Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Haim Asa on 13 November 1985

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription), Haim Asa and the Congressional Record of the United States of America

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17 June 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:

58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, 99th Congress, Cold War (1985–1991), Geneva Summit (1985), 20th century C.E., תחינות teḥinot

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Haim Asa, Temple Beth Tikvah of northern Orange County, Fullerton, California
Sponsor: Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-CA)
Date of Prayer: 13 November 1985

Mr. DANNEMEYER. Mr. Speaker, I have the very great honor today of representing Rabbi Haim Asa, of Fullerton, CA, who gave the invocation.
Rabbi Asa was born in Bulgaria and emigrated to Palestine in 1944, living there for 10 years. In 1954 he came to the United States to study agricultural economics at the University of Arizona. Soon thereafter, he decided to enter rabbinic studies and attended the Hebrew Union College Jewish Studies Institute.
Rabbi Asa served for 3 years as director of the World Union for Progressive Judaism for South America in Argentina. He is a past president of the Jewish Federal Council and a past president of the Fullerton Ministerial Association.
Rabbi Asa and his wife have four children. They have lived in Fullerton since 1963, where he serves at Temple Beth Tikvah.
My wife and I, with Denny Smith and his lovely wife, Kathleen, had the distinct pleasure of traveling to Israel earlier this year with Rabbi Asa, where he offered keen insight and observation on that historical land.
I am indeed very pleased to present Rabbi Haim Asa to the House today.
Mr. DENNY SMITH. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. DANNEMEYER. I yield to the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. Denny Smith).
Mr. DENNY SMITH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
It is my distinct pleasure to have Rabbi Asa here today. The gentleman from California [Mr. DANNEMEYER] and his wife and my wife toured Israel with him last April, and we had a tremendous time with a tremendous individual, and it is a real pleasure to have him here in the House today as the visiting chaplain.

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Our God, the Lord of all mankind: It is our prayer that Your blessings of wisdom and courage come upon this assembly, upon our Government and our Nation.
	The eyes of all of Your children are focused upon the forthcoming summit.^[1] This was the Geneva Summit of 1985, a Cold War-era meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. It was held on November 19 and 20, 1985, between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. The two leaders met for the first time to hold talks on international diplomatic relations and the arms race. Our respective religions teach that a summit is a place on top of a mountain. Your presence, O Lord, has often been revealed from the summit mountaintops.
	Be with our President and his advisers at the summit, just as you were with Abraham our patriarch at Mount Moriah, with Moses at Mount Sinai, with Joshua at Mount Nebo, and with Jesus at the Calvary summit of Golgotha.
	We pray that all who come to the summit would work toward shalom, for the survival of our planet, hopefully without sacrificing our freedom.
	Bless this House and its Members, our President and his advisers with the blessing bestowed upon our Biblical ancestors: “Be strong and of a good courage” (Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:6-9) and let me say amen.

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the eleventh month of the first session of the 99th US House of Representatives, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 131 part 23 (13 November 1985), page 31557.

Source(s)

Congressional Record, vol. 131, part 23 (13 November 1985), p. 31557

Notes[+]

Notes
1	This was the Geneva Summit of 1985, a Cold War-era meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. It was held on November 19 and 20, 1985, between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. The two leaders met for the first time to hold talks on international diplomatic relations and the arms race.

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“Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Haim Asa on 13 November 1985” 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.)

Haim Asa

Rabbi Haim Asa (1931-2014), born in Bulgaria, was a Reform movement rabbi in the United States. In 1944, he fled to Mandate Palestine and was educated at Aliyat Hanoar schools and at Mikve Israel Agricultural School. At the age of 15, he was admitted to the Gadna-Youth division of the underground Haganah, and he was sent to Platoon Commanders School in the summer of 1947. and served in the Israeli Defense Forces in the 1950s. After graduation from the Mikve Israel School, Rabbi Asa enlisted in the Israeli Defense Forces and graduated from the Israel Officers Academy. In 1950 he was one of the founders of the "NACHAL” division of the Israeli Defense Force, and in 1952 he was the first "NACHAL” officer to graduate from the paratroopers academy. Following his army career he served in the IDF intelligence branch until coming to the United States in 1954. He was ordained in 1963 by Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. From 1963 and until 1966, Rabbi Asa was the Latin American Director of the World Union for Progressive Judaism in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Returning to California in 1966, he became rabbi at Temple Beth Tikvah. Rabbi Asa was a president of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis, a president of the Orange County Board of Rabbis and the Fullerton Interfaith Ministerial Association. He served several terms as a member of the Jewish Federation Board of Directors and was influential in the development of Federation in its early years. During the early 1970s, Rabbi Asa was a member of the Department of Religious Studies at California State University, Fullerton, and while teaching there provided spiritual mentorship for Jewish students. In 1980-81, Rabbi Asa was instrumental in the efforts to acknowledge the role of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people for saving of its entire Jewish population (50,000) residing in Bulgaria during the Holocaust.

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)

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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