Domestic Prayer of Thanksgiving After Confinement, by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription) and Marcus Heinrich Bresslau

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24 November 2021 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Conception, Pregnancy, and Childbirth

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

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	With a deeply affected heart I bring to Thee, O Father the thank-offering of my lips for the paternal kindness, which Thou hast shown to me before and since my confinement.
	Thanks to Thee for this new-born member of Thy creation, for this child, through which the world has grown to me much dearer and more beautiful.
	Bless, All-merciful God this tender creature, ere yet the spirit of evil gains mastery over it; ere the bud is developed, ere from the tender germ a world unfolds itself within the child’s heart, cause a ray from the fulness of the light of Thy goodness to penetrate its soul, that it may soon learn to distinguish the good from the evil, to love the former and hate the latter.
	Bless it with obedience to its parents, as Thou didst bless our father Isaac; cause virtue to illumine the dark road of its life, then my motherly care will be richly compensated, and my inward wishes will be realized. Amen.

“Domestic Prayer of Thanksgiving After Confinement” by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau was first published in his תחנות בנות ישראל Devotions for the Daughters of Israel (1852), p. 58-59.

In his preface to Devotions, Bresslau is clear that his prayers in English were adapted from traditional teḥinot that had earlier been published in France, Germany, and Poland. If you know of a specific prayer that may have served as the basis for this one, please leave a comment or contact us.

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Domestic Prayer of Thanksgiving After Confinement, by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)” 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.)

Marcus Heinrich Bresslau

Marcus Heinrich (also Mordecai Ḥayyim/Hyman/Heyman) Bresslau (ca. 1808-15 May 1864) was a Hebraist and newspaper editor. Born in Hamburg, he settled in England when young. For some time from 1834 he was Baal Ḳoreh (reader) at the Western Synagogue. He then taught Hebrew at the Westminster Jews’ Free School and went on to tutor privately. A maskil, he became involved with M. J. Raphall’s Hebrew Review and Magazine of Rabbinical Literature (1834-6). In October 1844 he was appointed editor of the relaunched Jewish Chronicle by proprietor Joseph Mitchell. Prickly and quarrelsome, he resigned in July 1848 but returned in around September. He remained until about October 1850. After Mitchell’s death in June 1854 he became proprietor (his middle name appearing as Heyman) and edited it until February 1855 when new proprietor Abraham Benisch succeeded him. Bresslau, who tried vainly to revive the Hebrew Review, wrote Hebrew poetry, produced a Hebrew grammar and a Hebrew dictionary, and translated various Hebrew manuscripts in the Bodleian Library. Bresslau compiled (we think) the first compilation of teḥinot in English for women. (Much of this information via Bresslau's entry in The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History)

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Works of related interest:

Prayer and Thanksgiving, On Going to the Synagogue for the First Time After Confinement (Marcus Heinrich Bresslau 1852)

Prayer and Thanksgiving on Going to the Synagogue for the First Time After Confinement, by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

Prayer Previous to Confinement, by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

Prayer on the Sabbath of Naming a New Born Daughter (Marcus Heinrich Bresslau 1852) - cropped

Prayer on the Sabbath of Naming a New Born Daughter, by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for Sunday, by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

Detail of Marcus Heinrich Bresslau's Thursday prayer.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for Thursday, by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

Detail of Marcus Heinrich Bresslau's Friday prayer.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for Friday, by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

Prayer of Thanksgiving for the Feast of Tabernacles (סוכות), by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

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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