On the Approach of Childbirth

Fanny Neuda

1854

Before she labored, she was delivered;

Before her pangs came, she bore a son!

—Isaiah 66:7

Fear not, worm of Jacob,

O people of Israel,

For I will help you.

—Isaiah 41:14

The hard, painful hour of delivery draws near,
And in the midst of the pains and fears
That course through me
This fervent prayer rises from the depths of my soul—
May it…
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Creator Bio

Fanny Neuda

1819–1894

The German-language writer Fanny Neuda (née Schmiedl) was born into a rabbinic family in Moravia (now the Czech Republic). She married the liberal rabbi Abraham Neuda and moved with him to Loštice, Moravia. After her husband died, Neuda wrote the first Jewish prayer book composed for women by a woman, Stunden der Andacht (Hours of Devotion; 1855), an updated version of the women’s prayers known as tkhines. The book was immensely popular in Eastern Europe and was translated into English in 1866. Neuda also wrote fiction inspired by Jewish domestic life.

Related Guide

Rabbinic Scholarship, 1750–1880

Despite the challenges of the early modern period, rabbinic scholarship flourished in Central and Eastern Europe in the latter half of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century. 

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