https://opensiddur.org/?p=32146Meditation on the Holy Sabbath, by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)2020-06-13 22:30:55A prayer reflecting on the meaning of the Sabbath day.Textthe Open Siddur ProjectAharon N. Varady (transcription)Aharon N. Varady (transcription)Marcus Heinrich Bresslauhttps://opensiddur.org/copyright-policy/Aharon N. Varady (transcription)https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/Minḥah l'Shabbat19th century C.E.תחינות teḥinot57th century A.M.Jewish Women's PrayersEnglish vernacular prayerProblematic prayers
Be welcome to me with thy soothing tranquillity, thou day of sober and joyous rest, for in thee germinate undisturbed the sacred blossoms of silent virtue; and the soul, removed from the tumult of the sensual world, readily listens to the lovely voice of religion. When in the diverting bustle of life my heart forgets the high purpose of human existence—when enticed by vanity, it strays from the path of the good—then, receive me, Thou comforter, in Thy holy shades; that in Thy lap I strengthen myself for the gladdening performance of my sacred duties. When I become weary on the rough road, on which secret passions cripple or paralyse the power to exercise good and noble deeds; when, with this weak feminine heart, which, alas, but too often is overcome by vanity, I feel ashamed how grievously I sinned against the Father of all: be thy sacred calmness, day of holy rest, my comforter and protector! But I also will never waste thy hallowed hours in senseless, indolent, mental vacancy, but ever devote them to the highest purposes attainable on earth, so that I may be elevated to that nobility of the mind which will draw me nearer to the Eternal, the ideal of all virtues, and which will easily raise me above all sorrows of the times. Then shall I be able to say with consoling confidence: I have in letter and spirit, observed the divine commandment revealed on Sinai — “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,”[1] Exodus 20:8 then shall I with assurance await that blessing with the All-merciful vouchsafed to all those who do not desecrate the Sabbath in any way, nor profane it by sanctioning any unholy work.
This prayer has been tagged as “problematic” owing to its explicit expression of a notion of feminine weakness, among other prejudicial inferences.
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.)
Marcus Heinrich (also Mordecai Ḥayyim/Hyman/Heyman) Bresslau (ca. 1808-15 May 1864) was a Hebraist and newspaper editor. Born in Hamburg, he settled in England when young. For some time from 1834 he was Baal Ḳoreh (reader) at the Western Synagogue. He then taught Hebrew at the Westminster Jews’ Free School and went on to tutor privately. A maskil, he became involved with M. J. Raphall’s Hebrew Review and Magazine of Rabbinical Literature (1834-6). In October 1844 he was appointed editor of the relaunched Jewish Chronicle by proprietor Joseph Mitchell. Prickly and quarrelsome, he resigned in July 1848 but returned in around September. He remained until about October 1850. After Mitchell’s death in June 1854 he became proprietor (his middle name appearing as Heyman) and edited it until February 1855 when new proprietor Abraham Benisch succeeded him. Bresslau, who tried vainly to revive the Hebrew Review, wrote Hebrew poetry, produced a Hebrew grammar and a Hebrew dictionary, and translated various Hebrew manuscripts in the Bodleian Library. Bresslau compiled (we think) the first compilation of teḥinot in English for women. (Much of this information via Bresslau's entry in The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History)
Comments, Corrections, and Queries