Family Morning Prayer, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)

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

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

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Birkhot haShaḥar

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56th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, teḥinot in English, family prayers, 19th century C.E., תחינות teḥinot

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Family morning prayer.
	Almighty God, Creator of all things in heaven and earth, and air and sea, Father and Lord over all people, more especially the Father, Preserver, and Saviour of Thy people Israel, we beseech Thee to have mercy upon all here present, and to pour Thy Holy Spirit upon our hearts, that we may turn aside from all evil inclinations, and walk humbly and faithfully before Thee, and in the law thou hast given us through Thy servant Moses.
	We thank and bless Thee, our Father, for the calm and quiet sleep Thou didst mercifully bestow on us in the night just past. We gratefully acknowledge that Thy mighty arm alone could guard us from the terrors of the night, and raise us up again in health and life.
	We beseech Thee in Thy infinite love to make us grateful for this, and for all Thine abundant goodness; teach, O, teach us how to thank Thee for the health and food, kind friends, and the many other blessings Thou hast granted us; blessing us far above many of our fellow creatures, though we are equally undeserving in Thy sight.
	We merit nothing, Lord, but Thou hast given us all that is good for us, all that we can desire, and therefore we wish to love and serve Thee more and more each day; O, teach us how to do so acceptably to Thee!
	We beseech Thee, our Father, to take away from us the evil inclinations, sinful passions, and rebellious tempers of our hearts, that we may learn to love, fear, and serve Thee with all our heart, and soul, and might. Make us good and obedient to all our superiors, be they parents, guardians, or teachers.
	Give us Thy help to become forbearing and affectionate to all our companions, more particularly to all our brothers and sisters.
	Enable us to keep holy all Thy Commandments and the statutes of Thy laws, to do our duty however contrary it may seem to our wishes, and bow submissively to Thy will, whatever it may be.
	Guard us, merciful Father, this day from all temptation to sin, from all thoughts of pride, hatred, or disobedience;
	grant us patience and wisdom to improve the talents Thou hast given us, and teach us in all things to pray to Thee.
	Bless us, our God, this day and evermore with the fulness of Thy love, and engrave upon our hearts the words of Thy faithful servant Moses, which he proclaimed unto Thy people Israel in the wilderness — “Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4) (blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom for ever and evermore),^[1] Mishna Yoma 3:8, Pesachim 56a, Bereishit Rabba 98:3, Midrash Tanchuma Buber Kedoshim 6, et al. “and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might; and these words which I command you this day shall be in thy heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up; and thou shalt bind them as a sign upon thy hands, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt bind them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:5-9)

“Family morning prayer” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 153-155. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 164-166.

Source(s)

Notes[+]

Notes
1	Mishna Yoma 3:8, Pesachim 56a, Bereishit Rabba 98:3, Midrash Tanchuma Buber Kedoshim 6, et al.

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Family Morning Prayer, 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 (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.)

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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