Actions de graces pour notre émancipation en France | Thanksgiving for our Emancipation in France, by Rabbi Arnaud Aron & Jonas Ennery (1848)

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=31200

Date: 2020-04-25

Last Updated: 2024-12-17

Categories: 🇫🇷 Fête Nationale Française (14 July), Government & Country, 🇫🇷 France

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Emancipation, French Jewry, Great French Revolution, paraliturgical prayer for the government

Excerpt: This prayer of gratitude for the emancipation of French Jewry was included by Rabbi Arnaud Aron and Jonas Ennery in their opus, אמרי לב Prières d’un Coeur Israelite (Société Consistoriale de Bons Livres, 1848), pp. 61-62. In the second edition published in 1852, it appears on pp. 95-96. . . .

Content:

Source (French)	Translation (English)
Pendant qu’on fait la prière pour le chef de l’état.	While we say our prayers for the head of state.
Actions de graces pour notre émancipation en France.	Thanksgiving for our emancipation in France.
«J’élève mes yeux vers là montagne d’où me viendra le secours» (Ps. 121, 1).	“I turn my eyes to the mountains; from where will my help come?” (Psalms 121:1)
Seigneur, après de longs malheurs et de cruelles épreuves, tu t’es enfin souvenu de ton peuple et tu as fait luire le jour de sa délivrance. Une nation généreuse a été l’instrument de tes desseins providentiels; elle a brisé nos chaînes, nous a ouvert ses bras et nous a réunis à ses autres enfants. Israël a enfin retrouvé une patrie! Grâces te soient rendues mille fois, Seigneur, pour ce mémorable bienfait; qu’un jour ne se passe pas sans que ma reconnaissance et celle de mes frères s’élèvent vers ton trône!	Lord, after long woes and cruel trials, you have finally remembered your people and made the day of their deliverance shine. A generous nation has been the instrument of your providential designs; it has broken our chains, opened its arms to us and united us with its other children. Israel has finally found a homeland! May not a day pass without my gratitude and that of my brothers and sisters rising to your throne.
Que ta bénédiction se répande sur nos généreux concitoyens; que notre amour les récompense, et que nos services et notre dévouement acquittent envers la patrie notre dette filiale. Daigne, ô Roi des rois, verser les trésors de tes faveurs sur le chef qui nous gouverne, et prolonger ses jours pour le bonheur de tes enfants.	May your blessing be showered upon our generous citizens; may our love reward them, and may our service and devotion repay our filial debt to the Fatherland. Deign, O King of kings, to pour the treasures of your favours on the ruler who governs us, and prolong his days for the happiness of your children.
Toi qui tiens dans ta main les puissants de la terre, daigne, Seigneur, amollir leur cœur, dans les pays où nos frères gémissent encore dans l’opprobre et dans l’oppression; afin que s’approche le jour où ils pourront avec nous élever leur voix vers toi pour célébrer leur délivrance.	You who hold in your hand the mighty of the earth, deign, O Lord, to soften their hearts in the countries where our brothers still groan in opprobrium and oppression, so that the day may come when they will be able to raise their voices with us to you to celebrate their deliverance.
Amen.	Amen.

---

This prayer of gratitude for the emancipation of French Jewry was included by Rabbi Arnaud Aron and Jonas Ennery in their opus, אמרי לב Prières d’un Coeur Israelite (Société Consistoriale de Bons Livres, 1848), pp. 61-62. In the second edition published in 1852, it appears on pp. 95-96.

Source(s)

 

---

 

Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Co-authors:

• 
  Name: Arnaud Aron
  Bio: 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.
  Website:
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/arnaud-aron
• 
  Name: Jonas Ennery
  Bio: 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.
  Website:
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/jonas-ennery
• 
  Name: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
  Bio: 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.)
  Website: https://aharon.varady.net
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/aharon-varady-transcription

Featured Image:

Title: Napoléon le grand rétablit le culte des Israélites le 30 mai 1806
Caption: "Napoléon le grand rétablit le culte des Israélites le 30 mai 1806" Napoleon grants freedom to the Jews. 1806 print, in which Napoleon grants the Jews freedom to worship, represented by the hand given to the Jewish woman.