“Meditation on Death” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in the UK edition of Sacred Communings, pp. 82-87. It is not found in the US edition. A note on the title indicates clarifies that Grace wrote this in June 1835. Another note in the text (from Sarah) shares that Grace’s posture towards death in this prayer also appeared to describe her experience of passing twelve years later in 1847. . . .

Categories:

Dying, Mourning

Tags:

19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, memento mori, paraliturgical reflections, Paraliturgical yizkor, יזכור yizkor

Contributor(s):

Grace Aguilar and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer before retiring to rest, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)

“Prayer before retiring to rest” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 202-203. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 91-92. . . .

Categories:

Dying, Bedtime Shema

Tags:

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

Contributor(s):

Grace Aguilar and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

O! Thou Possest of Health and Bloom, a hymn on “Immortality of the Soul” by Penina Moïse (Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim 1842)

“O! thou possest of health and bloom” by Penina Moïse, published in 1842, appears under the subject “Immortality of the Soul” as Hymn 52 in Hymns Written for the Service of the Hebrew Congregation Beth Elohim, South Carolina (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1842), pp. 54-55. . . .

Categories:

Dying

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., ABAB rhyming scheme, English vernacular prayer, hymns, South Carolina

Contributor(s):

Ḳahal Ḳadosh Beth Elohim (Charleston, South Carolina), Penina Moïse and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Meditation on Immortality, by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

“Meditation on Immortality” by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau was first published in his תחנות בנות ישראל Devotions for the Daughters of Israel (1852), p. 43. . . .

Categories:

Dying

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, mortality, Paraliturgical yizkor, תחינות teḥinot, יזכור yizkor

Contributor(s):

Marcus Heinrich Bresslau and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer for Salvation in the Future State (Olam haBa), by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

A prayer of a person dying and imagining their possible afterlife. . . .

Categories:

Dying

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, עולם הבא Olam Haba, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s):

Marcus Heinrich Bresslau and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer for Resignation Under Injuries, by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

A prayer of a person suffering under grievous injuries and dying. . . .

Categories:

Dying

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s):

Marcus Heinrich Bresslau and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

A Wish, a poem by Rosa Emma Salaman (1853)

“A Wish” by Rosa Emma Collins née Salaman was published in her bound collections of poetry, Poems (1853), pp. 66-68. . . .

Categories:

Dying

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English Romanticism, English vernacular prayer, Prayers as poems

Contributor(s):

Rosa Emma Salaman and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

The City of Light, a poem by Felix Adler (1882)

“The City of Light” is a poem written by Felix Adler. The earliest publication I could find for it dates to 1882, in Unity: Freedom, Fellowship and Character in Religion vol. 8, no. 12 (16 Feb. 1882), p. 477. . . .

Categories:

Dying, Tishah b'Av, 🌐 International Workers' Day (May 1st), 🇺🇸 Labor Day (1st Monday of September)

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English poetry, Ethical Humanism, ירושלם Jerusalem, mortality, משיח Moshiaḥ, Paris Commune, Prayers as poems, Siege of Paris (1870–1871), universalist, we are the music makers

Contributor(s):

Felix Adler and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

הֵצִיץ וָמֵת | He Gazed and Died, a poem on the death of the sage Shimon ben Azzai by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik (1916)

A poem describing the ascent and death of the Tannaitic sage, Shimon ben Azzai. . . .

Categories:

Dying

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., ascent, ההיכלות ויורדי המרכבה haHeikhalot v'Yordei haMerkavah, midbar quest, shimon ben azzai

Contributor(s):

Ruth Nevo (translation), the Ben Yehuda Project (transcription) and Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik

“To whom life is everlasting” a prayer in the face of mortality by Rabbi Clifton Harby Levy (1927)

This untitled prayer by Rabbi Clifton Harby Levy accompanied his short reflection, “Facing Eternity” found in The Helpful Manual (Centre of Jewish Science, 1927), p. 25. . . .

Categories:

Dying

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Jewish Science movement, memento mori, mortality, תחינות teḥinot, teḥinot in English

Contributor(s):

Clifton Harby Levy and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

ברכות־הנפטרין על פי האמונה הבוקוניסטית | the Last Rites of Bokonon, by Kurt Vonnegut (1963, Hebrew translation by Amatsyah Porat 1978)

This is an adaptation of the “Last Rites of Bokonon” from the 99th chapter of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle (1963) translated by Amatsyah Porat for the 1978 Hebrew language edition of the novel. . . .

Categories:

Dying

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., בני אדם bnei adam, Needing Vocalization, תשובה teshuvah

Contributor(s):

Amatsyah Porat (translation), Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Holy Tears: A Not-Ḳaddish, by Rabbi Menachem Creditor

A meditation on living through the lens of dying. . . .

Categories:

Dying, Mourning, Tishah b'Av, Ḳaddish

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Gratitude, Paraliturgical Mourner's Kaddish

Contributor(s):

Menachem Creditor

Viddui for Coronavirus, by Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner (2020)

A Viddui written for Jews who are losing a beloved to a plague, and who may not be able to be physically present or close to their loved one. . . .

Categories:

Dying, Epidemics & Pandemics

Tags:

2019–20 coronavirus outbreak, 2020 coronavirus pandemic, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., between life and death, COVID-19 coronavirus, English vernacular prayer, Epidemic, וידוי vidui

Contributor(s):

Ora Nitkin-Kaner

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=3429

Associated Image:

🧿

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

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

Properly attribute any information in the description of this archive page to the Open Siddur Project (<https://opensiddur.org>).
Clearly indicate the date you accessed this page 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 archive: <https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=3429>.
Indicate that the original page was shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license. (To redistribute or remix this page in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the CC BY-SA license.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed on this page and in these shared works represents 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