Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Alan M. Sokobin on 25 February 1957

Contributor(s):

Alan Sokobin and the Congressional Record of the United States of America

Shared on:

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

Categories:

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

Tags:

85th Congress, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, תחינות teḥinot

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Alan M. Sokobin, Temple Beth El, Laurelton, Long Island, New York
Sponsor: Rep. Hugh Joseph Addonizio (D-NJ)
Date of Prayer: 25 February 1957

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	O Lord our God, through the ages Thy servants have turned unto Thee for moral guidance in times of stress and indecision. As we contemplate our world, O our Father, with its clamor and its conflicts, we seek inspiration from Thee that we might do the good and the right.
	Teach us, O God, to keep ever before our eyes Thy standards of justice and morality.
	While we speak for all that is good, may we never fail ourselves and our fellows by acting basely.
	Remind us that while we hear our own words the peoples of the world watch our actions.
	Aid us, that while we act we should constantly have before us one standard of goodness.
	May this House, in its deliberations, never sacrifice human rights to political expediency.
	May this House so act in justice and righteousness that it may be known as a house of God. Amen.

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the second month of the first session of the 85th US Congress in the House of Representatives, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 103, part 2 (1957), page 2549.

Source(s)

Congressional Record vol. 103, part 2 (25 February 1957), p. 2549

Alan Sokobin

Rabbi Alan Mayor Sokobin (1926-2020), born in Newark, New Jersey, was a Reform movement rabbi in Toledo, Ohio. of Temple-Congregation Shomer Emunim. At the onset of World War II, at age 15, he left home to join the Navy. He saw action in the European Theater and was on a vessel escorting troop ships for the occupation of Japan at war's end. Through the benefits of the GI Bill, he attended Syracuse University, from which he received a bachelor's degree in history. His father's interest in their Jewish faith and tradition inspired him to pursue rabbinic studies at Hebrew Union College. Ordained in 1955 and served as a student assistant in 1953-54 to Rabbi Leon Feuer in Toledo. In 1972, he returned to Toledo to become co-rabbi, with Rabbi Feuer, of the Collingwood Avenue Temple. He attained a doctor of theology degree from Burton College and served on the board of HUC-JIR. In Toledo he became chairman of the Labor Management Citizens Committee. After his retirement from Shomer Emunim in 1992, he went to law school at the University of Toledo, graduating in 1996. He became a lecturer at the university and spoke on Jewish law and took part in panels on the legal and moral aspects of end-of-life decisions. In retirement as well, he served as the executive director of the Medical Mission Hall of Fame Foundation at UT. In 1999, he received the Rabbi Morton Goldberg Community Service Award, named for the late charter member of L-M-C, which was formed decades earlier to bring labor peace to Toledo. Rabbi Sokobin and former Mayor Harry Kessler led a study committee on improving Toledo Municipal Court, and the the rabbi was on a Toledo Hospital ethics panel.

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=54458

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 Alan Sokobin 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=54458>.
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 Alan M. Sokobin on 25 February 1957

Source(s)

Read a comment / Leave a comment (moderated)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply