Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff on 28 April 2003

Contributor(s):

the Congressional Record of the United States of America and Arnold E. Resnicoff

Shared on:

23 November 2018 under the Public Domain (17 U.S. Code §105 - Subject matter of copyright: United States Government works)

Categories:

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

Tags:

108th Congress, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, U.S. Senate, תחינות teḥinot

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff, Retired Chaplain, U.S. Navy, Washington, DC
Date of Prayer: 04/28/2003

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Let us pray.
	Oh God, who made the world and said it was good, we pray our faith– and faiths– can help us see that good, despite the bad that sometimes blocks our way.
	Oh God, who said, “Let there be light,” we pray our faiths–in different ways, with different prayers and customs, but with shared hopes and dreams of better times– can help us see that light, despite the darkness that sometimes obscures our view.
	Almighty God, I remember twenty years ago, in a foxhole in Beirut: I looked around at the others in the bunker, and had a simple thought. “We Americans,” I said, “must have the only ‘interfaith foxholes’ in the whole Mid-East.” And then I thought, that if more foxholes had room for those of different faiths, perhaps we would need less room for foxholes– and have more room for faith.
	And so, we pray that we be touched and inspired by the dreams of faiths that make our Nation rich; and that we work with all who share the dream of freedom– and freedom’s holy light. Let us see the danger is not that sometimes faiths see God– see You– in different ways, but that there are those in every faith who see themselves as gods. Let us keep faith, but let faith keep us humble, so that we know our limits, even as we learn our strength. Then the time will come when even interfaith foxholes will no longer be required and we learn war no more.^[1] Cf. Isaiah 2:4, Micah 4:3
אָמֵן׃	And may we say, amen.

Source(s)

108th Congress, 1st Session. Congressional Record, Issue: Vol. 149, No. 61 — Daily Edition (April 28, 2003)

https://www.congress.gov/crec/2003/04/28/CREC-2003-04-28-pt1-PgS5401-2.pdf

Notes

Notes
1	Cf. Isaiah 2:4, Micah 4:3

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)

Arnold E. Resnicoff

Arnold E. Resnicoff (born 1946) is a Conservative rabbi who began his career serving as a military officer and then as a military chaplain. He served in Vietnam and Europe before attending rabbinical school after which he was a U.S. Navy Chaplain for almost 25 years. After the Vietnam War, he promoted the creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and delivered the closing prayer at its 1982 dedication. Rabbi Resnicoff was present at the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing and the following year, President Ronald Reagan shared Rabbi Resnicoff's eyewitness account. After retiring from the military he became the National Director of Interreligious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee and served as Special Assistant (for Values and Vision) to the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, serving at the equivalent military rank of Brigadier General. Resnicoff holds several degrees, including an honorary doctorate. His awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Department of the Air Force Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service, and the Chapel of Four Chaplains Hall of Heroes Gold Medallion.

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=22722

Associated Image:

Flag of the United States Senate

(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 the Congressional Record of the United States of America and Arnold E. Resnicoff.
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=22722>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the Public Domain (17 U.S. Code §105 - Subject matter of copyright: United States Government works). (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. Senate: Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff on 28 April 2003

Source(s)

Read a comment / Leave a comment (moderated)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply