Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Amy Rader on 14 September 2006

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=27946

Date: 2019-11-05

Last Updated: 2025-04-11

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

Tags: 109th Congress, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, U.S. House of Representatives, תחינות teḥinot

Excerpt: The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 14 September 2006. . . .

Content:

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Amy Rader, B’nai Torah Congregation, Boca Raton, Florida
Sponsor: Rep. Eugene Clay Shaw Jr. (R-FL)
Date of Prayer: 2006-09-14

Mr. SHAW. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased and I am most honored today to welcome Rabbi Amy Rader and her family here to Washington, DC.

Rabbi Rader is an excellent leader and role model for the Jewish community, and for people of all beliefs. I proudly nominated her to share her faith and offer her prayers for our country on the House floor this morning, and I thank her for coming.

After having studied in both Jerusalem and Los Angeles, Rabbi Rader was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City in 1999. Rabbi Rader also served as the rabbi for the Lakeland Hills Jewish Center in New Jersey, and was the first Jewish chaplain at Methodist Hospital in her hometown of Minneapolis.

Rabbi Rader is now an associate rabbi at B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, where she directs their mitsvah program. In her 4 years in the Boca Raton community, Rabbi Rader has earned a reputation as a compassionate pastoral counselor as well as an inspiring teacher and lecturer. I am honored to have her here with us today.

[Rabbi Rader was also honored with a tribute by Rep. Robert Ira Wexler (D-FL).]

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Opening Prayer Given by the Guest Chaplain:
	When the theologian of my tradition, Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel, marched in Selma, Alabama, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rabbi Heschel said: “My feet were praying.”[1] Rabbi Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel on March 21, 1965 after returning from participating in the Selma-to-Montgomery March: “For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.”
	Esteemed men and women in this Chamber, I ask for God’s help to move our prayers from our lips to our feet. Our world is in desperate need of action, change, and presence. As the leaders of this sacred democracy, your feet in any one place can make the difference between life and death.
	May it be God’s will that your feet lead our country on the path of compassion and justice. May your feet walk steadily to draw the estranged closer and the vulnerable into protection. May your feet stand firmly and united as the agents of freedom, equality, progress, and hope.
	Master of the universe, inspire our deeds to be their own prayers. May our work join with God’s spirit to bring about a better day for all creation. Amen.

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Source(s)

109th Congress, 2nd Session
Issue: Vol. 152, No. 114 — Daily Edition (September 14, 2006)

link: https://chaplain.house.gov/archive/index.html?id=702

Notes

Notes

1	Rabbi Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel on March 21, 1965 after returning from participating in the Selma-to-Montgomery March: “For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.”

Contributor: the Congressional Record of the United States of America

Co-authors:

• 
  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: Amy Rader
  Bio: Rabbi Amy Rader is executive director of the Neshamah Institue. Rabbi Rader was ordained by The Jewish Theological Seminary as a conservative rabbi and served as rabbi at B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, Florida for 11 years. In January 2011, she founded The Neshamah Institute, an independent Jewish community without walls. The Neshamah Institute’s mission is to reach out to unaffiliated Jews in South Palm Beach County and offer a fresh, personal and meaningful way to bring Judaism into their lives. Rabbi Rader is grateful to the team of musicians, teachers and volunteers who have been her partners in cultivating Neshamah into a thriving, authentic, relevant, spiritual Jewish community. Now entering our 10th year, Neshamah is a congregation of over 950 families with 250 students in our school and over 50 bnai mitzvah a year. Rabbi Rader feels blessed to be able to teach and share Jewish life with the open-minded, adventurous Jewish families in South Florida. In 2004, Rabbi Rader was awarded the Rabbi Simon Greenberg prize for Rabbinic Leadership by The Jewish Theological Seminary and has been recognized as an outstanding young leader in the South Florida Jewish community.
  Website: https://niboca.org/rabbi-rader/
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/amy-rader

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