[Prayer] on the Los Angeles Earthquake, by Rabbi Norman M. Goldburg (12 March 1933)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Norman Michael Goldburg

Shared on:

22 June 2023 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies, Earthquakes & Tsunamis

Tags:

Los Angeles, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, California State Legislature, 1933 Long Beach earthquake, 20th century C.E., United States, 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Eternal God, thou Who art gracious and compassionate— Thou Who showest pity to Thy suffering children— we acknowledge that all we have belongs to Thee— all we possess is but a trust which we must soon or late deliver unto Thee.
	Our lives are in Thy keeping— our possessions are Thine also and when Thou demandest what is Thine— shall we say “what doest Thou?”^[1] Cf. Daniel 4:35
	Nay, Heavenly Father, we know Thou art just and righteous altogether— that Thy mercy endureth forever. We know that Thy ways are mysterious— past our human understanding.
	Thou sendest us joys and from Thy hand cometh sorrow as well.
	Thou givest and Thou takest away, for Thou art omnipotent.
	Heavenly Father, now that destruction has overtaken us we pray Thee, in the words of the Prophet— that Thou wilt repeat Thy promise of yore: “Behold I will have compassion on the dwelling places; And the city shall be builded upon her own mound, And the palace shall be inhabited upon its wonted place. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving And the voice of them that make merry.” (1 Jeremiah 30:18)
	Grant consolation to the bereaved, O Father and renew the courage of the destitute. Restore the waste places of the earth and may Thy blessing of peace rest upon all Thy suffering children.

“On the Los Angeles Earthquake” by Rabbi Norman Michael Goldburg, was offered before the California state legislature on 12 March 1933, and published in California Legislature 50th Session 1933: Prayers Offered at the Daily Sessions of the Assembly, pp. 44-45. The earthquake, now known as the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, registered 6.4 on the Richter scale.

Source(s)

Notes[+]

Notes
1	Cf. Daniel 4:35

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“[Prayer] on the Los Angeles Earthquake, by Rabbi Norman M. Goldburg (12 March 1933)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

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.)

Norman Michael Goldburg

Rabbi Norman Michael Goldburg (Feb 22, 1902 - Jun 12, 1993) originally from St. Louis, Missouri, was ordained at HUC and graduated from the University of Cincinnati, afterward doing graduate work at the University of Chicago and Howard Divinity School. He served as rabbi of Temple B'nai Israel in Sacramento, California in the 1930s. There, he was appointed chaplain of the State Legislature during the biennial session of 1933, and led the Sacramento Council for Civic Unity through which he advocated for Japanese Americans’ civil rights. During World War Ⅱ, he served as a chaplain in the US Army. In 1949, he came to Augusta, Georgia where he served as rabbi for the the Walton Way Temple (later Temple Children of Israel) until 1968. Rabbi Goldburg also served as president of Augusta Library and taught philosophy at Augusta College. He held honorary degrees from HUC and Augusta (Georgia) College of Law. Besides his collection of prayers written during his tenure as chaplain in Sacramento, he also wrote the novel, Patrick J. McGilllcuddy and the Rabbi (1969).

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=51766

Associated Image:

March 16, 1933: Victims of the March 10, 1933, Long Beach earthquake find temporary shelter in a tent. (Los Angeles Times)

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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