Rabbi Isaac Jeret's Invocation at the
LA County Board of Supervisors Meeting August 14, 2007

Dear Friends:
 
God, Creator of all difference that comprises Your own image, Champion of life as an ideal and an objective among humanity, we call to You this day. We pray that You bless our country and its citizens, our state and its citizens, and our county and its citizens.

Indeed, You have blessed us to live in the age and under the sovereignty of The United States of America, humanity's greatest achievement in our endeavor to free ourselves from oppression and to release the Divine spirit within us all from the persecution of tyranny and the shackles of subjugation. God, we ask that you inspire within this body and within each and every body convened to conduct the affairs of this great nation a profound gratitude for this great blessing that we share.

Today we pray that You might grant us continued blessings of curiosity and creativity, and endow us with the virtues of compassion and humility, so that we may come to know and understand the diversity that You have created among us, so that we may strive always to appreciate one another for the uniqueness we each represent, and so that we may join together in common cause to address the problems of our day, be they local or far from our shores.

Oh God, bless our leaders and representatives, and all of those whom they lead and represent, wisdom and discernment to distinguish between freedom’s blessing as the means to great ends and its potentially devastating consequences when miscast as an end unto itself. Strengthen our leaders and representatives with a firm conviction and a clarity of purpose so that they might always serve to honor the dignity and show proper respect for the dire necessity of those who seek refuge within Liberty's embrace, as so many of us and our forbears have done so, while at the same time resisting and steadfastly declining entry to those who seek cynically to utilize the privileges of this great land to destroy Liberty itself.

Bless our troops with courage; Keep them safe and shield them from harm during wartime and bring them blessings of goodness and peace beyond it. For, they are guardians of our home-front, protecting our homes and our families at great personal sacrifice from afar, so that we might live our lives on a land beyond terror's treacherous reach. Deliver victory unto them with minimal cost, for their cause is just, and You, God, love justice and champion those who seek it beside you.

Bless all of us this day. Bless this great nation, always. Bless Your world with a true and lasting peace. Amen.