Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise on 20 May 1870

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription) and Isaac Mayer Wise

Shared on:

15 May 2024 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies, United States of America

Tags:

Prayers of Guest Chaplains, U.S. Senate, 41st Congress, 19th century C.E., תחינות teḥinot, 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, Lodge Street Synagogue, Cincinnati, Ohio
Sponsor: n/a
Date of Prayer: 20 May 1870

TOGGLE COLUMNS (on/off):

ADJUST COLUMN POSITIONS: select the column header cell and drag it where you want. show me!

COPY INDIVIDUAL COLUMN(S): use CopyTables, a browser extension.

TABLE HELP

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	O Lord, who art power, wisdom and justice, absolute and infinite, who lookest upon the earth and it trembles, who touchest the mountains and they smoke, and yet, in thy boundless grace hast girded man with might from thy might, hast enlightened his mind with wisdom from thy wisdom, and hast impressed his conscience with justice from thy justice, who hast mercifully granted us the sacred boons of freedom and government, and hast appointed this land to a home of righteousness, an Eden of liberated humanity, a rock of hope and banner of consolation to struggling nations;
	we beseech thee to vouchsafe thy gracious blessings to this body of our chosen men, that they deliberate wisely, resolve justly, and far from selfishness and vain ambition wield the power vested in them to the prosperity of our country, the realisation of justice, the progress of freedom, the triumph of humanity, and the elevation of human nature; that prosperity and justice, freedom and peace, righteousness and wisdom be forever the united gems in the diadem of our country, the rainbow colors in our emblem of power, the banner of victory unfurled to all nations and tongues.
	And mayest thou pour out upon these favored sons of the nation the spirit of wisdom and intelligence, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. So may it be thy will, Father of the universe, now and forever. Amen.

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the sixth month of the second session of the 41st US Congress in the Senate, and published in the American Israelite, vol. 16, no, 47 (27 May 1870), page 10. Before February 1904, prayers of chaplains offered before Congress were not recorded in the Congressional Record. This prayer was recovered as part of a special project to locate the approximately twenty prayers offered by rabbinic guest chaplains between 1860 and 1904. –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

The Israelite (27 May 1870), p. 10

&nbsp

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise on 20 May 1870” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

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.)

Isaac Mayer Wise

Isaac Mayer Wise (29 March 1819, Steingrub (now Lomnička, Czech Republic), Austrian Empire – 26 March 1900, Cincinnati), was an American Reform rabbi, editor, and author. At his death he was called "the foremost rabbi in America."

Pocket Pinterest Reddit 𝕏 Facebook Telegram WhatsApp SMS Email

Works of related interest:

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Stephen Baars on 22 May 2008

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Ellen Bernhardt on 20 May 2004

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Alvin K. Berkun on 8 May 1991

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Tzvi H. Porath on 14 May 1991

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Dr. Joachim Prinz on 6 May 1965

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Efry Spectre on 12 May 1983

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Saul Israel Wisemon on 28 May 1970

prev next

Comments, Corrections, and QueriesCancel reply

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=55903

Associated Image:

Flag of the United States Senate

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)

Source Data: XML | JSON

Re-formatted: HTML | ODT

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute the work to Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription) and Isaac Mayer Wise.
Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=55903>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of contributors, patrons, or institutional partners.
We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture. If you like what you've found here, please help keep our project alive and online with your financial contribution.

ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17