Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl, senior rabbi of Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto, Canada
Date of Prayer: 11/29/2012
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God of us all,
we assemble before You in humility,
recalling both triumph and defeat,
summer drought,
autumn hurricane,
and the cooperative resilience of our Nation.
In this season after elections and before the new Congress,
we ask that You give these Senators and our government
the wisdom to avoid the exclusions of either/or
and to embrace the blessings of both/and.
Rather than fear falling off a cliff,
help our leaders to learn to chimney.
In climbing, chimneying requires
pushing off one side of a mountain cleft
and then the other to advance higher.
The resistance of each face of the rock
contributes to the ascent.
Help these leaders
to appreciate individual initiative
and care for the distressed,
to value competition
and find a path for cooperation,
to be mindful of human liberty
and be grateful for mutual help,
to recognize the occasional need for force
and to forcefully pursue peace.
Enable them
to chimney up the cleft
of our differences,
to reclaim fiscal integrity
and maintain social concern,
to be exemplars of responsibility
and reasonableness,
so that all Americans may respect
and rejoice
in their leadership
of this great country.
the Congressional Record of the United States of America
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Printing Office and issued when Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks. At the end of a session of Congress, the daily editions are compiled in bound volumes constituting the permanent edition. Statutory authorization for the Congressional Record is found in Chapter 9 of Title 44 of the United States Code. (wikipedia)
Baruch Frydman-Kohl
Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl is the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Senior Rabbi of Beth Tzedec Congregation, the largest synagogue community in Canada. The focus of his rabbinate has been a commitment to family education, life-long learning and care for the housebound, hospitalized and homeless. Rav Baruch initiated the development of a "synaplex" of innovative ritual and educational opportunities to encourage more participation in synagogue life. Beyond the synagogue, Rav Baruch is the past president of the Toronto Board of Rabbis (2012 to 2015) and vice-chair of the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus. As president, he helped to organize the 2011 Path of Abraham mission to bring Jews, Christians and Muslims to the Holy Land to explore the challenges of three religions, two nations and one land. He was featured in the documentaries “The Secret of San Nicandro” for CBC and “Amazing Communities” for Israel television. Rav Baruch offered a prayer to open a session of the United States Senate. Rav Baruch serves on the Board of UJA Federation of Toronto and is a member of the Rabbinic Cabinet of Jewish Federations of North America. He is a member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly, has served on its international Executive Committee, chaired its international convention and is a past president of two of its regions. In 2016, his service to the community was recognized by UJA Federation with the Gordy Wolfe Award for Jewish Communal Professional Leadership. Rav Baruch was awarded a Coolidge Fellowship to pursue research in an inter-faith community at the Episcopal Divinity School at Harvard University, received a doctorate in Jewish Philosophy from the Jewish Theological Seminary and is a Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jerusalem. Rabbi Frydman-Kohl is the author of scholarly articles in the area of Jewish philosophy and mysticism.
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