Prayer for American Enterprise [at the opening of a Kresge’s department store], by Rabbi Avraham Samuel Soltes (1956)

Contributor(s):

Avraham Samuel Soltes and Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

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25 January 2020 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah

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20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, American Jewry of the United States, dedications and consecrations, New Jersey, capitalism, Post–World War II economic expansion, S.S. Kresge

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	O Heavenly Father, as we behold the abundant display of this splendid merchandise mart, our hearts rise up to thank Thee for the fulness of Thy bounty which burgeons forth from this promised land toward which Thou didst guide our fathers’ steps.
	We thank Thee for this goodly earth, its shimmering wheat and sturdy corn, its snowy cotton and its golden flax; we thank Thee for its hills of iron and its mountains of brass, its mines of coal and its wells of oil; we thank Thee for its roaring rivers that sing with power, and its lapping seas that bring the wide world to our doorstep.
	We thank Thee, too, O Lord, that Thou hast given us men to match our mountains, men whose wisdom has endowed us with the freedom to use Thy blessings men for the greatest good of the greatest number in mankind’s history; whose energy and ingenuity have made them true partners with Thee, O Lord, in the divine process of creation.
	We thank Thee, O Father, for the farmer at his plow and the miner at his drill, for the mechanic at his lathe and the printer at his press, for the shoemaker at his bench and the steelworker at his furnace, for the merchandiser at his desk and the salesgirl at the counter.
	May this great enterprise, whose open shelves and abundant displays symbolize the fruitage of the noble partnership of freemen working together under God, receive Thy blessing, O Lord, that it may move forward in peace and prosperity.
	May those who labour beneath its roof, and those who enter its portals to share in its abundance, be ever mindful of how great is this simple privilege, how rich is the reward of those who serve each other and Thee in honesty and truth in friendship and in peace. Amen.

Rabbi Abraham Soltes’s “Prayer for American Enterprise” was delivered at the opening of the Kresge’s department store in East Orange, New Jersey on October 16, 1956. The prayer was published in his collection of prayers, תפלה Invocation: A Sheaf Of Prayers (1959).

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Prayer for American Enterprise [at the opening of a Kresge’s department store], by Rabbi Avraham Samuel Soltes (1956)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

Avraham Samuel Soltes

Rabbi Avraham Soltes (1917-1983) was a Reform Jewish rabbi, the Jewish chaplain at the United States Military Academy in West Point, an author and a leading figure in Jewish cultural affairs. He was born in New York City. He graduated from the City College of New York in 1937 and received a master's degree from Columbia University in 1938. After being ordained in 1942 by the Jewish Institute of Religion (now HUC-JIR), he served as chaplain at Cornell and McGill Universities and then was assistant rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan from 1946 to 1949. He subsequently served as rabbi at Temple Sharey Tefilo in East Orange and Temple Emanuel in Great Neck. He began his service at West Point as a voluntary chaplain in 1963 and was made a permanent member of the staff in 1981. His interests also took him into commerce, and from 1969 to 1974, he was vice president for community affairs of the Glen Alden Corporation, which in 1972 was merged into the Rapid America Corporation. From 1974 to 1977, he was assistant to the president of Tel Aviv University. He was credited with a key role in the establishment of the New York medical division at the university. In 1981, Rabbi Soltes received the Jabotinsky Award from Prime Minister Menachim Begin for his service to Israel. From 1977 until his death Rabbi Soltes had been the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Chavairuth of Bergen County, in Tenafly, N.J. He participated in many cultural and educational activities that interpreted Jewish art, music and literature. He was chairman of the National Jewish Music Council from 1963 to 1969 and a member of the board of the National Jewish Book Council from 1967 to 1972. Rabbi Soltes, a commentator on Jewish music for American listeners, was the host of a radio program, ''The Music of Israel,'' on WQXR from 1974-1983. Among his writings were Palestine in Poetry and Song of the Jewish Diaspora (Master's thesis HUC-JIR 1942) and Off The Willows: The Rebirth of Modern Jewish Music (1970).

Aharon N. Varady (editing/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