Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Chaim Z. Rozwaski on 8 June 1976

Contributor(s): the Congressional Record of the United States of America, Chaim Rozwaski and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Shared on: 26 June 2024 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories: 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags: 94th Congress, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, תחינות teḥinot, United States bicentennial

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Chaim Z. Rozwaski, Congregation Etz Chaim, Flossmoor, Illinois
Sponsor: Rep. Ed Derwinski (R-IL)
Date of Prayer: 8 June 1976

Mr. DERWINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to call the attention of the Members to the invocation delivered this afternoon by Rabbi Chaim Z. Rozwaski of Congregation Etz Chaim in Flossmoor, Illinois.
Rabbi Rozwaski has earned a reputation as a scholar, teacher, author, and administrator. In addition to his present duties, he is a member of the Rabbinical Council of America, the Synagogue Council of America, and serves as secretary of the South Suburban Board of Rabbis. Rabbi Rozwaski is also active as a professor at Governor’s State University, Park Forest South, Ill. His professional experience includes the publication of several articles in national magazines and newspapers.
I am pleased to have my distinguished constituent serve as House Chaplain this afternoon.

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁנָּתַן מִכְּבוֹדוֹ לְבָשָׂר וָדָם.‏ (ברכות נח א)	[Blessed are you YHVH our elo’ah Cosmic Majesty who gave of Divine glory to flesh and blood. (Berakhot 58a)
	You share Your glory, O Lord, with mortal man. You give him wisdom and power to rule, yet only You are omniscient and all sovereignty is Yours.
	Grant this House the perception to legislate, wisely; to wield power, moderately; to exercise control, humbly; and serve our great Nation, superbly.
	On the threshold of our Bicentennial Year we are mindful of our past and dedicated to our future. Resolved to learn from our ancestors, we are also committed to teach our descendants.
	Though we have been, at times, in the dark valley of human despair, we have also climbed the bright pisgah of prophetic righteousness.
	Forged in the furnace of dark strife, we have emitted a flame that lit the path of freedom for all who dared to take it, and radiated a warmth for all the needy.
	Zealous of the freedom that was once denied us, we are pledged to preserve it for others as well.
	A nation founded by persons who asserted their rights, we also respect the rights of others; so that people need not suffer under the rule of tyrannical man, but can aspire to greatness under the rule of just laws.
	May the accomplishments of our past inspire us in the future.
	May we realize that: “Freedom is a blessing! To be free is a virtue; To help others to be free, is sublime!”
	May nations look upon us during the next 200 years and say, behold, she is blessed.
יְבָרֶכְךָ יְיָ וְיִשְׁמְרֶֽךָ׃ יָאֵר יְיָ ׀ פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וִֽיחֻנֶּֽךָּ׃ יִשָּׂא יְיָ ׀ פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלֽוֹם׃	[May YHVH bless you and watch over you! May YHVH shine their face toward you and favor you! May YHVH lift up their face toward you and grant you shalom! (Numbers 6:24-26)^[1] A/K/A the Priestly blessing. ]

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the sixth month of the second session of the 94th US House of Representatives, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 122 part 14 (8 June 1976), page 16859. English translations for the Hebrew text in the Congressional Record being absent, we have added it here in [brackets]. –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

Congressional Record, vol. 122, part 14 (8 June 1976), p. 16859

Notes

Notes
1	A/K/A the Priestly blessing.

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“Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Chaim Z. Rozwaski on 8 June 1976” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

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)

Chaim Rozwaski

Rabbbi Dr. Chaim Z. Rozwaski (b. 1933), in Zdienciol (Zhetel), Poland, is an Orthodox rabbi in the United States and Germany. Orphaned during the war, he narrowly survived the Holocaust through the aid of the Lipitchanskaya Pushtcha (Partisans active in the Białowieża Forest). He came to Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada in 1948 through a program of the Canadian Jewish Congress. There he received a Jewish education and in 1952 left Winnipeg for the Hebrew Theological College in Chicago where he received semikhah. In 1960, he took his first pulpit at Rabbi of Sons of Abraham Synagogue in Lafayette, Indiana, and continued his studies at Purdue University in West Lafayette. Later he came to Ner Israel near Baltimore where he continued his rabbinic studies. He has taught, Judaica including Jewish Semiotics, at the Presidents University in Illinois, Humboldt University with Dr Peter von Der Osten Sacken, University of Potsdam, Moses Mendelsohn Institute, and The Technischer Universität, in Berlin. He is the author of Jewish meditations on the meaning of death (1994) and Flight from commitment: an explanation of paradoxes in Jewish life (1998).

Aharon N. Varady (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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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

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