![the Open Siddur Project [logo]](https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Open-Siddur-Project-Logo-2016.svg){kind=logo}
| Contribute a translation | Source (English) |
|---|---|
Heavenly Father! Thy inscrutable justice has willed it, that my dear parent[1] Or Parents, if an orphan of both father and mother. should be taken away from me, and that with this loss I should be deprived of my greatest happiness. Alas Father! how heavy and afflicting was this punishment for a weak heart, which—now already weighed down by intense grief—would lie in the dust, had not the religion of my fathers taught me that Thou art called אֲבִי יְתוֹמִים “Father of Orphans,”[2] Psalms 68:6. I am now Thy child, Thy heir, Thou wilt be my parent unto eternity, Thou the mightiest Father in heaven and earth. Thou wilt hear me as often as I call upon Thee, Thou wilt protect me when I walk in Thy ways. To Thy paternal hand I now commit my spiritual weal. I trust in Thy fatherly love, and exclaim with the psalmist כִּי־אַתָּה תָּאִיר נֵרִי יְיָ אֱלֹהַי יַגִּיהַּ חָשְׁכִּי “For thou wilt light my lamp: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.”[3] Psalms 18:29. Amen. |
“Prayer of an Orphan” was first published in Marcus Heinrich Bresslau’s collection of teḥinot, Teḥinot Banot Yisrael: Devotions for the Daughters of Israel (1852).
Source(s)
“Prayer of an Orphan, by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.
Stable Link:
https://opensiddur.org/?p=32164
Associated Image:
Detail of Marcus Heinrich Bresslau’s Prayer of an Orphan
(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 the work to Marcus Heinrich Bresslau and Aharon N. Varady (transcription).
- Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work 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 resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=32164>.
- Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)
Additional Notes:
- The views expressed in this work represent 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
Leave a Reply