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Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Israel Poleyeff, Brooklyn, New York
Sponsor: Senator Alfonse D’Amato (D-NY)
Date of Prayer: 5 April 1995
Sponsor: Senator Alfonse D’Amato (D-NY)
Date of Prayer: 5 April 1995
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| Contribute a translation | Source (English) |
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Almighty God: We ask Thy blessings upon the distinguished Members of this Senate of the United States of America. Give them insight to understand the concerns and problems of all the people of this blessed land; bless them with wisdom to enact laws that will benefit all its inhabitants, and imbue them with courage to make difficult decisions for the public good. | |
For more than a century, millions of immigrants, my father’s family amongst them,[1] The family of Moshe Aharon Poleyeff (1888 – 1966) a rabbi and Rosh Yeshivah at Yeshiva University in New York for over 45 years, a teacher of many prominent Orthodox rabbis. came to these shores seeking freedom from tyranny and oppression. | |
To this very day our beloved country still serves as a beacon of light to those to whom freedom is but an elusive ideal. | |
To this very day our country still stands as a shining example of individual liberty and limitless opportunity. | |
More than two centuries ago, our Founding Fathers created a nation in which every individual had the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.[2] Cf. the US Declaration of Independence, stylized by Benjamin Franklin and penned by Thomas Jefferson, famously signed 4 July 1776. Scholars differ as to whether the historical origin of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are rooted in Lockean Rights (following after the “Virginia Declaration of Rights” written by George Mason and adopted 12 June 1776) or possibly in Jefferson’s self-proclaimed Epicureanism. –Aharon Varady. | |
The Members of this Senate have the awesome responsibility of seeing that those goals remain the hallmark of our Nation. | |
We beseech Thee, O Lord, imbue them with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge to hold aloft the banner of freedom and the torch of liberty, so that all the inhabitants of this country shall be privileged to live, work, and worship their God as they choose and without fear. | |
May our country be the leader among nations in ushering in an era of universal peace and harmony so that the words of the prophet may be fulfilled in our time, when “they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4) May this by Thy will. Amen. |
This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the fourth month of the first session of the 104th US Congress in the Senate, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 141, no. 63 (Senate – April 5, 1995), page s5161.
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Source(s)
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| 1 | The family of Moshe Aharon Poleyeff (1888 – 1966) a rabbi and Rosh Yeshivah at Yeshiva University in New York for over 45 years, a teacher of many prominent Orthodox rabbis. |
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| 2 | Cf. the US Declaration of Independence, stylized by Benjamin Franklin and penned by Thomas Jefferson, famously signed 4 July 1776. Scholars differ as to whether the historical origin of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are rooted in Lockean Rights (following after the “Virginia Declaration of Rights” written by George Mason and adopted 12 June 1776) or possibly in Jefferson’s self-proclaimed Epicureanism. –Aharon Varady. |
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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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