Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Jack M. Rosoff on 18 February 1969

Contributor(s):

Jack M. Rosoff and the Congressional Record of the United States of America

Shared on:

17 February 2024 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies, Social Justice, Peace, and Liberty, United States of America

Tags:

U.S. House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, 91st Congress, 20th century C.E., תחינות teḥinot, 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Jack M. Rosoff, Congregation B’nai Israel of Greater Red Bank, Rumson, New Jersey
Date of Prayer: 18 February 1969
Sponsor: n/a

TOGGLE COLUMNS (on/off):

ADJUST COLUMN POSITIONS: select the column header cell and drag it where you want. show me!

COPY INDIVIDUAL COLUMN(S): use CopyTables, a browser extension.

TABLE HELP

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	O Lord, Thou God of justice, who art sanctified through righteousness, make Thy presence manifest in the world, arise in Thy majesty, O our King, and let the haughty be cast low because of Thy justice.
עד מתי רשעים ה׳ עד מתי רשעים יעלזו (תהלים צד:ג)	How long, O God, shall the wicked exult? How long shall evil doers prosper? (Psalms 94:3) They bluster insolently; they lord it arrogantly; they flout Thy will; they torment those who fall into their clutches; they oppress without mercy the weak and the defenseless; they sit in hiding, conspiring in secret; they plan to betray the innocent; they snatch the helpless and despairing into their net; they say: “God will not see, He has hidden His face.”^[1] Cf. Psalms 10:2-11.
ה׳ הננו	O Lord, here we are,^[2] Likely, a liturgical reference to Numbers 14:40, echoed in Jeremiah 3:22 and Ezra 9:15. use us.
	Inspire us, O Lord, to scatter Thine enemies. Inspire us to defeat bigotry, oppression, and injustice. As smoke is driven away, so let them be driven back. As wax melts before fire, so let them melt before the flame of human love, concern, and determination of Thy servants. Give us courage to champion the right, though many and powerful be its foes. Grant us wisdom to work diligently to combat wrong and evil.
	The vision of the messianic era makes us joyful, it portends the triumph of Thy love when men shall banish all hatred from their hearts and all weapons from their hands, and unite in establishing Thy kingdom of peace and justice on earth.
והיה באחרית הימים . . . וכתתו חרבותם לאתים וחניחותיהם למזמרות. לא ישא גוי אל גוי חרב ולא ילמדו עוד מלחמה. (ישעיה ב:ב-ד)	And it shall come to pass in the end of days. . . they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:2-4)
	For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9)^[3] Cf. Habakkuk 2:14 Amen.

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the second month of the first session of the 91st US Congress. The source images of the prayer were copied by Howard Mortman and shared via his @CongressRabbi Twitter account. All credit to Howard Mortman for his research in digging up this prayer. Unfortunately, neither the source images nor his tweets provide an exact citation reference to the volume, issue, and page number of the Congressional Record in which the prayer was published. If you know, leave a comment, or contact us.

Source(s)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain (Jack Rosoff, 18 February 1969)

Notes[+]

Notes
1	Cf. Psalms 10:2-11.
2	Likely, a liturgical reference to Numbers 14:40, echoed in Jeremiah 3:22 and Ezra 9:15.
3	Cf. Habakkuk 2:14

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Jack M. Rosoff on 18 February 1969” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

Jack M. Rosoff

Rabbi Jack M. Rosoff is rabbi emeritus at Congregation B’nai Israel, (Rumson Jewish Center, New Jersey) serving as rabbi for 34 years, from 1964 to 1998. He came to Congregation B’nai Israel after serving as a Jewish chaplain at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. A graduate of Harvard College, Hebrew Teachers’ College, Hebrew University, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, he also has a masters degree in clinical and counseling psychology from Columbia University and an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from the Jewish Theological Seminary.

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)

Pocket Pinterest Reddit 𝕏 Facebook Telegram WhatsApp SMS Email

Works of related interest:

Flag of the United States House of Representatives

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi J. Harold Romirowsky on 13 March 1969

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz on 23 April 1969

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Howard A. Simon on 26 May 1969

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Robert S. Widom on 17 February 1970

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Karl Applbaum on 26 February 1970

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Harry J. Kaufman on 13 February 1951

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Eli B. Greenwald on 19 February 1962

prev next

Comments, Corrections, and QueriesCancel reply

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=54277

Associated Image:

Flag of the United States House of Representatives

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)

Source Data: XML | JSON

Re-formatted: HTML | ODT

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute the work to Jack M. Rosoff and the Congressional Record of the United States of America.
Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=54277>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of contributors, patrons, or institutional partners.
We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture. If you like what you've found here, please help keep our project alive and online with your financial contribution.

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