[Prayer] at the Grave of a Brother or Sister, by Rabbi Moritz Mayer (1866)

Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license

Date: 2020-06-10

Last Updated: 2020-06-21

Categories: Mourning

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., cemetery prayers, English vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, prayers for siblings, תחינות teḥinot

Excerpt: A prayer for a woman visiting the grave of her brother or sister. . . .

Content:

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	Full of loving recollections I draw nigh unto the grave of my beloved (brother/sister) whose memory can never cease. Oh! that thou has departed from me, that thou hast been taken from me, with whom I was united by the most tender bond of blood and love. My spirit wanders back to the days of our childhood which we passed together, in joy and sorrow, with the most fervent devotion and attachment, when, faithfully clinging to each other, we entered upon the paths of life, and strove towards our aim, and endured together, with the most sincere mutual sympathy, all sufferings and trials. Verily! life was of value to us because we enjoyed it together. And though now and then differences of opinion and intentions would separate us, how quickly would we again extend our hands to each other, and forget all! All at once thou wast taken from me, relentless death tore thee from my arms. Thy picture stands before me and fills me with unutterable woe and longing. Alas! thou shalt never return unto me, and I must wait for the time when we shall be re-united. Then thy spirit as once my hand, will seize mine, and lead me up, and show me the way unto purer light, unto higher joys. Lord! may my (brother’s/sister’s) spirit have attained to eternal peace, that (his/her) heart, satisfied by Thy river of love, be filled with the highest clearness and cheered by the highest salvation! Peace be unto this consecrated spot that contains these remains. Amen.

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Source (English)

Full of loving recollections I draw nigh unto the grave of my beloved (brother/sister) whose memory can never cease. Oh! that thou has departed from me, that thou hast been taken from me, with whom I was united by the most tender bond of blood and love. My spirit wanders back to the days of our childhood which we passed together, in joy and sorrow, with the most fervent devotion and attachment, when, faithfully clinging to each other, we entered upon the paths of life, and strove towards our aim, and endured together, with the most sincere mutual sympathy, all sufferings and trials. Verily! life was of value to us because we enjoyed it together. And though now and then differences of opinion and intentions would separate us, how quickly would we again extend our hands to each other, and forget all! All at once thou wast taken from me, relentless death tore thee from my arms. Thy picture stands before me and fills me with unutterable woe and longing. Alas! thou shalt never return unto me, and I must wait for the time when we shall be re-united. Then thy spirit as once my hand, will seize mine, and lead me up, and show me the way unto purer light, unto higher joys. Lord! may my (brother’s/sister’s) spirit have attained to eternal peace, that (his/her) heart, satisfied by Thy river of love, be filled with the highest clearness and cheered by the highest salvation! Peace be unto this consecrated spot that contains these remains. Amen.

“At the Grave of a Brother or Sister” is one of thirty prayers appearing in Rabbi Moritz Mayer’s collection of tehinot, Hours of Devotion (1866), of uncertain provenance and which he may have written. –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

Co-authors:

Name: Aharon N. Varady (editing/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

Name: Moritz Mayer
Bio: Rabbi Moritz Mayer (originally Moses Maier, later Maurice Mayer; 1821-1867) born in Dürckheim-on-the-Haardt, Germany, fled to the United States and to New York as a political refugee of the 1848 revolution. In 1859, after seven years as the rabbi of Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim in Charleston, South Carolina, he returned in poor health to New York where he contributed frequently to the Jewish press, and translated various German works into English: Rabbi Samuel Adler's catechism, Abraham Geiger's lectures on Jewish history, and Ludwig Philipson's pamphlet, Haben die Juden Jesum Gekreuzigt? (the Crucifixion from the Jewish Point of View), et al. In 1866, a number of his English translations of Fanny Neuda's teḥinot in German (from her Stunden Der Andacht, 1855/1858) were published in a volume he titled Hours of Devotion. The work also included a number of his own prayers as well as those of Marcus Heinrich Bresslau. The following year, Moritz Mayer passed away. He was 45 years old. (We are indebted to Anton Hieke for his research on Mayer, "Rabbi Maurice Mayer: German Revolutionary, Charleston Reformer, and Anti-Abolitionist" published in Southern Jewish Life, 17 (2014), pp. 45-89.) For Mayer's translations of prayers by other authors, please visit here.
Website:
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/moritz-mayer

Featured Image:

Title: at the grave of a brother or sister (Moritz Mayer 1864)
Caption: Detail of Moritz Mayer's prayer for visiting a grave of a brother or sister.