Interestingly enough it looks like he used some portions of the the Shema or Sh'ma too.
"The Scripture tells us, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is One." And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made."
The first half of that paragraph—Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is One—is the Shema, the most important prayer in Judaism. Many Jews recited it on the way to their deaths during the Holocaust.
2 comments:
I was surprised to hear him recite the Our Father. I assumed that the prayer was to be ecumenical although I'm not sure what the protocol is for inaugural prayers.
I think the question is: Does being ecumenical mean losing/hiding your religious identity?
Thanks Erica--
For articulating the question much better than I did.
So now what do people think?
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