[Prayer for Wisdom on] Saturday Night, by Grace Aguilar (25 February 1837)

Contributor(s):

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

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

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Learning, Study, and School, Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah

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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)
	Saturday night, Feb. 25, 1837.
	“Oh, Lord, Thou art my God! I will exalt Thee, I will praise Thy name, for Thou hast done wonderful things. Thou, whose councils of old were faithfulness and truth,” (Isaiah 25:1) Thou who, when Solomon implored Thee for the gift of wisdom, didst answer him with blessing, oh, merciful Father, may it please Thee to pour Thy blessing upon me, and increase and improve the gifts Thou hast vouchsafed me.
	My every enjoyment I owe to Thee; without Thy sustaining grace Thy gifts would not have procured me the affection and regard of those I love, nor the many hours of happiness that each day are mine.
	Father, Thou knowest the heart of Thy servant; Thou readest its most earnest, yet most secret wishes. I call upon Thee, oh Lord, for Thine attribute is mercy, Thy name is love. Oh, hearken unto my prayer, let my cry come up to Thee.
	Oh, Almighty, Thou hast given me one talent, not bestowed on all Thy creatures; one that permitteth me quietly and cheerfully to remain at home, without desiring a change, that maketh home the dearest spot to me.
	Blessed Lord, permit me, in Thy mercy, by that talent to do some little good to my fellow creatures. I know not the true motive of my wishes; to my darkened and polluted eye, it seems but love of Thee, and love of them; but Thou knowest my heart, oh Lord, oh, grant my prayer accordingly.
	If indeed the motive of these desires be vanity or ambition, oh, remove them from my heart, even if it be by fire. “Create in me a clean heart, oh God, renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalms 51:12) Take from me such corrupted hopes, let them not remain secret, but not less powerful sins.
	But, if my humble petition be pleasing unto Thee, oh God, if my motive be pure and holy in Thy sight, oh, do Thou with me what seemeth best to Thee.
	Father, I have put my trust in Thee, let me not be ashamed; deliver me in Thy righteousness.
	Blessed Lord, I know not for what I pray; my whole heart is open to Thy awful inspection. Oh, have compassion on Thy poor servant. “Lord, Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising; Thou understandest my thoughts afar off, for there is not a word on my tongue but lo! oh Lord, Thou knowest it altogether.” (Psalms 139:3-4) Thou knowest the most earnest wish of my heart — by Thy gift, oh Lord, to assist my parents, to add my mite to the happiness of my fellow creatures, “to glorify Thy name in the great congregation, to praise Thee before much people.” (Psalms 35:18) If my motive be but vain ambition, Almighty Father, in Thy mercy tear it from my heart, and consume it in Thy just wrath.
	But, if it be otherwise, if it be pure and pleasing in Thy sight, teach me to say, to feel, Thy will be done, that cheerfully, unrepiningly, I may bow to Thy decrees, whatever they may be. “Oh, God, Thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from Thee.” (Psalms 69:6)
	Hear me, oh Lord, for Thy loving kindness is great; turn unto me according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, and hide not Thy face from Thy servant, for I am in trouble. Let Thy salvation, oh God, set me on High.

“Saturday night, Feb. 25, 1837” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 208-210. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 124-126.

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“[Prayer for Wisdom on] Saturday Night, by Grace Aguilar (25 February 1837)” 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