Prayer before retiring to rest, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)

Contributor(s):

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

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

Categories:

Dying, Bedtime Shema

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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)
	Prayer before retiring to rest.
	Sovereign of the universe! Lord of forgiveness and mercy! may it be acceptable in Thy presence, oh Lord my God, to suffer my memorial to ascend before the throne of Thy glory for good. Oh behold my affliction, “for there is no soundness in my flesh, because of Thine anger, nor rest in my bones, because of my sins.” (Psalms 38:5) And now, therefore, oh God of forgiveness, incline Thy tender mercy toward me, and enter not into judgment with Thy servant.
	And if, before the morning dawns, disease and suffering should take the place of my present health, and life give place to death ere I again leave my bed; if my visitation to death should be near, oh grant, Almighty Father, that with my last breath I may acknowledge Thy unity as it is written in Thy Law: “Hear, oh Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,” (Deuteronomy 6:4) and that I may die in the faith of my fathers, which I have through life professed and endeavoured to act up to.
	Remove the terrors of death, and when it comes permit me in Thy mercy to meet it cheerfully and resignedly. Whatever may be the anguish of those moments when soul and body part, let me not murmur nor repine, but think only on the mercies which have been mine through this life, and the glorified happiness of hereafter. Be Thou with me in that awful hour, oh my God.
	Grant me a lowly repentance, and the blessed assurance I am forgiven, through that mercy which hath been mine so long, that mercy which never faileth.
	Let me feel Thy Spirit on my soul, oh God, in that last hour, comforting and reviving my dying moments; and let my own conduct, when I am about to die, prove to all around me, how blessed it is to trust in Thee, to call upon Thee in my hours of health and joy. Oh permit me then to prove the agony of death is swallowed up in triumph and in victory.
	Blessed be the name of the Lord God of Israel, for ever and ever. — Amen.

“Prayer before retiring to rest” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 202-203. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 91-92.

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Prayer before retiring to rest, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)” 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