Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Wolf Gunther Plaut on 6 December 1950

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Wolf Gunther Plaut and the Congressional Record of the United States of America

Shared on:

18 June 2026 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

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

Tags:

81st Congress, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Cold War (1947–1953), English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, תחינות teḥinot, United States in the Korean War

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Gunther Plaut, Mount Zion Temple, St. Paul, Minnesota
Sponsor: n/a
Date of Prayer: 6 December 1950

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Our God and God of our fathers, in the midst of darkening skies and on the eve of a bitter anniversary of our people, we scan the horizon for signs of confidence. Of needs, our thoughts turn to Thee who alone canst provide us with sustenance for our hope-starved souls.
	In a world which in the agony of its wounds and fears looks either to cynical nihilism or cheap panaceas, we thank Thee for men and women who can preserve their sense of history and proportion, who can still see man in the maze of mass, and will continue to champion his cause as a person of dignity and worth.
	We pray in this hour for our valiant sons and daughters who bear our burden in far-away places. May our dedication match their devotion.
	We pray that Thy support and insight may guide the men and women of this Congress. Give them the confidence to know that where they will lead with courage the people will follow in trust. Make them ever aware of the fact that sacrifice for freedom is not sacrifice, but service willingly offered— service for our country and service also to the divine goal of humanity, living in liberty.
	Thus we ask Thy blessing upon their deliberations and their work. With freedom as their guidepost, may they, with Thee as their fortress, serve our country and thus the hopes of man. Amen.

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the twelfth month of the second session of the 81st US House of Representatives, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 96 part 12 (6 December 1950), p. 16206.

Source(s)

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.)

Wolf Gunther Plaut

Wolf Gunther Plaut (1 November 1912 – 8 February 2012), born in Münster, Germany, was an American Reform rabbi and scholar based in Canada. Rabbi Plaut served Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto until 1978. His popular Torah commentary is widely established in the Reform movement.

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)

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=67793

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.)

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

Properly attribute the work to Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Wolf Gunther Plaut 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=67793>.
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 volunteer contributors, or its 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-commercial, 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.

ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "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)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Wolf Gunther Plaut on 6 December 1950

Source(s)

Read a comment / Leave a comment (moderated)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply