[Gebet] Vor der Entbindung | [Prayer] Before the Childbirth, by Fanny Neuda (1855)

Shared on: 3 February 2020 under the Fair Use Right (17 U.S. Code §107 - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use)

Categories: Conception, Pregnancy, and Childbirth

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Bohemian Jewry, childbirth, first person, German vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, pregnancy, תחינות teḥinot, Teḥinot in German

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Source (German)	Translation (English)
Vor der Entbindung.	Before the Childbirth
„Bevor sie kreiset hat sie geboren, bevor sie Wehen bekommt, hat sie entbunden.“ (Jes. 66, 7.)	Before she labored, she was delivered; Before her pangs came, she bore a son! (Isaiah 66:7)
„Fürchte dich nicht, ich stehe dir bei.“ (Jes. 41, 14.)	Fear not, worm of Jacob, O people of Israel, For I will help you. (Isaiah 41:14)
Die schmerzensreiche, schwere Stunde der Entbindung ist nun für mich herangenaht, und inmitten der Wehen und Aengsten, die mein Herz durchziehen, ringet sich das innigste, glühendste Gebet aus der Tiefe meiner Seele, Allvater, zu dir empor. Bei jedem Schmerz, bei jedem Weh, das mich durchzuckt, ersterben mir die Worte auf den Lippen, nur dein Name, mein Gott, bleibt lebendig darauf, nur deinen Namen nennen sie fort und fort, und der Eine Ruf Gott, mein Gott, das ist mein Schild, mein Schutz, mein Trost, mein Heil und meine Wehr; das mildert meine Angst und meine Furcht; darin liegt meine Hoffnung und meine Kraft. O möge mein thränendes Auge, das ich flehend zu dir, Vater, erhebe, dein Erbarmen über mich herabrufen!	The hard, painful hour of delivery draws near, and in the midst of the pains and fears that course through me this fervent prayer rises from the depths of my soul — may it ascend to you, Eternal Parent! With every pain, with every pang that seizes me, my words die on my lips. Only your name, my God, remains alive on them. They utter this cry alone: God, my God! You who are my shield and my protector, my comfort and my rescue, the one who dampens my fears and my fright, the one who embraces me in hope, the one who is my strength — Oh, as I raise my tearful eyes up to you, Parent of All, may it draw your compassion down to me.
Laß deine Gnade über mich walten, daß meine Schmerzen mich nicht bewältigen, daß ich sie muthig und kraftvoll ertrage. O, daß deine Vaterhuld mich über diesen verhängnißvollen Zeitpunkt ungefährdet und sicher führe! Laß mich, Allerbarmer, nicht lange leiden, laß mich bald gelangen zum freudenvollen Ziele meiner Aengsten und Wehen, und mich eines gesunden, lebenskräftigen Kindes genesen. Gedenke mir nicht, mein Gott, die Sünden und Vergehungen meines Lebens, vergib und verzeihe mir, was ich vor dir gefehlt. Um deiner Barmherzigkeit und Gnade willen, um der zarten Frucht willen, der ich das Leben geben soll, erhalte mich am Leben, und stehe mir bei, wie ich auf dich hoffe und vertraue. Amen.	Let your mercy shelter me, so these birth pangs do not overtake me, so I am able to bear them with courage and strength. Oh, that your parental grace might guide me safely and securely across this awesome threshold. All-Compassionate One, shorten my suffering. Let me soon achieve the joyous goal of this labor let me soon enjoy a healthy, strong baby. My God, do not now recall all my sins and missteps in life! Forgive me and pardon me now for all my failings before you. In your compassion and mercy, may it be your will that I give life to a precious new being. Preserve my life, and be with me, for all my hope and trust rests in you. Amen.

This is Fanny Neuda’s prayer for a woman “Before Childbirth” faithfully transcribed and proofread with the help of German Wikisource contributors from Fanny Neuda’s Stunden Der Andacht (1855), p. 81. The translation provided here was adapted by Julia Watts Belser for Hours of Devotion: Fanny Neuda’s Book of Prayers for Jewish Women (ed. Dinah Berland, Schocken 2007), and set here for the first time side-by-side with Neuda’s original German.

Source(s)

17 U.S. Code 107 - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use

“[Gebet] Vor der Entbindung | [Prayer] Before the Childbirth, by Fanny Neuda (1855)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project under their Fair Use Right (17 U.S. Code §107 - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use), in respect to the copyrighted material included. Any additional work that is not already in the Public Domain is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Julia Watts Belser (translation)

Julia Watts Belser is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies in the Theology Department at Georgetown University. She is the author of Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity (Cambridge Univ. Press 2015) and Rabbinic Tales of Destruction: Gender, Sex, and Disability in the Ruins of Jerusalem (Oxford University Press 2018).

Fanny Schmiedl-Neuda

Fanny Neuda (1819-1894) was a Jewish German-speaking writer best known for her popular collection of prayers, Stunden Der Andacht. She was born in Lomnice to the family of Rabbi Yehudah Schmiedl (1776-1855). After marrying Abraham Neuda (1812-1854), the couple moved to Loštice to Moravia, where her husband held the position of rabbi. They had three sons: Moritz (1842), Julius (1845) and Gotthold (1846). After her husband's death in 1854 she stayed for some time in Brno and later settled in Vienna . She died at the age of 75 years in the spa town of Merano (present-day Italy).

Aharon N. Varady (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.)

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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