[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 42 (Tuesday, April 12, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S3441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The guest Chaplain offered the following prayer:
  Our G-d and G-d of our ancestors, who shall stand in G-d's holy 
place? The Psalmist answers, ``One who has clean hands and a pure heart 
who has not used G-d's name in false oaths.'' Almighty Legislator of 
our lives, our hopes, our dreams, as legislators, one may sometimes 
despair and say, ``Who can stand in G-d's place?'' After all, we are 
human, limited. What a vast distance between us and the Creator of the 
laws of the universe.
  And yet, the Psalmist gives us hope. If you want our law to reflect 
ultimate law, ``Start,'' says the Psalmist, ``with clean hands and a 
pure heart.'' No worthy law has ever emanated from this place that was 
not first and foremost ethical.
  And then the Psalmist asks us to remember our vow, a vow given to the 
Ultimate Legislator and to the American people, to hold fast to our vow 
no matter how great the pressure.
  On this Tuesday in April 2005, may there be a sense of spring and 
renewal. Let us bridge the distance between the law of the human beings 
and the law of the Creator of the universe.
  Rabbi Akivah taught, ``The greatest of G-d's law is, `Love thy 
neighbor as thyself.' (Leviticus 19:18).'' May this Senate, may this 
Congress, may this people come ever closer through our laws to the 
ultimate law of love. May you be blessed in your work, and may that 
work make you, and through you, all of America, a home that reflects
G-d's love on this Earth, and let us all say, Amen.

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