Colorado Senate Ends Session With Rabbinical Blessing

Invoking a Psalm to compare public service with everlasting righteousness, Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Yossi Serebryanski began the last day of the Colorado General Assembly with a “prayer of gratitude,” thanking the Almighty for granting legislators the opportunity to represent their constituents and craft laws in the hope of a better future.

It was Serebryanski’s third time serving as chaplain to the Colorado Senate this session, which ended on May 9. And the director of Chabad of South Denver/University of Denver hopes that there will be more opportunities in the coming session to inspire his state’s lawmakers.

“Judaism has much to say about the virtues of public service,” said the rabbi, whose pre-Passover prayer also included an offer of the unleavened bread known as matzah to anyone who wanted. “And it recognizes the need to create and maintain a lawful society as a Divine precept.”

In his prayer this month, Serebryanski sought supernal blessings for those who would be returning to private life, if only temporarily.

“Each senator gathered here had a choice between increasing the ‘wealth and riches of his house’ and public service whose ‘righteousness will endure forever,’ ” he said, quoting Psalms 112:3. “May their sacrifice in leaving home and family for the public good during this term of service stand the in good stead.”