Evening Prayer (Another day hath passed) [version 1], by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)

Contributor(s):

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

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

Categories:

Bedtime Shema

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

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Evening prayer.
	Another day hath passed, oh most merciful and gracious God, and night, which Thou in Thy great goodness hast ordained to bring rest and sleep to the children of earth, is at hand.
	Almighty and ever blessed God, oh guard me and all the inhabitants of this house from the terrors of the night.
	Oh grant that gentle and refreshing sleep descend on mine eyelids, and that I may wake again in the morning, with health and strength renewed, to go through the duties of the day.
	Oh preserve me from evil dreams, and grant that happy and innocent visions may flit around my pillow.
	Guard my sleeping thoughts from impurity and guilt, oh Eternal, that when I wake in the morning my first thought may be on Thee, and on Thy unnumbered mercies, oh my Father.
	Let Thy glorious works, Thy never-ceasing mercies, be ever present to my mind, when I lie down at night and when I rise up in the morning; permit them to be so strongly impressed within me that love and gratitude may ever fill my heart towards Thee, gracious Sovereign of the Universe! Lord alike of heaven and earth, blessed be Thy name!
	Almighty Father, I have sinned through the past day, but mine eyes are blind, and my sins are hid from me. I have failed in love and devotedness to Thee, oh Lord, and many other sins from me concealed are known to Thee, oh Lord, and Thou wilt not forget them.
	Oh have mercy, and pardon, for Thy great Name’s sake, the sins I have committed in the hours that are past, and through Thine infinite mercy, Almighty Father, give me strength to guard against them in the future.
	If I have performed my earthly duties pleasingly to Thee, oh my Father, to Thee be all the glory! Lead me in Thy path, that I may perform my duty better and better every day,
	Father! Have mercy on me, and in the hours of darkness be Thou my guardian and my shield.
	Oh pour Thy blessing on me, and grant, oh Eternal, that on the morrow I may wake early to pray, and with renewed health and spirits rise to do my duties on earth.
	Oh hear me, Almighty Father, and through Thine infinite mercy grant my prayer. Blessed be Thy great Name, for evermore! — Amen and Amen.

“Evening Prayer (Another day hath passed)” [version 1] by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 221-222. Another version of the prayer (“Evening Prayer (Another day hath passed) [version 2]“) with some lines missing and others added, appears in the UK edition on pages 95-97.

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Evening Prayer (Another day hath passed) [version 1], 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