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

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Marcus Heinrich Bresslau

Shared on:

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

Categories:

Conception, Pregnancy, and Childbirth

Tags:

infants, prayers concerning children, English vernacular prayer, naming ceremonies, naming, baby daughters, 19th century C.E., Parents blessing children, gender roles, תחינות teḥinot, 57th century A.M., Jewish Women's Prayers

TOGGLE COLUMNS (on/off):

ADJUST COLUMN POSITIONS: select the column header cell and drag it where you want. show me!

COPY INDIVIDUAL COLUMN(S): use CopyTables, a browser extension.

TABLE HELP

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	In a flow of warm tears of gratitude I this day tread the steps of Thy house; in grateful raptures at the mercy shewn to me during my confinement, and Thy healing grace after it, I offer to Thy paternal love my inmost thanks— the outpouring of my soul, which may be a substitute for the sacrifice of blood, which according to Thy law I was bound to offer to Thee, Fountain of Goodness.
	The mother’s heart now prays, that, Thou mayest bless this new-born child, my daughter with lasting health; that may she bloom with joy and delight.
	And when she shall have outgrown the cradle, then bless her O God with the spirit of light and truth. Grant that she may not harbour in her heart any impure thoughts, any vain desire, any guilty cravings; and that all her powers may be directed to the ennoblement of her mind.
	May she ever entertain a proper sense of chastity; may she ever be impressed with that feeling of delicacy and propriety so peculiar to our sex.
	She is yet asleep in calm repose, and is not yet awakened by any tempest of life: therefore ere the flower is developed, ere the soft heart of the child inclines to the alluring strains of evil, bless it, that it may soon acknowledge and love Thee.
	Eternal grace! do not deprive the mother’s breast of this presented good, preserve it to me unto remote days, and when the redness of sunset on the last evening of my life fades away, may she be my comfort. Amen.

“Prayer on the Sabbath of Naming a New Born Daughter” by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau was first published in his תחנות בנות ישראל Devotions for the Daughters of Israel (1852), p. 63.

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 .

“Prayer on the Sabbath of Naming a New Born Daughter, 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 (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)

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=40792

Associated Image:

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

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

This post, editable: XML | ODT

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

Properly attribute the work to Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Marcus Heinrich Bresslau.
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=40792>.
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.)

Note: 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 contributors, patrons, or institutional partners.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, 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. If you like what you've found here, please help keep our project alive and online with your financial contribution.

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