Actions de graces pour la récolte et Prière pour demander un bon hiver | Thanksgiving for the Harvest and a Prayer for a Favorable Winter, a paraliturgical prayer for rain by Jonas Ennery & Rabbi Arnaud Aron (1848)

Contributor(s):

Jonas Ennery, Arnaud Aron and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

Shared on:

30 September 2018 under the Public Domain (17 U.S. Code §105 - Subject matter of copyright: United States Government works)

Categories:

Shemini Atseret, the Wet Season (Fall & Winter)

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., French Jewry, French vernacular prayer, גשם geshem, hazon et hakol, paraliturgical tefilat geshem, Prayers for Precipitation, Rain, water is life

Source (French)	Translation (English)
«C’est lui qui rassemble les nuages vers le ciel; c’est lui qui prépare la pluie pour la terre, et couvre les mon tagnes de leur riche verdure» (Ps. 147, 7-9).	“It is he who gathers the clouds to the sky; it is he who prepares the rain for the earth, and who covers the mountains with their rich vegetation.” (Psalms 147:7-9)
Maître tout-puissant, dont la voix commande à la nature, sois loué pour les bienfaits que tu répands sur la terre et sur ceux qui l’habitent.	Almighty Master, whose voice commands nature, be praised for the blessings you are spreading on the earth and on those who inhabit it.
C’est par ta volonté que tout existe, c’est toi qui fais germer et mûrir la nourriture de tout ce qui vit sous le ciel.	It is by your will that everything exists, it is you who makes the food of all that lives under the sky germinate and ripen.
Sans ta bénédiction, l’homme s’épuiserait en vains efforts, et la terre resterait stérile. Mais tu jettes un regard de bonté sur tes créatures, tu ordonnes aux nuages d’arroser, au soleil d’échauffer nos sillons, et le sol fécondé par ton amour donne l’abondance et la joie à tes enfants.	Without your blessing, man would exhaust himself in vain efforts, and the earth would remain barren. But you look kindly on your creatures, you command the clouds to water, the sun to warm our furrows, and the soil fertilized by your love gives abundance and joy to your children.
Si, pour nous punir, tu suspends ta bénédiction durant une seule année, déjà l’homme tremble de terreur et d’angoisse.	If, to punish us, you suspend your blessing for just one year, already man is trembling with terror and anguish.
O notre Père, fais descendre sur la terre la rosée et la pluie, fertilise nos moissons, bénis toutes nos récoltes et préserve de tout accident les plantes et les fruits, dont nous attendons avec espoir la maturité. Bénis les pénibles travaux de tes enfants, afin que cette année, exempte de misères et d’afflictions, soit pour tous heureuse et abondante.	O our Father, bring down dew and rain to the earth, fertilize our harvests, bless all our crops and preserve from all accidents the plants and fruits, whose maturity we hopefully await. Bless the hard work of your children, so that this year, free from misery and affliction, will be happy and abundant for all.
Père des hommes, toi qui veilles avec un amour si constant sur toutes tes créatures, permets qu’à l’entrée d’une saison rigoureuse, je me recommande, moi et les miens, à ta sollicitude paternelle. Ce n’est point pour le superflu et les richesses que je t’implore, ô mon Dieu; je ne demande que le pain de chaque jour, les vétements nécessaires, et surtout, ô Seigneur, fais que je les reçoive de ta main paternelle et que je les gagne par mon travail quotidien, maintenant et toujours. O mon père, ne permets pas que la misère frappe à ma porte; éloigne de moi et de tous ceux qui me sont chers, la dure nécessité de tendre la main pour recevoir l’aumône de celle des hommes. O toi qui entretiens tout ce qui existe, tu ne me laisseras pas sans secours. Sois béni, ô mon Dieu, qui fournis aux besoins de l’homme. Amen.	Father of men, you who watch over all your creatures with such constant love, allow me, and my family, at the beginning of a rigorous season, to commend myself and my family to your paternal caring. It is not for the superfluous and for riches that I implore you, O my God; I ask only for the bread of each day, for necessary clothing, and above all, O Lord, let me receive it from your paternal hand and earn it by my daily work, now and always. O my father, do not allow misery to knock at my door; take away from me and from all those who are dear to me, the hard necessity of extending a hand to receive alms from the hand of men. O you who maintains all that exists, do not leave me without help. Blessed are you, O God, who provide for the needs of mankind. Amen.

This is a paraliturgical prayer for rain during the wet season, read during the festival of Sukkot, following in the tradition of Yiddish tkhines, albeit written in French. The prayer was included by Rabbi Arnaud Aron and Jonas Ennery in their opus, אמרי לב Prières d’un Coeur Israelite (first edition) published in 1848 by the Société Consistoriale de Bons Livres.

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Actions de graces pour la récolte et Prière pour demander un bon hiver | Thanksgiving for the Harvest and a Prayer for a Favorable Winter, a paraliturgical prayer for rain by Jonas Ennery & Rabbi Arnaud Aron (1848)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

Jonas Ennery

Jonas Ennery (Jan. 2, 1801, Nancy - May 19, 1863, Brussels) was a French deputy. He was for twenty-six years attached to the Jewish school of Strasbourg, of which he became the head. In collaboration with Hirth, he compiled a Dictionnaire Général de Géographie Universelle (4 vols., Strasburg, 1839–41), for which Cuvier wrote a preface. Soon afterward he published Le Sentier d'Israël, ou Bible des Jeunes Israélites (Paris, Metz, and Strasburg, 1843). At the request of the Société des Bons Livres he took part in the editorship of Prières d'un Cœur Israélite, which appeared in 1848. In 1849, despite anti-Jewish rioting in Alsace, Ennery was elected representative for the department of the Lower Rhine, and sat among the members of the "Mountain." He devoted his attention principally to scholastic questions. After the coup d'état he held to his socialist republican views and resisted the new order of things. For this, in 1852 he was exiled from France for life. He retired to Brussels, where he lived as a teacher until his death. Ennery's brother, Marchand Ennery, was the chief rabbi of Paris.

Arnaud Aron

Arnaud Aron (March 11, 1807, in Sulz unterm Walde, Alsace – April 3, 1890), the Grand Rabbi of Strasbourg, began his Talmudic studies at an early age at Hagenau and continued them at Frankfort-on-the-Main. In 1830 he became rabbi of the small community of Hegenheim in Upper Alsace; and of Strasbourg in 1833. As he was under thirty, the age prescribed by law, he required a special dispensation to qualify for the office. In Strasbourg, Aron acquired the reputation of an eloquent and inspiring preacher and a zealous communal worker. He assisted in founding the School of Arts and Trades and took active interest in other useful institutions. In 1855 he convened an assembly of the rabbis of the department of the Lower Rhine for the consideration of religious questions. Aron was the author of the catechism used for confirmation as prescribed by the Consistory of Lower Alsace. In 1866 the French government acknowledged his services by appointing him a Knight of the Legion of Honor. In 1870, while Strasbourg was besieged, it was he, together with the archbishop, who raised the white flag on the cathedral. Subsequently he was decorated by the German emperor.

Aharon N. Varady (translation)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer translator for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his translations, 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 transcribes prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes for the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=21923

Associated Image:

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)

Source Data: XML | JSON

Re-formatted: HTML | ODT

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute the work to Jonas Ennery, Arnaud Aron and Aharon N. Varady (translation).
Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=21923>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the Public Domain (17 U.S. Code §105 - Subject matter of copyright: United States Government works). (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of volunteer contributors, or its institutional partners.
We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.

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

Pocket Reddit Facebook Bluesky Telegram WhatsApp SMS Email