[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8336]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Today we welcome back Rabbi Moshe Feller, 
director at Upper Midwest Merkos-Lubavitch House in St. Paul, MN, who 
will lead the Senate in prayer.
  The guest Rabbi offered the following prayer:
  By the grace of God, Almighty God, I invoke Your blessing today on 
this august body, the U.S. Senate. In their divinely inspired wisdom, 
the Founding Fathers of our blessed country, the United States of 
America, established a policy of separation of church and state. 
However, it was never their intention to separate our country from You, 
sovereign ruler of all mankind. Hence, both legislative bodies of our 
blessed country begin their sessions invoking Your divine presence and 
guidance in their legislation. Hence, in our Pledge of Allegiance we 
declare ``one Nation under God,'' on our currency is printed ``In God 
We Trust,'' and on the walls of this very Senate hall in which we 
invoke Your blessing is engraved in bold letters ``In God We Trust.''
  Grant, Almighty God, that the Senators realize that in legislating 
just laws they are fulfilling one of the seven commandments which You 
issued to Noah and his family after the great flood as related in the 
book of Genesis and its sacred commentaries--the command that every 
society govern by just laws.
  Almighty God, I beseech You today to bless the Senate in the merit of 
one of the spiritual giants of our time and our Nation, the Lubavitcher 
Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of saintly blessed memory, who 
passed away 19 years ago today. The Rebbe labored with great love, 
dedication, and self-sacrifice to make all mankind aware of Your sacred 
presence.
  May his memory be for a blessing and his merit be for a shield for 
our government and our Nation, which he always referred to as ``a 
nation of kindness.'' Amen.

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