Prayer before the Sabbath service, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)

Contributor(s):

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

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

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Shaḥarit l'Shabbat ul'Yom Tov

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19th century C.E., תחינות teḥinot, 56th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, teḥinot in English, תפילות קודם התפילה Prayers before Praying

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Prayer before the Sabbath service.
	With a humble spirit and a contrite heart I come before Thee, O my God, to implore Thy blessing on the prayers I am about to say.
	In Thy Almighty wisdom, Thou hast ordained that we should be torn from our own land, and scattered among the nations. Thy wisdom and Thy wrath are just.
	O Eternal, Thy mercy bore with us, but we sunk in wickedness, and Thou, in Thy just anger, hast banished us from Jerusalem.
	Thou hast removed from us Thy holy spirit; and that holy Temple, once the habitation of our God, is levelled with the dust, and there the godless and the wicked dwell.
	Terrible was the retribution, O our King; but even Thy never failing mercy could bear with us no longer. Thy children are cast from Thee, O God of Israel— cast from Thee for a Time— but scattered as we are among the nations, Thy mercy is extended to us still.
	Grant then, O our Father, that the prayers I am about to say may be acceptable in Thy sight— acceptable as if they were offered up in Thy Holy Temple; O remove from me all worldly and sinful thoughts, that I may read them with fervour and devotion. O let the remembrance of Thy mercy, Thy never-failing goodness, be alone present to my sight;
	O eternal and ever blessed Lord God, let my heart glow with adoration, with love and fear; O pour Thy Holy Spirit on my soul, that with a humbled heart and contrite spirit I may come before Thy Throne;
	O look down from Thy Throne of dazzling brightness, O our Father and our King! Look down on a child of Israel who bows before Thee in humble and lowly prayer! O remove from me all sinful and careless thoughts. Let my prayers be acceptable to Thee, O our Redeemer;
	O pour Thy holy spirit on my soul, though I worship not in that glorious sanctuary, which for our sins is removed from us!
	O look down from Thy throne and pour Thy blessing on me, and in Thine infinite mercy, O God, accept my prayers.
	Blessed be Thy Holy Name. Amen.

“Prayer before the Sabbath service” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in the UK edition of Sacred Communings, pp. 98-99. It is not found in the US edition.

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Prayer before the Sabbath service, 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