Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Israel Porath, dean of the Orthodox Rabbis of Cleveland, Ohio
Sponsor: n/a
Date of Prayer: 5 June 1964
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Eternal:
Thy children, here in session
as duly representative spokesmen
for our population,
lift up their hearts unto Thee
to invoke Thy blessing.
May Thy pleasantness be upon them,
and establish Thou the work of their hands.[1] Cf. Psalms 90:17
At these crucial times
of universal unrest,
racial tension,
and anxiety;
grant them, O God,
spiritual guidance
and moral strength
to observe events keenly,
to weigh them carefully,
to react properly,
to deliberate judiciously,
and to assume responsibilities
with courage and vigor,
with prudence and dignity.
Let us reverently conceive,
and humbly realize,
that things said or done in this Chamber
may affect the fate of multitudes here and abroad,
now and hereafter.
Let us, therefore, weigh and measure
our thoughts and expressions,
to speak the inner truth of our hearts,
and work for the genuine good and welfare
of our constituents
and of mankind at large.
May we strive to realize the vision of the Psalmist:
that kindness and truth shall meet together,
and righteousness and peace embrace each other.[2] Cf. Psalms 85:11. Amen.
This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the sixth month of the second session of the 88th US Senate, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 110 part 10 (5 June 1964), page 12787.
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 naqeniשְׁגִיאוֹת 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.)
Israel Porath
Rabbi Israel Porath (1886–1974), born in Jerusalem, Ottoman Palestine, was an Orthodox rabbi and community leader in Ottoman Palestine and the United States. In Erets Yisrael, he studied at the Eẓ Ḥayyim Yeshivah, at Yeshivat Ohel Moshe, and after 1904, under the guideance of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Quq (Kook) in Jaffa. Rabbi Kook said of him that from all of his students he received the most pleasure from Rabbi Porath and Rabbi Jacob Ḥarlap. He received his semikhah from Rabbi Kook as well as from Rabbi Chaim Berlin and Rabbi Jacob David Willowsky (the Slutzker Rav). In 1906 he founded a spiritual center for young Torah scholars called Beit Va'ad le-Ḥakhamim and served as the principal and director of Doresh Ẓiyyon, a school system for Sephardi students. In 1911, he was selected as the Ashkenazi candidate for the position of Chief Rabbi. At the behest of the leadership of the yishuv he was encouraged to learn foreign languages and was sent to Constantinople to secure draft deferments for yeshivah students from the Turkish army. During World War I he was responsible for emergency welfare, food, and clothing in Jerusalem, in conjunction with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. He participated in founding many new neighborhoods on the western side of Jerusalem, including Bayit ve-Gan. He left Mandate Palestine in 1922, first for Liverpool, England and then for the United States, to head an office for the Eẓ Ḥayyim Yeshivah, where he was joined by his family (in September 1923). He served as a rabbi at Congregation B'nai Israel in Plainfield, New Jersey, and in 1925 moved to Cleveland to become the rabbi of Congregation Oheb Zedek, where he served for 14 years. He then moved to Congregation Neve Zedek, and in 1945 went to New York to head the Rabbi Israel Salanter Yeshivah. He returned to Cleveland within the year where he was rabbi at the Cleveland Heights Jewish Center. In addition to his serving as one of the founders and chairman of the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of Cleveland (Merkaz Harabanim) he was active in the general Jewish community, including the Board of the Jewish Welfare Federation, the Board of Jewish Education, and B'nai B'rith. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland. He was an ardent Zionist and a member of the Mizrachi (Religious Zionists of America); he was honored by numerous Zionist organizations for his work on behalf of the State of Israel, including Bar-Ilan University and the Jewish National Fund. He served as the dean of the Cleveland rabbinate for more than 50 years. He wrote numerous scholarly articles on rabbinic literature. His major contribution was the Mavo ha-Talmud (seven volumes). A street is named for him in Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood (Reḥov Harav Yisrael Porath). (Much of this bio is based on this article by Rabbi Porath's grandson, Rabbi Jonathan Porath.)
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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