Prayer for the United States on Thanksgiving Day, by Rabbi Sabato Morais (24 November 1870)

Contributor(s):

Sabato Morais and Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

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22 August 2022 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday of November), United States of America

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19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Philadelphia, English vernacular prayer, Ḳ.Ḳ. Miḳveh Israel (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Lord of all flesh! infuse within us sentiments of commiseration for suffering humanity: for, verily, the practice of beneficence is the highest worship the creatures can offer their Creator. By it our nature becomes spiritualized even while we tread the earth, for that genial virtue is the reflection of Thy Divine self in the soul of man.
	It does behoove the people Thou hast bountifully cared for to sing Thy praises in unison of hearts and show forth Thy loving kindness.
	It is meet that the children of the land Thou hast enlarged and strengthened, and enriched and exalted, should acknowledge that from Thy hand all this hath come.
	It is proper that they should recognize as Thy highest favor the rising of deliverers in the time of their danger, and the great salvation their eyes beheld; that they should glory in the wisdom Thou didst impart to their ancestors; in the might wherewith Thou didst gird their defenders; in the exhaustless treasures Thou didst place within their reach for the weal of generations yet unborn. But Thy inspired servant of old hath taught that he who glorieth should glory mainly in this: That he understandeth and knoweth that Thou art the Lord, doing mercy, justice and charity upon earth, and that in those things Thou delighteth. (Jeremiah 9:23)
	We therefore beseech thee, oh! Source of all good, to purify our lives that we may copy Thy heavenly attributes, and spread broadcast the seeds of happiness. Let nations rejoice that righteousness hath a sanctuary in America, and at its shrine her children bend.
	Grant, O Most High God, that from this country of our inheritance, peace go forth, shadowing beneath its pavilion all the inhabitants of the globe. For, then will Thy kingdom be established, and the Messianic era we long to hail gloriously dawn. So may it be. Amen.

This Thanksgiving Day Prayer for 24 November 1870 was reprinted in The Philadelphia Inquirer on the following day 25 November 1870. It was preserved by Rabbi Morais in his ledger (page 44, clipping 057), an archive of newsclippings recording material he contributed to the press, among other announcements. (Many thanks to the Library of the University of Pennsylvania for helping to make this resource accessible.) Unfortunately, due to the fragility of the paper, a bit of the newsclipping providing the beginning of the prayer was lost. Thankfully, the missing text was recovered from a scan of the newspaper page made by the Fulton History project.

Source(s)

Thanksgiving Day Prayer [1870-11-24]

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“Prayer for the United States on Thanksgiving Day, by Rabbi Sabato Morais (24 November 1870)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Sabato Morais

Rabbi Sabato Morais (שבתאי מוראיס; April 13, 1823 – November 11, 1897) was an Italian-American rabbi, leader of Mikveh Israel Synagogue in Philadelphia, pioneer of Italian Jewish Studies in America, and in 1886, co-founder (with Henry Pereira Mendes) of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America to preserve the knowledge and practice of traditional, historical rabbinic Judaism in the United States.

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.)

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Works of related interest:

Thanksgiving Day Prayer [1864-11-24] (Sabato Morais Ledger, p. 23, clipping 028)

Prayer for the United States on Thanksgiving Day during the Civil War, by Rabbi Sabato Morais (24 November 1864)

Thanksgiving Day Prayer [1866-11-29] (Sabato Morais Ledger, p. 25, clipping 031)

Prayer for the United States on Thanksgiving Day, by Rabbi Sabato Morais (29 November 1866)

Thanksgiving Day Prayer [1867-11-28] (Sabato Morais Ledger, p. 35, clipping 042) - cropped

Prayer for the United States on Thanksgiving Day, by Rabbi Sabato Morais (28 November 1867)

Prayer for the United States on Thanksgiving Day on the First Day of Ḥanukkah during the Civil War, by Rabbi Sabato Morais (28 November 1861)

Prayer for the United States on Thanksgiving Day, by Rabbi Sabato Morais (27 November 1868)

Thanksgiving Day Prayer [1873-11-27] (Sabato Morais Ledger, p. 61) - cropped

Prayer for the United States on Thanksgiving Day, by Rabbi Sabato Morais (27 November 1873)

Thanksgiving Day Prayer (Sabato Morais 1852) - cropped

Prayer for the United States on Thanksgiving Day, by Rabbi Sabato Morais (25 November 1852)

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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