Rabbi Kenneth Segel, Temple Beth Israel, Phoenix, AZ, Senate prayer, March 15, 1994

"When Rabbis Bless Congress: The Great American Story of Jewish Prayers on Capitol Hill"

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Rabbi Kenneth Segel, Temple Beth Israel, Phoenix, AZ, Senate prayer, March 15, 1994

Rabbi Transcript: Let us pray: Eternal God, we ask Your blessing upon the United States of America and the U.S. Senate. Bless our Senators with vision and idealism, courage, and sensitivity. May they help create a nation worthy of our admiration--a nation reflecting justice and excellence and compassion. May our Senators be challenged to cut through life's superficialities, its conventional insincerities. Out of sheer dreams may they be pointed to pressing purpose. Fill our elected officials with the pride that keeps them from self-limitation. Purge them from the pride which leads to self-exaltation. Spark, O God, their creativity and sense of responsibility. Through their integrity and devotion may they banish pettiness, cynicism, and divisiveness and create harmony and better understanding. Inspire our U.S. Senators to promote a renewal of hope. Hope that will lead us to strive for human relations nourished by mutual concern and care. Hope that will see fear and suspicion yield to confidence and trust. Hope that will witness prejudice yield to tolerance. Hope which is necessary for our self-respect and for the fulfillment of our worthy common aspirations. Amen.