[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 172 (Wednesday, December 12, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H9241]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page H9241]]

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                        House of Representatives

  The House met at 10 a.m.
  The Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein, Central Synagogue, New York, New York, 
offered the following prayer:
  Dear friends, we gather during this festival of Hanukkah when Jews 
celebrate the blessing of light and rededication and renewal. Long ago, 
those enemies who would have destroyed us profaned our sacred alters. 
They wished to rid the world of the fundamental teachings of our faith: 
that peace is founded upon justice, that all human beings are God's 
creation deserving of ultimate decency and goodness, and that the 
loveliness of light will always, in the end, obliterate the suffocating 
specter of darkness.
  So, again, as we battle for the vision of light and peace, we ask 
You, O God, to bless us today in our gathering. Send healing to the 
sick, comfort to all who are in pain, and tender love to the sorrowing 
hearts among us. Deepen our love for our country and our desire to 
serve it. Let Your blessing rest upon us so that our Nation may forever 
be to the world an example of justice and compassion. As well, may all 
that we do be a blessing and in Your service, O God and let us say, 
Amen.

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