Prayer in sickness, by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=32155

Date: 2020-06-15

Last Updated: 2020-06-15

Categories: Well-being, health, and caregiving

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

Excerpt: A supplication made during a period of debilitating illness. . . .

Content:

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Source (English)

All-just God! full of confidence in Thy infinite goodness, I lift up my soul unto Thee, amidst the sorrows which oppress me, and embitter these days to me. May sublime salvation grow to me from this trouble; may the calamity and tribulation which I now endure, contribute to the amendment of my heart. Daily do I experience Thy goodness, Thou awakenest within me elevating thoughts, and rejoicest me by the relief of my cares at intervals. Hear me, Protector of all beings, hear me, and remove for ever the sorrows which I now endure with humble resignation. From the inexhaustible fulness of the stream of Thy paternal goodness, pour only a drop of Thy beneficent balm upon my head: then shall I be saved from my distress, relieved from pain and torment. I may then confidently hope that Thou wilt pardon my offences, and that I shall yet live to see many joyful and happy days; to serve Thee with all my might. Amen.

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“Prayer in sickness” was first published in Marcus Heinrich Bresslau’s collection of teḥinot, Teḥinot Banot Yisrael: Devotions for the Daughters of Israel (1852).

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: Marcus Heinrich Bresslau
  Bio: Marcus Heinrich (also Mordecai Ḥayyim/Hyman/Heyman) Bresslau (ca. 1808-15 May 1864) was a Hebraist and newspaper editor. Born in Hamburg, he settled in England when young. For some time from 1834 he was Baal Ḳoreh (reader) at the Western Synagogue. He then taught Hebrew at the Westminster Jews’ Free School and went on to tutor privately. A maskil, he became involved with M. J. Raphall’s Hebrew Review and Magazine of Rabbinical Literature (1834-6). In October 1844 he was appointed editor of the relaunched Jewish Chronicle by proprietor Joseph Mitchell. Prickly and quarrelsome, he resigned in July 1848 but returned in around September. He remained until about October 1850. After Mitchell’s death in June 1854 he became proprietor (his middle name appearing as Heyman) and edited it until February 1855 when new proprietor Abraham Benisch succeeded him. Bresslau, who tried vainly to revive the Hebrew Review, wrote Hebrew poetry, produced a Hebrew grammar and a Hebrew dictionary, and translated various Hebrew manuscripts in the Bodleian Library. Bresslau compiled (we think) the first compilation of teḥinot in English for women. (Much of this information via Bresslau's entry in The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History)
  Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Hyman_Bresslau
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/marcus-heinrich-bresslau

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Title: prayer in sickness (Marcus Heinrich Bresslau 1852)
Caption: Detail of Marcus Heinrich Bresslau's Prayer in sickness