Evening Prayer for Children, by Rabbi Moritz Mayer (1866)

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=31951

Date: 2020-06-09

Last Updated: 2024-12-17

Categories: Bedtime Shema

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., ABAB rhyming scheme, children's prayers, English vernacular prayer, prayers on behalf of parents

Excerpt: "Evening Prayer for Children" 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. . . .

Content:

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Now to bed I do retire, Rest to find and sweet repose; Lord! my weary eyes aspire Unto Thee before they close.
	Thou, O Father, ever good, Take my thanks for all Thy love, For Thy care, for drink and food, Which Thou gav’st me from above
	Pardon ev’ry sinful deed, Ev’ry evil I have done; Let my tender age now plead To Thy mercy, Holy One!
	Let my childhood’s innocence Last through life, unbroken, pure; That, when’er thou call’s! me hence, My salvation shall be sure.

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“Evening Prayer for Children” 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)

 

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Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Co-authors:

• 
  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
• 
  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: children’s prayer evening (Moritz Mayer 1864)
Caption: Detail of Moritz Mayer's bedtime prayer for children.