Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Gershon B. Chertoff on 25 March 1963

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription), Gershon B. Chertoff and the Congressional Record of the United States of America

Shared on:

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

Categories:

Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies, United States of America

Tags:

U.S. Senate, 88th Congress, Cold War (1962–1979), 20th century C.E., תחינות teḥinot, 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Prayers of Guest Chaplains

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Gershon B. Chertoff, of the Temple B’nai Israel, of Elizabeth, New Jersey
Sponsor: n/a
Date of Prayer: 25 March 1963

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Sovereign of the universe, whose law is perfect: Do Thou instruct out of Thy law the Members of the Senate of these United States, that they might exercise just and rightful authority.
	Confer upon them the wisdom and understanding to convert righteousness into law, and justice into statute.
	Remove from them a sense of guilt in the employment of power, by alerting them to the ethic of power.
	Uphold them in their conviction that the complexities of international relations admit of no easy solutions: so that they shall pursue peace, not despair, and seek security with quiet confidence.
	The days proclaimed by Daniel are at hand: “There shall be a time of trouble such as never has been since there was a nation.” (Daniel 12:1 part) Do Thou, O God, confirm Daniel’s hope and trust in Thee that: “Every one of your people shall be delivered.” (Daniel 12:1 part)
	May God bless you with every good, and keep you from all evil.
	May He enlighten your heart with lifegiving prudence, and favor you with enduring insights.
	May He befriend and prosper you with peace, now and forever.
	Amen.

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the third month of the first session of the 88th US Congress in the Senate, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 109, part 4 (1963), page 4775.

Source(s)

Congressional Record, vol. 109, part 4 (25 March 1963), p. 4775

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“Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Gershon B. Chertoff on 25 March 1963” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

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.)

Gershon B. Chertoff

Rabbi Gershon Baruch Chertoff (1915-1996) was a Conservative movement rabbi in the United States. He was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary and received a doctoral degree in philosophy and anthropology from Columbia University. During World War II, he served as an Army chaplain. In 1946, he came to Temple B’nai Israel (Elizabeth, New Jersey). After urban rioting erupted across the United States in the late 1960s, Rabbi Chertoff was named by President Lyndon Johnson to chair an advisory panel studying housing discrimination in New Jersey. Coming in the aftermath of the 1967 Newark riots, hearings by the New Jersey Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission received widespread attention and Chertoff continued in the position for many years. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was named by the state Supreme Court as a non-attorney member of the Disciplinary Review Board, which hears appeals to attorney disciplinary actions.

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)

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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 Gershon B. Chertoff on 19 April 1967

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Theodore Lewis on 18 February 1963

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Karl Applbaum on 29 April 1963

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Harry Nelson on 23 May 1963

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Seth Frisch on 19 March 1991

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein on 20 March 1991

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Dr. Julius Mark on 29 March 1960

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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