Prayer for Wisdom, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)

Contributor(s):

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

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

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Learning, Study, and School

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

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Prayer for wisdom.
	Father and Lord, creator of all hearts, to whom every thought is open, and from whom all good desires spring, oh endow me with wisdom to pour before Thee the petition I so earnestly desire, as may be most acceptable to Thee.
	Thou from whom all knowledge and wisdom come, without whose aid and inspiration our hearts would be sealed up, our minds a blank, oh give me increase of wisdom, knowledge, and mental power — all those blessed gifts that lift man up from the sordid dreams of earth, and bid him listen only to the voice of that immortal spirit, that intellectual soul, which marks his union with Thee, and in which Thou speakest.
	My heart feels overwhelmed with this deep desire: too full to throw itself in words.
	Teach me how to pray; grant me, oh grant me, that increase of wisdom, of intellectual power, for which my whole being pines.
	Solomon implored Thee for the gift of wisdom, for the right government of a mighty kingdom. Thou art the same one, almighty in wisdom, all-infinite in mercy, who heard and blessed that prayer. Oh grant me wisdom for the right performance of all my duties, whatever they may be — wisdom that will teach me Thee.
	Oh open to me the exhaustless treasures of Thy Word.
	Strengthen my memory, that it may contain, with scarce an effort, all things worth retaining; quicken my perception of all things good and beautiful, and true, that my moral being may be exalted and improved.
	Open and enlarge the mind Thy goodness framed, and fill it with true wisdom, pure and goodly knowledge.
	Cultivate and increase the talents Thy love hath given, oh Merciful Father; increase them, and grant me power to derive good understanding and increase of knowledge from the study of other minds more gifted and more experienced than my own.
	Awaken my intellect to receive and derive knowledge, and wisdom, and good from the ideas of others.
	Oh, Thou knowest the secret motive of this prayer: Thou knowest it springs from the deep love I bear that wisdom, that mental power Thou only canst bestow. Thou knowest I beseech Thee not only for those precious gifts, but that Thou wilt in Thy mercy so direct me with good counsel from Thy presence, that they may accrue to Thy glory and the good of my fellow creatures.
	Leave me not to my own imaginings. Save me, oh save me from self-righteousness, lest wisdom itself become a snare and lure to sin. Keep me lowly as a little child before Thee, Lord; but grant, oh grant me the wisdom, knowledge, and mental power for which I pray.
	Thou alone canst grant my prayer, oh merciful Father; Thou alone canst direct and lead me where to attain these blessed things, and keep me lowly, truthful, guileless, as the spirit of true wisdom prompts.
	Oh, my Father, cleanse Thou this lowly prayer from impurity and sin; permit it to come before Thee and be accepted. Oh, through that love, that mercy which hath no bound, no space, grant me these blessed gifts, most merciful Father. But if it may not be on earth, oh teach me submission to Thy will. — Amen.

“Prayer for wisdom” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 173-175. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 100-102.

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Prayer for Wisdom, 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