Hours of Devotion:  Fanny Neuda’s Book of Prayers for Jewish Women was originally published in German in the 19th century.    It is a full length book of prayers, written by a woman for women.  I can’t begin to describe what a treasure Berland has brought us within the pages of Hours of Devotion.  It is a stunning gift to Jewish women everywhere.

Each chapter holds prayers for different occasions.  For instance chapter 1 includes prayers for morning, evening, and days of the week.  Chapter 2 holds prayers for the Sabbath, including for baking challah.  Chapter 3 is filled with lovely prayers for holidays.  Chapter 4 contains prayers especially for women, such as marriage, childbirth, naming a child, mother of the bride, mother of the groom, etc.  There are prayers in other chapters for special circumstances, for healing, and memorial prayers.  Each prayer is beautiful, and filled with illumination.  Each prayer is personal, and a prayer that women can relate to (men can too for that matter), no matter their faith.

Fanny Neuda was born in Eibenschitz, in 1819, which was part of the Austrian Hungarian Empire at that period in time.  She grew up surrounded by Rabbis, from her maternal grandfather, to uncles, to her brother, and to her own father, Rabbi Judah Smiedl.

That Fanny Neuda was able to not only write, but publish such a stirring and enriching book of prayer in 1855 is a testament to her strength, and her own spiritual devotion.  It was entitled “Stunden der Andacht”, which is translated to “Hours of Devotion”.  And, the fact that Dinah Berland found a copy in a used book store is by no means coincidental in her (Berland’s) mind.

Here is an excerpt from Fanny Neuda’s “Preface to Hours of Devotion“.

“These prayers were not originally written for publication. During my lifetime, so richly filled with the most diverse events, I frequently felt powerful, inescapable urges to enter into dialogue with the sublime Spirit of the Universe – who is enthroned so high and yet sees down so low – that I might find the insight and the strength in God not to stray from or sidestep the path of duty, which so often demanded great sacrifice. That is how most of these prayers were written. In them I found the staff of Moses calling forth to me from the arid rocks of a sad fate, a wellspring of elevating emotions and heavenly consolations – Jacob’s ladder, on which the angels of patience, hope, and devotion to God descended from heaven.“

Some of the prayers are indicative of marital sastisfaction, and family hardships, such as the prayer “For An Unhappy wife“, and “For a Mother Whose Children Provide For Her“.  These two prayers are very telling, in their social aspects, and can apply to today’s world with the divorce rate, and with economic factors.

I, personally use the “A Daughter’s Prayer For Her Parents” (even though they are deceased), “At a Father’s Grave“, “At a Mother’s Grave“, and “A Traveler’s Prayer” in my prayer routine.  Another one I have said is “When An Adult Child Is Ill“.  A beautiful prayer that I love and recite is “In Old Age” (it can apply to all ages).

I can’t begin to articulate the deep sense of pure loveliness and illumination that Hours of Devotion brings to the reader.  Dinah Berland has brought us Fanny Neuda’s Hours of Devotion, and given today’s modern women (and men) of all faiths and backgrounds a book of prayer that is enriching, humble and filled with eloquence of thought and spirituality.  It is sensitively written, with poetic prose.  The beautiful and poignant prayers are thought-provoking, and a perfect accompaniment for today’s women, and for women of generations to come.

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Jew Wishes…Peace to you all.
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