This is Max Grunwald’s anthology of teḥinot and paraliturgical prayer, Beruria: Gebet- und Andachtsbuch für jüdische Frauen und Mädchen (1907), containing contributions from 32 authors in total. While the majority of the prayers were written by Grunwald, twenty-three were composed by Lisa Tarlau (1879-1952), and other women are also credited for their contributions. The author credits are provided along with the Table of Contents at the end of the volume.

This work is in the Public Domain due to its having been published more than 95 years ago.

This digital edition was prepared from page images made by the University of Toronto and shared through the Internet Archive. (Thank you!)

As an introduction to the work, we have transcribed the Preface. The transcription of the German provided machine-readable text for machine translations by DeepL, which we then edited for accuracy and clarity. We welcome any/all corrections, improvements, and additional transcriptions and translations of this work’s contents. –Aharon Varady

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Source (German)	Translation (English)
VORWORT	FOREWORD
Dieses Buch ist nicht bestimmt, unsere altgeivohnten Ritualien, den Siddur und das Machsor, zu verdrängen.	This book is not meant to supersede our old familiar ritual texts, the Siddur and the Maḥzor.
Das Ohr, das sich den heiligen Lauten unserer alten Gebete noch nicht entfremdet hat, wird hier vielleicht für manchen Oberton geschärft, für manche leise mitschwingende Note erschlossen.	The ear, which has not yet alienated itself from the sacred sounds of our ancient prayers, may be stimulated here by some overtones, opened up by some softly resonating notes.
Dauerndes Heimrecht aber erbittet das Buch dringend an jenen Türen, von denen die Sprache der Psalmisten trauernd sich fortgewiesen sieht und die nun dem lauernden Gespenst des Abfalls vom alten Väterglauben offen stehen. Hier ist ihm eine hohe Aufgabe zugedacht.	But the book urgently asks for a permanent home right at those doors for whom the language of the psalmists sees itself mournfully rejected and which are now open to the lurking specter of apostasy from the old faith of the fathers. Here it has been assigned a high task.
Soll mit dem alten Wort auch die Sache, soll mit der Form auch der edle, unvergänglich schöne, erhebende Inhalt schwinden?	Should the matter disappear with the old word, should the noble, imperishably beautiful, uplifting content disappear with the form?
Hier frommt kein müßiges Warten, kein sich Vertrösten auf ein besseres Morgen der Rückkehr zu den alten Formen.	There is no idle waiting here, no comfort in hoping for a better tomorrow when we shall return to the old forms.
Gewiß, diesen ehrwürdigen Formen das Herz des neuen Geschlechtes erobern, die Urlaute altjüdischen Empfindens wieder unvermittelt zur Seele Jungjudas reden zu lassen, die in tausend Feuern erprobte Rüstung nicht dem Rost überantworten, sondern in sie hineinwachsen, das ist die ernste, gebieterische Forderung an unsere Zeit des Überganges. Aber bis dahin?	Certainly, these venerable forms should conquer the heart of the new generation. Let the primal sounds of old Jewish feeling speak immediately to the soul of young Judah. The armor tried in a thousand fires should not be allowed to rust, but rather, to grow into it. This is the serious, imperative demand of our time of transition. But until then?
Zwischen dem Heut und dem erhofften Morgen steht, die Hand an der Tür der Entscheidung, die Frau, die Mutter jenes neuen Geschlechtes.	Between today and the hoped-for tomorrow, with her hand on the door of decision, stands the woman, the mother of that new generation.
Wie viele dieser Frauen, dieser Trägerinnen unseres Schicksals, fühlen, des Verständnisses für die Sprache des Gebetes bar, beim Gottesdienste nichts, höchstens eine Leere im Gemüt, eine Leere, welche die fremden Geister ruft, die des Rufes nur allzu gewärtig! Diese Frauen, sollen sie, wie der Fremde, der dem Herrn anhangen möchte, mit des Propheten Worten klagen: „Der Herr scheidet mich aus aus seinem Volke, ich bin wie ein einsam verdorrter Baum ? — Nein, so spricht der Herr, ich will sie erfreuen in meinem Bethaus, es soll mein Haus ein Bethaus sein für jedermann, sie alle zu sammeln zu einer Gemeinde!“	How many of these women, these bearers of our destiny, lacking the understanding for the language of prayer, feel nothing at the [Synagogue] service, at most an emptiness in the mind, an emptiness which calls the strange spirits, which are only too eager for the call! These women, shall they, like the stranger who wants to adhere to the Lord, lament with the words of the prophet: “The Lord separates me from his people, I am like a lonely withered tree? — No, thus says the Lord, I will gladden them in my house of prayer, it shall be my house a house of prayer for everyone, to gather them all into one congregation!” (Cf. Isaiah 56:3-7)
Wie unser Buch nur als ein Notbehelf gelten will an Stelle des alten Gebetbuches, so ist es auch in seinem Geiste geplant. Der Siddur, das Machsor, sind nicht Gebetbücher im engeren Sinne. Sie sind zugleich Quelle der Belehrung. Der Pflicht, täglich aus dem Born der Lehre zu schöpfen, genügen sie durch eine Auswahl von Perlen aus dem gesamten heiligen Schrifttum. Was sie auf die alte Art, versucht unser Buch auf eine neue.	Just as our book is intended to be only a makeshift in place of the old prayer book, so it is also intended in its spirit. The Siddur, the Maḥzor, are not prayer books in the strict sense. They are at the same time a source of instruction. They satisfy the obligation to draw daily from the fountain of doctrine by a selection of pearls from the entire sacred scripture. What they do in the old way, our book tries to do in a new way.
Erinnert sei auch an die lange Reihe ehrwürdiger Muster, denen sich unser Unternehmen als Andachtsbuch anschließt, und die zu allen Zeiten die Sprache des Landes gesprochen, in der deutschen Judenheit besonders das Deutsche als „Frauensprache“ gepflegt haben.	It is also worth remembering the long series of venerable examples, which our enterprise follows as a devotional book, and which at all times have spoken the language of the country in which German Jewry in particular cultivated German as a “women’s language”.
Eine Erweiterung des gewohnten Rahmens bedeutet nur das Schlußkapitel: Stimmen der Warnung vor treulosem Übergang in fremdes Lager, zumeist in diesem Lager selbst gesammelt. Was einer glücklicheren Vorzeit fern lag, rechtfertigt ein trauriges Bedürfnis unserer Tage.	Only the final chapter is an extension of the usual framework: voices of warning against faithless transfer to a foreign camp, mostly collected in this camp itself. What was far from a happier past justifies a sad need of our day.
Den verehrten Mitarbeitern, die das Werk durch wertvolle Originalbeiträge gefördert haben, insbesondere den Herren Oberrabbiner Dr. M. Güdemann, Rabbiner Dr. W. Münz und Ad. Freyhan sowie Frau L. Tarlau und Fräulein Anna Lachmann sei an dieser Stelle herzlichst gedankt!	We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the distinguished collaborators who have supported this work with valuable original contributions, especially to Chief Rabbi Dr. M. Güdemann, Rabbis Dr. W. Münz and Ad. Freyhan as well as Mrs. L. Tarlau and Miss Anna Lachmann!
So möge das Buch als ein gutgemeinter Versuch wohlwollende Aufnahme finden! Jede fromme Regung, die es auslöst, ist Eirfolg, jedes Herz, das es für seinen heiligen Gegenstand erwärmt, reichster Gewinn.	So may the book find a benevolent reception as a well-intentioned attempt! Every pious emotion that it triggers is a success, every heart that it warms to its sacred objective is the richest gain.

“📖 Beruria: Gebet- und Andachtsbuch für jüdische Frauen und Mädchen, by Rabbi Dr. Max Grunwald (1907)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Max Grunwald

Max Grunwald (born October 10, 1871 in Zabrze, Upper Silesia; died January 24, 1953 in Jerusalem) was a Conservative rabbi in Hamburg and Vienna and author of works on Jewish history and folklore. He was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau in 1892 and in 1895 began serving as the rabbi of the New Dammthor Synagogue in Hamburg. In 1903, after moving to Vienna he began serving the Turnergasse synagogue, and from 1913, the Leopoldstadt Temple. An erudite scholar, he founded the Society for Jewish Folklore and served as its editor of correspondence until 1929.

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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

Works of related interest:

 

📖 Gebete in Kriegszeit für isralitische Frauen und Madchen, by Rabbi Dr. Max Grunwald (1914)

📖 Die Fromme Zionstochter: Andachtsbuch für Israels Frauen und Mädchen, an anthology of teḥinot in German by Max Emanuel Stern (1841, 1846)

📖 תָּחֲנוּנֵי בַּת יְהוּדָה (Taḥnunei bat Yehudah): Andachtsbuch für Israelitische Frauenzimmer, an anthology of teḥinot in German by Meïr haLevi Letteris (1846)

📖 Stunden der Andacht. ein Gebet⸗ und Erbauungs-buch für Israels Frauen und Jungfrauen | Hours of Devotion. a Book of Prayer and Edification for Israel’s Women and Maiden, a collection

Beruria, an ode to the sage by Lise Tarlau (1907)

📖 בֵּית יַעֲקֹב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion, an anthology of teḥinot in German by Yehoshua Heshil Miro (1829/1833, 1835/1842)

Gebet für den Landesfürsten | Prayer for the Sovereign (Kaiser Ferdinand Ⅰ), a teḥinah by Max Emanuel Stern (1841)

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