Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Jeffrey A. Wohlberg on 29 September 1988

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

Shared on: 26 November 2022 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

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

Tags: 100th Congress, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, prayers for astronauts, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, U.S. Senate, space science, space travel, STS-26, תחינות teḥinot

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Jeffrey A. Wohlberg, Adas Israel Congregation, Washington, DC
Date of Prayer: 29 September 1988
Sponsor:

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	O Lord, we turn to you in prayer. Give us the courage to quarrel— not for petty things but for important ones. Give us the courage to quarrel with the forces in this world that de-humanize society, that profane existence, that separate brother from brother.
	But let our quarreling not be destructive, O God. Let it be out of love, not envy, in order to build up, not to break down.
	Let us quarrel with ignorance; let us quarrel with bigotry; let us quarrel with hopelessness.
	Let us be counted among those who quarrel with pain, who alleviate it by sharing it.
	Let us be among those who are not satisfied with the status quo, who yearn and work for a better world— in outer space and in the inner cities of our land.
	May we bring into this world a bit more truth, a little more justice, a bit more sensitivity than there would have been if we had not loved the world enough to quarrel with it out of a vision of what ought to be.
	May our prayers and our deeds be pleasing to you, O Lord, whose lover’s quarrel with the world to perfect itself is our constant guide and continuing challenge.
	We add our personal and collective prayers, Lord, for our astronauts. May they ascend in peace and return in peace.^[1] This addition to the prayer refers to STS-26, the 26th NASA Space Shuttle mission and the seventh flight of the orbiter Discovery. Amen.

Source(s)

100th Congress, 2nd Session. C-SPAN.
Congressional Record, Vol. 134, Part 18 — Bound Edition, p. 14316.

Congressional Record v. 134, part 18 – 29 September 1988. p. 26512

Notes

Notes
1	This addition to the prayer refers to STS-26, the 26th NASA Space Shuttle mission and the seventh flight of the orbiter Discovery.

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Jeffrey A. Wohlberg on 29 September 1988” 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)

Jeffrey Wohlberg

Jeffrey A. Wohlberg is the retired senior rabbi of Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, DC, and a past president of the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Jewish rabbis.

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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