https://opensiddur.org/?p=48249Zum Offenbarungsfeste | Prayer for the Festival of Revelation (Shavuot), by Lise Tarlau (1907)2023-01-04 21:13:00"Zum Offenbarungsfeste" by Lise Tarlau can be found in Rabbi Max Grunwald's anthology of Jewish women's prayer, <em><a href="https://opensiddur.org/?p=48061">Beruria: Gebet- und Andachtsbuch für jüdische Frauen und Mädchen</a></em> (1907), pages 340-341.
Textthe Open Siddur ProjectAharon N. Varady (transcription)Aharon N. Varady (transcription)Aharon N. Varady (translation)Lise Tarlauhttps://opensiddur.org/copyright-policy/Aharon N. Varady (transcription)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/Shavuot20th century C.E.תחינות teḥinot57th century A.M.Jewish Women's PrayersTeḥinot in GermanGerman vernacular prayer
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Source (German)
Translation (English)
Zum Offenbarungsfeste.
For the Festival of Revelation.
Als nach der langen Knechtschaftszeit
Uns der Freiheit Morgenrot grüßte,
Standen wir zögernd, zur Flucht fast bereit,
Denn die Freiheit schien eine Wüste.
When after the long period of slavery
The dawn of freedom greeted us,
We stood hesitant, almost ready to flee,
For freedom seemed a wasteland.
Eine Wüste, darin der Schrei
Lautlos verklingt und der Schritt verhallt,
Und wir sehnten uns zagend herbei
Des Ägypters harte Gewalt.
A wasteland in which screams
Silently ebb and footsteps trail away,
And we longed timidly for
The Egyptian’s hard violence.
Erst als im glühenden Morgenrot
Wir vor dem Gipfel des Horeb standen
Und in des ewigen Gottes Gebot
Unserer Seele die Nahrung fanden, —
Not until the glowing dawn when
We stood before the summit of Horeb
And in the command of the eternal God
Did our souls find nourishment, —
Erst als Gesetze, die in uns gelebt,
Uns voll Klarheit klangen entgegen,
Haben vor keinem Pfad wir gebebt,
Fühlten uns sicher auf allen Wegen.
Not until the laws lived in us,
In full clarity they sounded to us,
We did not tremble on any path,
We felt safe on all paths.
Da erst wurden wir wirklich befreit,
Aus einer Horde zu einem Volke,
Da erst fiel unser Sklavenkleid,
Und wir folgten der feurigen Wolke.
Only then were we truly liberated,
From a horde to a people,
Only then did our slave garb fall,
And we followed the fiery cloud.
Was uns damals der Morgen gebracht,
Jenes Licht, nie konnt’ es erblassen,
Und in der dunkelsten Zeiten Nacht
Hat uns das Wort des Herrn nicht verlassen. —
What the morning brought us back then,
That light could never fade,
And in the darkest hours of night
The word of the Lord has not deserted us. —
Führt’ uns durch jeder Wüste Graus,
Schützt’ uns in wilden, verworrenen Zeiten,
Wird aus der neuen Knechtschaft heraus
Uns den Weg einst nach Zion geleiten.
Lead us through every terrifying wasteland,
Protect us in wild, confusing times,
May our way out of the new bondage
Lead us one day to Zion.
Wird uns sammeln, die wir verstreut,
Wird uns heilen, die wir voll Narben,
Wird nach der langen Säezeit
Ernten uns lassen einst goldene Garben. —
May you gather us who are scattered,
May you heal us who are scarred,
May we after the long sowing time
One day reap golden sheaves. —
Wird unser heiliges Erbe sein,
Das uns von Anbeginn war beschieden,
Wird uns endlich nach bitterster Pein
Führen zu ewigem Sabbatfrieden.
May our sacred heritage be,
That which was destined for us from the beginning,
May you, after the most bitter torment, at last
Lead us to unending Sabbath peace.
The transcription of the German provided machine-readable text for machine translations by DeepL, which we then edited for accuracy and clarity. We welcome any/all corrections, improvements, and additional transcriptions and translations of this work’s contents. –Aharon Varady
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 naqeniשְׁגִיאוֹת 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.)
Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer translator for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his translations, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot Naqeniשְׁגִיאוֹת 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 transcribes prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes for the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)
Lise Tarlau (also known as L'Ysaye/Isaye/Ysaye/Ysale, Lisa, Lize, Elizabeth, Luise, and Louise Tarleau; 1879-1952), was a writer born to a prominent Viennese Bohemian Jewish family, the daughter of Rabbi Dr. Joseph Samuel Bloch and Laura Lachmann. In an essay published in 1906, "The Religious Problem," she expressed enthusiasm for Zionism and a deep sympathy for East European, Yiddish speaking Jewry, praising them for having retained their own distinctive cultural identity and their own language. This posture was accompanied by harsh criticism of Western European Jewish cultural assimilation, writing that they have “lived as parasites on the creative possibilities of the dreams of beauty of other peoples” (as quoted in Peter Singer's Pushing Time Away, 2003). Before emigrating to the United States in 1908, nearly two dozen prayers she wrote were published in Beruria (1907), an anthology of teḥinot in German compiled by her sister's husband Rabbi Dr. Max Grunwald. A decade later in the US, Houghton Mifflin Company and Riverside Press published The Inn of Disenchantment (1917), a collection of her prose and several short stories. Tarlau's fiction also appeared in major magazines of the day, including The Nation (105:2725, September 20, 1917), The Atlantic Monthly (in 1919), and Harper's Magazine. In 1924, her short story "Loutré" was awarded second place in Harper's first ever short story contest. During World War II, she wrote a number of scripts for radio and film and worked as a translator for the US military. Several of her works were included in The Fireside Book of Romance (ed. C. Edward Wagenknecht, 1948). She died on October 9, 1952 in Kew Gardens, Queens, Long Island, New York.
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