Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Leon M. Adler on 10 July 1963
Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=56975
open_content_license: Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication Date: 2024-06-19
Last Updated: 2025-03-29
Categories: 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies
Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., 88th Congress, Cold War (1962–1979), English vernacular prayer, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, U.S. Senate, תחינות teḥinot
Excerpt: The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 10 July 1963. . . .
Content:
Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Leon M. Adler, of Temple Emanuel, Kensington, Maryland
Sponsor: n/a
Date of Prayer: 10 July 1963
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Source (English) |
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Lord of the universe
and of all Thy creatures on it:
As the Senate opens its session
on this early summer day,
give its Members the grace to see
that not their will,
not even the people’s will,
but Thy will is sovereign.
And if Thou grantest us the conviction
that Thy will reigns supreme,
grant us also, we pray Thee,
the ability to determine Thy will rightly
and to translate it effectively
in the tangled skein of world affairs.
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Two things we know we need
if we are to succeed in this endeavor, O God.
We need the head to know
that the heart is not enough—
that though 3 billion human beings
on the face of this now small earth
desire with all their hearts to live in peace,
the awesome and final fireworks
of the nuclear holocaust
will be unleashed
unless the head instructs the heart
to supply the wisdom needed
to keep the peace.
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And equally do we need, O Lord,
the heart to know that the head is not enough—
that though 3 billion human beings know
to the very core of their cognitive selves
that nuclear warfare is suicidal madness,
this madness will transpire
some early summer or another day
unless the heart moves the head
to the boundary-crossing wisdom of compassion
which sees the 3 billion,
not as “we” and “they,”
but as an indissoluble and indivisible “us”
sojourning in Thy kingdom.
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Head and heart,
may we be granted them,
that Thou may lift up Thy countenance upon us
and grant us peace.
Amen.
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This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the seventh month of the first session of the 88th US Senate, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 109 part 9 (10 July 1963), page 12341.
Source(s)
Congressional Record, vol. 109, part 9 (10 July 1963), p. 12341
Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
Co-authors:
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Name: Leon M. Adler
Bio: Rabbi Leon M. Adler (1921-1988), born in New York, was a Reform movement rabbi and D.C. area community leader in the United States. He graduated cum laude from City College of New York in 1941 and in 1945 was ordained at the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City. He was an Army chaplain in the Far East and Austria from 1945 to 1948. After serving as an Army chaplain in China, Japan and Korea, he was assigned to Austria from 1947 to 1948. Adler worked with Jewish displaced persons there and occasionally accompanied Jewish refugees seeking to immigrate illegally to Italy. Afterward, he was an assistant to the Israeli consul general in New York City and worked in Israel for that country's trade and industry ministry. He then spent three years as rabbi of a temple on Long Island before coming to Temple Emanuel (Kensington, Maryland) in 1953. In 1956 and 1957, he chaired the United Jewish Appeal campaigns in Montgomery County. Between 1959 and 1973, he taught courses in Judaic studies at Howard University. He served on groups advising the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and the Montgomery County public schools, and on the board of a Montgomery County fair housing organization. He also was a member of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington's community relations committee. Rabbi Adler served as vice president of the Washington Board of Rabbis and in the early 1970s, was Washington representative of the Synagogue Council of America. He had been a member of the executive board of the United Jewish Appeal of Greater Washington, where he also chaired committees dealing with planning and Jewish education. He was a member of the national council of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and of the board of directors of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. He also served on the executive and program committees of the World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.
Website:
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/leon-adler
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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
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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
Featured Image:
Title: Flag_of_the_United_States_Senate.svg
Caption: Flag of the United States Senate
