Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Norman Gerstenfeld on 29 April 1946

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=55678

Date: 2024-04-28

Last Updated: 2025-02-02

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

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., 79th Congress, English vernacular prayer, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, the Holocaust, U.S. Senate, World War Ⅱ, תחינות teḥinot

Excerpt: The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 29 April 1946. . . .

Content:

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Norman Gerstenfeld, Washington Hebrew Congregation, Washington, D.C.
Sponsor: n/a
Date of Prayer: 29 April 1946

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	O Heavenly Father, we meet this hour in a world trembling on the edge of chaos, a world moving rapidly downward into the anarchy of a ghastly morrow that will sweep like a tidal wave out of the impenitent evil of the Old World to engulf our own homes and burden the future of this blessed land with new tragedy and tyranny to curse the generations to come.
	Open Thou our eyes so that we can see the duty that rests upon us in this hour.
	Clear Thou from our hearts the self-righteousness that would blind us to our own failings.
	Make us to understand that we, too, by our own default, were responsible for the weakening of the peace that permitted the bloody holocaust of evil to capture the high places of mankind.
	Guide us in this hour so that we do not fail the hope of the morrow for which the bleeding torso of a crucified humanity now prays.
	Strengthen Thou our souls so that we will now arise to our full duty, as the chosen instruments of high purpose of a free people, so that we will help save our land from the backwash of chaos that will now come if we do not press forward to bring the fruits of victory to the foot of an altar of a new covenant of justice and peace; for Thine must now be the kingdom, the power, and the glory.[1] A somewhat surprising reference to Matthew 6:13 by Rabbi Gerstenfeld, possibly as an ecumenical gesture to the largely Christian audience of Senators familiar with the common variation of the “Lord’s Prayer” containing that verse.  Amen.

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This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the fourth month of the second session of the 79th US Congress in the Senate, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 92, part 4 (29 April 1946), page 12617.

Source(s)

Congressional Record, vol. 92, part 4 (29 April 1946), p. 4173

 

Notes

Notes

1	A somewhat surprising reference to Matthew 6:13 by Rabbi Gerstenfeld, possibly as an ecumenical gesture to the largely Christian audience of Senators familiar with the common variation of the “Lord’s Prayer” containing that verse.

Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Co-authors:

• 
  Name: Norman Gerstenfeld
  Bio: Norman Gerstenfeld (1904-1968), born in London, was a prominent Reform rabbi in the United States. He was ordained by the Hebrew Union College (HUC) in Cincinnati and also held a degree from American University in Washington, D.C. From 1935, he was a Fellow in Jewish Philosophy at the HUC. He became an assistant rabbi at Washington Hebrew Congregation in 1935, a synagogue that had been in disarray and decline for several decades. Three years later he became senior rabbi of the congregation.
  Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Gerstenfeld
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/norman-gerstenfeld
• 
  Name: the Congressional Record of the United States of America
  Bio: 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)
  Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Record
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/united-states-congressional-record
• 
  Name: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
  Bio: 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.)
  Website: https://aharon.varady.net
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/aharon-varady-transcription

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Title: Flag_of_the_United_States_Senate.svg
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