The Book of Religion, Ceremonies, and Prayers; of the Jews as practised in their synagogues and families on all occasions: on their Sabbath and other Holy-Days throughout the Year (1738) by Abraham Mears (under the pseudonym Gamaliel ben Pedahzur) is the first translation of a siddur in English. (For a summary on the sources identifying Gamaliel with Abraham Mears, find this article by Fred Macdowell at On the Main Line blog.) From his preface, Mears appears to have regarded his siddur as something of a religious and cultural ambassador to English Christians, as well as a pedagogical work that might be of some use by Jews not yet literate in liturgical Hebrew. We have learned very little else about Abraham Mears save that he was a Jewish convert to Christianity.
This work is in the Public Domain due to its having been published more than 95 years ago.
PREFACE.
That the Jews were once the say favourite People of God, has been ever allow’d by all religious People: It is they who are meant in Isaiah, Ch. 43:21. This People have I formed for myself, they shall shew forth my Praise: and in Levit. Ch. 26:44. When they shall be in the Land of their Enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly; nor to break my Covenant with them: For I am the Lord their God. Beside what is said of them in Deut. 4:31, in Rom. 11:26. in Isaiah 59:20. and in divers other Parts of the sacred Writs; from all which holy Passages, they ought till to be esteem’d too much in God’s Favour to be made a Ridicule of on Account of their Religion: Wherefore, I hope, no One will peruse this Work of their Ceremonies and Prayers with such a Thought.
I have collected their Ceremonies, and represented the Difficulties thereof; in Order to render those of my Christian Readers the more endearing to them: And that the Jews who are fondest of their own, may not be less obliged to me for explaining the Meanings of, and citing the Quotations for theirs; to instruct the Illiterate of their Nation, in what they are ignorant of at present.
I have translated their Prayers partly for the same Reason: the Translation of which being as Literal as possible, will be of great Use to Beginners in the Hebrew Tongue; especially by means of the compleat Alphabetical Index, the which is likewise of great Use to all Persons that resort to the Synagogues, as it enables them to find out any Prayer the Jews may be reading of, by looking for it in the Index, under the same Denomination as it is called in the Hebrew itself.
The Table of Contents of their Ceremonies is another Conveniency which I have set down for the Satisfaction of my Readers; and had I lived in Town to have been nearer the Press, I would have visited the Printer oftner to have prevented those few Mistakes in the Spelling and Misnumbering of a few Pages, which tho’ they have happen’d, do in no wise alter the Sense of the Work.
The various Ceremonies and Customs of Religion in General, are render’d familiar to all respective Persons of the various Persuasions, by means of their Education; and by copying in their Infancy the like Examples from their Parents, Priests, and Others who practise the same.
In regard to the Truth of the present Ceremonies, and of their being by them regularly observed; I have, for Proof of the former, referred to the Chapter and Verse wherein they are commanded; and for convincing my Readers of the latter. I can only refer them to resort to the Jewish Gentlemen and Ladies of their Acquaintance, at the Times and Seasons herein mention’d when such Ceremonies are to be performed.
Gamaliel Ben Pedahzur.
