Prayer before reading the Bible, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)

Contributor(s): Grace Aguilar and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Shared on: 16 May 2023 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories: Birkhot haTorah

Tags: 19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, family prayers, paraliturgical birkhot haTorah, teḥinot in English, תחינות teḥinot

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	Prayer before reading the Bible.
	Father Almighty! Thou from whom all knowledge and wisdom come, without whose blessing and assistance our efforts after understanding and righteousness are of no avail, we humbly and earnestly beseech Thee to open our eyes and hearts; that Thy precious word may not be to us as a sealed book, but that we may mark, learn, fully comprehend, and inwardly digest all that Thou in love didst inspire good and faithful men to write, for our benefit and instruction while in this world, for happiness and salvation hereafter.
	Give us childlike hearts and simple faith to read and love, Lord. Guard us from the vain sophistry of man, and permit us all to read with sincere humility, Thy words, leaving that which, in this present imperfect state, we may not understand, to Thy love and wisdom to explain hereafter, “for with Thee is the fountain of life, and in Thy light we shall see light.” (Psalms 36:10)
	O, let Thy blessing be amongst us, our Father, and guide us unto Thee. — Amen.

“Prayer before reading the Bible” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 155-156. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on page 166.

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“Prayer before reading the Bible, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

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.

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