Sarah Aguilar that this prayer was offered at the beginning of a new book intended as a record for her “sacred communings and prayers.” This suggests that the prayers written before this date were recorded in other journals, possibly also dedicated to her personal prayers.

Source(s)

Notes[+]

Notes
1	Written at the commencement of a new book of Sacred Communings and Prayer.

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“[Prayer for] Saturday night, by Grace Aguilar (14 January 1837)” 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