PRESIDENT TRUMP

Rabbi Chanina, the Deputy High Priest, said: “Pray for the welfare of the government, for were it not for respect for it, people would swallow one another alive.”

Eternal G-d: We thank you for this blessed nation that for 240 years has translated into reality the Biblical command to “proclaim liberty throughout the land for all the inhabitants thereof.”

We thank you for our constitutional government that has created and fostered the American ideals of democracy, freedom, justice and equality for all, regardless of race, religion or national origin.

Almighty G-d: We know that we are living in very dangerous times, when all of these blessings are threatened from without, by forces of terror and unimaginable brutality, and from within, by those who sow the seeds of bigotry, hatred and violence, putting our lives and our way of life at risk.

And so we pray, Dear G-d: Help us to form a government which will protect us with sound strategy and steady strength; which will unite us with words of wisdom and acts of compassion; and which will thereby bring peace and harmony, safety and well-being to our beloved America and to all of humankind. And let us all say, Amen.

This is the benediction that Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, spiritual leader of Kehilath Jeshurun, a Modern Orthodox shul on the Upper East Side and rabbi to Ivanka, daughter of President-Elect Trump, wrote for last summer’s Republican National Convention.