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Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Barry Tabachnikoff, Congregation Bet Breira, Miami, Florida
Date of Prayer: 24 April 1990
Sponsor: Rep. Dante Fascell (D-FL)
Date of Prayer: 24 April 1990
Sponsor: Rep. Dante Fascell (D-FL)
Rep. Fascell: Mr. Speaker, I am most pleased today to introduce a dear friend and distinguished religious leader from my congressional district, our guest chaplain today, Rabbi Barry Tabachnikoff. Rabbi Tabachnikoff is the founding rabbi of Congregation Bet Breira in Miami where he currently serves and is a past president of the Rabbinic Association of Greater Miami. In addition, he is cochairman of the National Rabbinic Cabinet of Israel Bonds. Rabbi Tabachnikoff is a former chairman of the secondary committee of the University of Pennsylvania where he did his undergraduate work. He was ordained in 1968 at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. He and his wife, Paula, have two children, Jonathan, a student at Brandeis University, and Adam, a student at Killian High School. On behalf of all our colleagues, I want to extend a warm welcome to Rabbi Tabachnikoff and thank him for giving our prayer today.
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| Contribute a translation | Source (English) |
|---|---|
Master of all beings, to You we turn, in search of inspiration, as we walk life’s path. | |
Grant wisdom and inspiration to our leaders who devote their service to our country and its citizens. | |
Here our ancestors built a land of freedom, a beacon for the oppressed in every generation. | |
Here the poor and homeless came, from every land, from every faith. Here they found acceptance, in a land of pluralism and plenty, a land of opportunity and acceptance. May our great country continue to strive to sustain this noble heritage. | |
Ours is the opportunity to serve humanity and bring blessings to all. | |
As we today commemorate the suffering of the Holocaust, may we learn to live together in harmony, working to bridge our differences in the laboratory of democracy that protects us all. | |
Humbly we invoke the blessings of the Creative Force that guides and sustains us all: May we release the energy, the spark of the divine, that dwells within each individual,[1] Possibly a reference to the tselem elohim — the divine likeness in Genesis 1:26-27. The scholar Rabbi Louis Jacobs (1920-2006), on the history of the popular belief in innate divine sparks within all of us: “The belief that there is a special mystical ‘spark’ in every human breast can be traced back, in western mysticism, at least to Jerome in the fourth century. Both Bonaventura and Bernard of Clairvaux speak of this mystical organ; the latter, calling it scintillula, a small spark of the soul, and speaking of the nearness of God, said: ‘Angels and archangels are within us, but He is more truly our own who is not only with us but in us.’ However, both these mystics are anxious to prevent an identification of this mystical spark with the divine. Eckhart, on the other hand, embraces the identification, calling the spark, among other endearing names, das Kleidhaus Gottes, ‘the house in which God attires Himself ’. This and other pantheistic tendencies in Eckhart’s thought were condemned in the papal Bull of 1529…” (in “The Doctrine of the ‘Divine Spark’ in Man in Jewish Sources” Studies in Rationalism, Judaism and Universalism, ed. Raphael Loewe (Humanities: 1966) 87-114.) Belief in this innate divine spark in each person is important in the theology of George Fox (1624-1691) and presents an important point of connection underscoring social justice movements among both Jews and Friends (i.e., Quakers). so that we might shape our generation and influence it, as we move toward harmony, understanding, and peace. | |
May we learn to value people above possessions, accomplishments above wealth. | |
May we be worthy heirs of the tradition that urges us, to be a light unto the nations, to bring a spark of reason, understanding, and peace into the world. Amen. |
Source(s)
101st Congress, 2nd Session. C-SPAN.
Congressional Record, Vol. 136, Part 7 — Bound Edition, p. 7912.
Congressional Record v. 136, part 6 – 24 April 1990. p. 7912
Notes
| 1 | Possibly a reference to the tselem elohim — the divine likeness in Genesis 1:26-27. The scholar Rabbi Louis Jacobs (1920-2006), on the history of the popular belief in innate divine sparks within all of us: “The belief that there is a special mystical ‘spark’ in every human breast can be traced back, in western mysticism, at least to Jerome in the fourth century. Both Bonaventura and Bernard of Clairvaux speak of this mystical organ; the latter, calling it scintillula, a small spark of the soul, and speaking of the nearness of God, said: ‘Angels and archangels are within us, but He is more truly our own who is not only with us but in us.’ However, both these mystics are anxious to prevent an identification of this mystical spark with the divine. Eckhart, on the other hand, embraces the identification, calling the spark, among other endearing names, das Kleidhaus Gottes, ‘the house in which God attires Himself ’. This and other pantheistic tendencies in Eckhart’s thought were condemned in the papal Bull of 1529…” (in “The Doctrine of the ‘Divine Spark’ in Man in Jewish Sources” Studies in Rationalism, Judaism and Universalism, ed. Raphael Loewe (Humanities: 1966) 87-114.) Belief in this innate divine spark in each person is important in the theology of George Fox (1624-1691) and presents an important point of connection underscoring social justice movements among both Jews and Friends (i.e., Quakers). |
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“Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Barry Tabachnikoff on 24 April 1990” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.
Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)
the Congressional Record of the United States of America
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