A NEW JEWISH HOLIDAY
David A. Holzworth
Dvar Torah, Matot-Massei
July 6, 2013
I predict that a new Jewish Holiday
will be celebrated on 15 Tamuz, perhaps within the next 300 years. This
holiday will be a feast day, not a day of fasting like 17 Tamuz, the day
Nebuchadnezzar breached the Temple Wall.
It will be a joyful day, not a sad day like Tisha B’Av, the day that
five misfortunes befell our people: (1) Moses and his generation was not allowed
to enter the Promised Land; (2) &; (3) destruction of the first and second
temples; (4) Bethar was captured; and (5) Jerusalem was ploughed up. No sadness; no regrets; no looking back. The new holiday will celebrate the day when
the Israelite people were first welcomed as strangers in a strange new world
that accepted and adopted their gift of the Torah. It will be a day of renewal and forward-looking
commitment to build a continuing future.
When was that? When will that ever be? And why celebrate on 15th
Tamuz?
To figure it out, let’s play Facebook Jeopardy. This will test your Torah literacy in
terms of American history. This is not dangerous. Try it at home. Ten questions in two categories. Talks like Moses. Walks like Moses, and Final Jeopardy -- Most like Moses. I will give you a name. You Like or Don't Like, but you may be asked to tell us why or why not in the form of question.
1.
William Brewster/William Bradford
2.
Asser Levy
3.
Joseph Beuno de Mesquita
4.
Gershom Mendez Seixas
5. Moses Seixas
5. Moses Seixas
6.
John Witherspoon
7. Joseph Smith/Brigham Young
8. Frederick Douglas
7. Joseph Smith/Brigham Young
8. Frederick Douglas
9. Martin Luther King
10. The
Statue of Liberty/ Kal-el
I am referring, of course, to Superman. His creators, two clever Jewish boys named
Siegel and Shuster, turned Nietzsche’s amoral Ubermensch into the ultimate
civic minded patriot. Some religious
commentators and pop-culture scholars such as Rabbi Simcha Weinstein and
British novelist Howard Jacobson argue persuasively that Superman was inspired
by the Moses story. For example,
Superman's Kryptonian name, "Kal-El", resembles the Hebrew word for
"voice of God.” If any
further proof were necessary, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels
denounced Superman "Superman ist ein Jude!" ("Superman is a
Jew!") and summarily banned Siegel and Shuster's popular comic from the
newsstands, according to Berlin's Jewish Museum 2010 exhibition "Heroes, Freaks and Superrabbis - the
Jewish Color of Comics."
http://www.dw.de/berlin-exhibition-traces-supermans-cultural-roots/a-5546515-1
Part of the answer is encrypted,
perhaps entombed, on the Almighty Dollar: What’s going on with that radiant
floating eye over the unfinished pyramid on the back of the one dollar
bill? What’s it got to do with the 13
tribes of Israel? Is it an embedded chip
used by the National Security Agency to track the metadata of your Tzedakah
transactions?
Do not reach for your wallet, or at
least wait until sunset. You will find
engraved the Great Seal of the United States.
That floating eye is the Eye of Providence. The unfinished pyramid has 13 steps. On the pyramid base, you will see engraved
Roman numerals MDCCLXXVI (1776), the year when 56 of our founding fathers, on
behalf of 13 states, declared independence from Great Britain.
The Declaration begins with a
statement of egalitarian principles largely derived from Genesis, a long list
of grievances against the current king, and concludes with a form of oath or
vow evocative of Numbers 30:2: “When a man makes a vow to the LORD, or swears
an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word: he shall do
according to all that proceeds out of his mouth”: Compare that to “And for the
support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our
sacred Honor.”[i] Much to my puzzlement, the following verses in
Numbers 30:3-15 apparently place a lesser obligation on women. I look to Deborah or Carol to clear this up.
In his book, the American Gospel,
Jon Meacham reminds us of another vow by another President, four score and six
years later. On Monday, September 22,
1862, Lincoln met with his cabinet to explain the timing of the Emancipation
Proclamation. According to Treasury
Secretary Salmon P. Chase, as recorded in his diary for that day, Lincoln said:
“When the Rebel Army was at Frederick [Maryland], I determined, as soon as it
should be driven out of Maryland, to issue a Proclamation of Emancipation….I
said nothing to anyone, but I made a promise to myself, and hesitating a
little) to my Maker. The Rebel Army is
now driven out, and I am going to fulfill that promise.”
Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles
provided a nearly identical account: “He
had, he said, made a vow, a covenant, that if God gave us the victory in the
approaching battle (which had just been fought) he would consider it his duty
to move forward in the cause of emancipation. ….God had decided this question
in favor of the slave. He was satisfied
he was right – was confirmed and strengthened by the vow and its results; his
mind was fixed, his decision made.”
Now back to the Great Seal. You will see a Latin inscription, "ANNUIT
COEPTIS," meaning "He (God) favors our undertaking." At the
bottom of the seal you will see a semicircular banner, again in Latin,
proclaiming "NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM" meaning "New
Order of the Ages."
The obverse of the seal, on the right side of the
bill, you will see an eagle with a radiant cluster of 13 stars arranged in a six
pointed star, known then (especially among Masons) as the seal of Solomon. The
eagle holds a ribbon in its beak reading, in Latin of course, "E
PLURIBUS UNUM", meaning "Out of many, one," a de facto
motto of the United States (and the only one until 1956 when officially changed
to “In God We Trust”, from the last stanza of the Star Spangled Banner, “And
this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USGreatSealGrahamLithograph.jpg
In my opinion, all contenders must cede the honorific
to that person who appears on the front of the one-dollar bill. How can that be? Wasn’t George Washington a slave holder? Well, truth be told, so was Moses; or, at the
very least, Moses wrote laws that provided for the humane treatment of
slaves. As it turns out, George
Washington also wrote a set of rules for the same purpose. But, but, Washington did not have a stutter;
no, but he lacked the skills of an orator, he did not have a teleprompter and
he did have those famous wooden teeth. Like
Moses, perhaps imitating Moses, he protested (too much I think) that burdens
placed upon him exceeded his ability to carry them out. Hence, only unanimous acclamation sufficed to
persuade him to take on the military and political roles critical to the
success of the Revolution and, more importantly, to establish by example the
principles of character and restraint for the American Israel.
Anticipating David Letterman, John
Adams the prolific and witty letter writer, in 1807 penned a “top ten talents”
that convinced his country first to make Washington commander in chief of the
continental army, then president of the Constitutional Convention and finally
first President of the United States.
1. “An
handsome face;”
2. “A
tall stature, like the Hebrew sovereign chosen because he was taller by the
Head than the other Jews;”
3. “An
elegant form;”
4. “Graceful
attitudes and Movements;”
5. “A
large and imposing Fortune consisting of a great landed Estate left him by his
Father and Brother, besides a large Jointure with his Lady, the Guardianship of
the Heirs of the great Custis Estate, and in addition to all this, immense
tracts of Land of his own acquisition.”
6. “Washington
was a Virginian. This is equivalent to
five Talents. Virginian Geese are all
Swans.”
7. “Washington
was preceeded by favorable anecdotes.”
8. “He
possessed the Gift of Silence. This I
esteem one of the most precious talents;”
9. “He
had great Self Command. It cost him a
great deal of exertion sometimes, and a constant Constraint, but to preserve so
much equanimity as he did, required a great Capacity;”
10. “Whenever
he lost his temper… [he was able] to conceal his Weakness from the World.”
Adams then remarks on the
remarkable lack, among these talents, of “Reading, Thinking or Writing,”
claiming to be broad minded in not confining the list, as others have, “to the
faculties of the mind.”[ii] We should note, at this point, that Adams
reveals more about his own shortcomings than those of Washington.
Washington absorbed and practiced more religiously
than his more outwardly religious contemporaries the central tenets of nation
building embedded in the narrative that begins in Genesis and concludes with II
Samuel. Much ink has been spilled over
the last 250 years speculating about Washington’s personal religious
beliefs. Was he a deist, a Christian, an
atheist, an Anglican, an agnostic, the leader of a Masonic cult? So far as I know, no one has argued that he
was Jewish. I am not going to be the
first. But Washington did give a very
Jewish answer to the question of personal religious belief, which can be summed
up as follows. “My personal beliefs are
none of your business; and your personal beliefs are none of my business. In both cases, we are accountable to each
other for our deeds, not our thoughts.” By
way of adding an exclamation point, Washington made arrangements for all of his
personal correspondence to be burned by his wife immediately after his death.
A very practical man, an astute observer of other
men in war, peace and politics, Washington gleaned a great deal from the Bible,
which he read daily. He put into
practice a sort of Jewish political science in order to forge one nation out of
many. Approximately two-dozen discernible
faiths, including Judaism, had adherents and places of worship prior to
1776. About a sixth of the inhabitants
of the colonies were German-speaking Swiss and Alsatians from the Rhine River region,
settling mainly the piedmont of Pennsylvania, Maryland west of Baltimore, the
Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, North Carolina and parts of Georgia. Another
sixth were Scots and Irish, and with no particularly fond memories of life in
Great Britain. Most of these immigrants had been landless serfs or peasants.
African slaves made up about 15 percent.
The rest of the 2.5 million
inhabitants were mostly English descendants, but many indentured servants (white
slaves) and ex-convicts among them.
The entire colonial Jewish population was
approximately 2000. Nevertheless, Haym
Solomon served as the Broker to the Office of Finance. Three Jews reached high level commands within
the military. Sarna concludes that the
Jews played no significant role, but readily acknowledges that the Hebrew Bible
did. Roughly half of the population had
either participated in an Exodus, or were second generation Americans. http://www.acjna.org/acjna/articles_detail.aspx?id=40. The one book they all knew, whether reading
it or hearing it preached from the pulpit, was the Hebrew Bible in one of its
German or English translations. That
book served as a lens through which all personal and political events were
commonly perceived and interpreted.
Most of these immigrants knew the Geneva Bible,
which contained copious anti-monarchical annotations, and was the version most
widely read and preached. The pro-monarchy
King James Version found less favor, but probably was the version most familiar
to Washington. The front plate of the Geneva Bible, which appeared again in
Exodus, depicted a radiant Moses leading his people through the Red Sea. That engraving, or at least the Moses motif,
appears to have had a major impact on, among other things, the portrayal of
Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, the Statute of Liberty and,
the inscription on the Liberty Bell “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land
unto all the Inhabitants Thereof.” (Leviticus 25:10).
Let’s go back again to that other engraving, the Great
Seal on the back of the one-dollar bill.
The first Continental Congress appointed a committee of three in July of
1776 to recommend a design for the seal -- Thomas Jefferson (a deist), Benjamin
Franklin (an atheist) and John Adams, a rock-ribbed New England Puritan. Franklin proposed an allegorical scene from
Exodus, described in his notes as “Moses standing on the Shore, and extending
his Hand over the Sea, thereby causing the same to overwhelm Pharoah who is
sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his Head and a Sword in his Hand. Rays
from a Pillar of Fire in the Clouds reaching to Moses, to express that he acts
by Command of the Deity." Motto, "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience
to God." Jefferson suggested a depiction of the Children of Israel in the
wilderness, but liked Franklin’s motto so much that he made it part of his
family crest. [iii]
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/FirstCommitteeGreatSealReverseLossingDrawing.jpg/1024px-FirstCommitteeGreatSealReverseLossingDrawing.jpg
Adams favored a painting known as the "Judgment
of Hercules" where the young Hercules must choose to travel either on the flowery
path of self-indulgence or the rugged, more difficult, uphill path of duty to
others and honor to himself. Two of the
three ideas did no more than accede to the controlling Moses metaphor, and no
one doubted that Washington was Moses, although Washington from time to time
seemed to prefer the Joshua role in the unfolding drama. He might also have been flattered by the
Hercules symbol, especially the message of self-discipline.
In praise of the living Washington, and more so in
eulogizing him, press and pulpit in unison proclaimed, “As the deliverer and
political savior of our nation, he has been the same to us, as Moses was to the
Children of Israel.”[iv] The theme of this and 34 other major eulogies
tied the fate of Washington and Moses to that Providential Eye floating over
the unfinished pyramid. In the
Biblically inspired language of Frederick Hotchkiss, echoing the sentiment of
the initial proposal for the Great Seal, “Moses led the Israelites through the
red sea; has not Washington conducted the Americans thro’ seas of blood?” And
the comparisons then turn to personal virtues of self-discipline, humility in
the face of great burdens and finally the wisdom of their parting words and
acts to assure a sound foundation for the new nation.
In his book, On Two Wings: Humble Faith and Common
Sense at the American Founding, Michael Novak, makes a strong case that “George
Washington, in particular grasped the inner dependence of the republican
experiment upon the sound habits of its citizenship. … His principle was this
[which he stated at the time of the Constitutional convention]: A nation, like
a child, forms its character around its earliest transactions. … The people
themselves must become an example to the world of reflection and deliberate
choice, and the enabling and supportive virtues on which these capacities
depend.” [pp. 88-89 and fn. 37.)
Washington reiterated and implemented this
principle throughout his career, from his institution of codes of conduct for
officers and men under his command, to the operations of his extensive
plantations, to this support for the establishment of schools in the first
legislation for the organization of the northwest territories following the
founding of the republic, and like Moses, in his farewell address:
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to
political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain
would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert
these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of
men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to
respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections
with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security
for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation
desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of
justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be
maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of
refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both
forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of
religious principle.
One final comparison has been overlooked by all of
his contemporaries and, as far as I can tell, all Washington historians to date
(and they are as numerous as the stars in heaven). What enabled both Moses and Washington to see
the promise of the Promised Land? One
answer in today’s Parsha and, in sense, all of the Book of Numbers. Both Moses and Washington, literally and
literarily, were surveyors of land and enumerators of their people; [v]they
both saw vistas and the practical detail necessary to mark off the metes and
bounds of those vistas; they both understood that achieving freedom depended to
a great extent on the ability of the people to be self-disciplined.
So we read in Numbers 33 a metes and bounds survey
of the Promised Land, which had been surveyed earlier by spies. From the age of 15 to 20, Washington worked
as a surveyor of the land owned by Fairfax family in the Virginia Piedmont.[vi]The
illustrated Geneva and KJV Bibles contain numerous maps of Moses’ wanderings
and survey of Israel’s boundaries.
Washington then undertook a commission to scout
out, essentially be a diplomatic spy, the French presence at the headwaters of
the Ohio and to deliver an ultimatum on behalf of King George II for the French
to vacate the region. Washington’s
family had a significant personal stake as shareholders in the Ohio
company. As a major, then colonel in the
Virginia militia, he returned to the area and precipitated the first world war
(waged on four continents) known as the French and Indian War. He returned twice more with General Braddock
and then General Forbes. Washington and
his men were promised land in the form of war bounties for their services. George III and the English Parliament attempted
to renege on those promises and to award land bounties only to English
regimental commanders in the regular army.
But the Promised Land is also a vision, an idea of
how things should be, an aspirational utopia; hence the unfinished pyramid. These ideas go beyond real estate, but are
also grounded in real estate and the practical problems of life.
So, Washington is Moses and America is the New
Israel. Is this metaphor good for the
Jews? Are the Jews good for this
metaphor? Should we, today, think and act as though divine providence, that
floating eye atop the pyramid on the one-dollar bill, looks out for America,
looks out for a New Israel? Can we be a
people of two covenants? Should we gladly
embrace, 3000 years later, the idea of laboring to finish a pyramid?
The American Israel has been, for the most part, a
good home for the Jews. Jonas Phillips,
a Jew, wrote the only petition to the Constitutional Convention on the topic of
religious freedom. In the petition he
said that “the Israelites will think themselves happy to live under a
government where all religious societies are on an equal footing.” After the Convention, Benjamin Rush, a
signer, declared that “the hand of God was employed in this work, as that God
had divided the Red Sea to give a passage to the children of Israel’ or had
delivered “the ten commandments on Mount Sinai!” Unlike the Declaration of Independence,
though, not even Nature’s God or the Creator gets an honorable mention in the
Constitution.
On July 4, 1778, to celebrate the ratification of
the Constitution, 17 clergy marched in sets, arm in arm, according to Benjamin
Rush, including ‘The Rabbi of the Jews [Jacob Raphael Cohen of Mikve
Israel].” Rush concluded that “the union
of the states, in its form and adoption, is as much the work of divine
providence as any of the miracles recorded in the old and new testaments.” But is the hard work of nation-building
really a miracle? Is it Superman or is
it the ordinary, but disciplined citizens, who account for the success, such as
it is, of the American experiment?
Where, when and how do we instill the collective rules and the behavior
necessary to make our own Providence, to achieve the promise of the Promised
Land?
The first great Chazzan, Gershom Seixas of Sherith
Israel, attended Washington’s inauguration in NYC on Thursday April 30, 1789
along with clergy from 14 churches. Gershom
Seixas went on to become a regent of Columbia, and a medal was struck in his
honor at his death. The following year, Washington received a letter from the
Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island over the signature of Moses Seixas
which read in part: “For all the
Blessings of civil and religious liberty which we enjoy under an equal and
benign administration, we desire to send up our thanks to the Antient of Days,
the great preserver of Men--beseeching him, that the Angel who conducted our
forefathers through the wilderness into the promised land, may graciously
conduct you through all the difficulties and dangers of this mortal life: and,
when like Joshua full of days and full of honour, you are gathered to your
Fathers, may you be admitted into the Heavenly Paradise to partake of the water
of life, and the tree of immortality.”
Washington’s reply: “may the children of the stock
of Abraham, who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of
the other inhabitants; -- while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine
and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.” Micah 4.
I should also point out that he wrote similar letters to at least 24
other religious groups, including Jewish societies in Savannah, Charleston and
Richmond. His other correspondence contains another 54 references to the
passage in Micah, part of which appears in our Siddur at 403.
http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/hebrew/facsimile_r2.html
We can safely say that, although the road has not
always been smooth, Jews have done pretty well in all aspects of American
life. Take as a bellwether indicator the
number of Jews in the current US Congress, 12 senators (12%), 22
representatives (4.8%) compared to Jewish population in the U.S. (2.1%).
In the words of Jonathan Sarna in his History of
American Judaism, “Picking up where George Washington left off in his letter to
the Jews of Newport and echoing Protestant depictions of the country as “God’s
New Israel,” [Myer Moses, a leader of Beth Elohim in Charleston] prayed for
“Great Jehovah” to “collect together thy long scattered people of Israel, and
let their gathering place be in this land of milk and honey.” The idea of “Zion in America” implied that
Judaism and Americanism, God and country, the synagogue-community and the
larger community all were thoroughly compatible.” 71
All of this makes me think we have something to
celebrate. But let’s not rush into
it. Give it another 300 years just to
make sure something bad doesn’t happen.
Oh, I almost forgot. What exactly
are we celebrating and why on the 15th of Tamuz? According to my on-line Hebrew calendar
converter, known as HebCal, the 15th of Tamuz 5536 fell on July 2,
1776, the date that the Declaration of Independence was ratified, signed and
sent to the printer. It was published two
days later. Let’s all get back to work
on the pyramid.
SELECTED SOURCES
Jacob Milgrom, The JPS
Torah Commentary: Numbers, Excursus
66, “Oaths, Vows and Dedications,” at pp. 488-490 (1990/5750 Jewish Publication
Society, New York)
Robert P. Hay, “Providence and the American Past”, Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 65.
No.2 (June 1969), pp. 79-101. Trustees
of Indiana University http://www.jstor.org/stable/27789575
Robert P. Hay, “George Washington: American Moses”, American Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 4
(Winter, 1969), pp. 780-791. The Johns Hopkins University Press. http://www.jstor.or/stable/2711609
Bruce Feiler, Moses: Biblical Prophet, American Icon,
Washington Post, Sunday, October 18, 2009, Op. Ed. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/15/AR2009101503474.html
Rev. Richard C. Stazesky, George Washington, Genius in
Leadership, A Presentation at a meeting on February 22, 200 of the George
Washington Club, Ltd., Wilmington, Delaware.
http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/articles/stazesky.html
Ron Chernow, Washington:
A Life, (2010, Penguin Press, New York) ISBN 978-1-59420-266-7.
Jon Meacham, American
Gospel; God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation (2006, Random
House). ISBN 1-4000-6555-0
Michael Novak, On Two
Wings: Humble Faith and Common Sense at the American Founding, (2002
Encounter Books) ISBN 1-893554-68-6
Jonathon D. Sarna, American
Judaism: A History (2004 Yale University)
ISBN 0-300-10976-8
ENDNOTES
[i]Most of
the colonies required oaths of loyalty and abjuration along the lines of the
Pennsylvania oaths:
"We subscribers, natives and late inhabitants of the
Palatine upon the Rhine and places adjacent, having transported ourselves and
families into the Province of Pennsylvania, a colony subject to the crown of
Great Britain, in hopes and expectation of finding a retreat and a peacable
settlement therein, do solemnly promise and engage that we will be faithful and
bear true allegiance to his present majesty, King George the Second and his
successors, kings of Great Britain, and will be faithful to the proprietor of
this province; and that we will demean ourselves peacably to all his said
majesty's subjects, and strictly observe and conform to the laws of England and
this province, to the utmost of our power and best of our understanding."
Beginning
in 1729, the immigrants were required to sign two additional oaths, one of
which declared in flowery prose ("…from my heart abhor, detest and
renounce as impious and heretical …") apparently that the immigrant
was not a Roman Catholic, the other that he was acknowledging George II as the
lawful king and denouncing such pretenders to the throne as James III of
Scotland, Queen Anne, James VIII, etc.
After
the start of the Revolution, an entirely different oath of allegiance was
required in which the immigrants had to renounce their allegiance to the
king and pledge their allegiance to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania:
We, the subscribers, do swear of affirm that we renounce and
refuse all allegiance to George the Third, King of Great Britain, his heirs and
successors, and that we will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as a free and independent state, and that we will
not, at any time, do, or cause to be done, any matter of thing that will be
prejudicial or injurious to the freedom and independence thereof, as declared
by Congress, and also, that we will discover and make known, to some justice of
the peace of the said State, all treasons and traitorous conspiracies which we
now know, and hereafter shall know, to be formed against this or any of the
United States of America."
Signers of the Oaths of Allegiance. In 1776 the
Continental Congress requested each state to take an oath of allegiance from
each of its male citizens over 21 years of age in order to determine the
strength of the patriot movement and to identify the loyalists. Those who took
such an oath, or signed local declarations of independence from England, were
guilty of treason under English law and subject to death by hanging.
[ii] http://books.google.com/books?id=84oTAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA170&dq=%22ten+talents%22+George+washington&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GnHRUfDxOsr40gH03oDIBg&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22ten%20talents%22%20George%20washington&f=false
Old Family Letters (Press of J. B. Lippincott Company, 1892) contains letters of
John Adams, all but the first two addressed to Dr. Benjamin Rush; one letter
from Samuel Adams, one from John Quincy Adams, and several from Thomas
Jefferson addressed to Dr. Rush; "Letter of credence to the king" and
"Letter of credence to the queen" by George Washington as president.
Series B contains letters of Dr. Benjamin Rush to his wife written during the
yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, in 1793.
[iii] All
three agreed that, regardless of religious belief or disbelief, religion
had a practical function in fostering civic virtue.
[W]e have no government armed with power capable of
contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our
constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly
inadequate to the government of any other.
(Source:
John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States,
Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. 1854), Vol. IX,
p. 229, October 11, 1798.)
Benjamin Franklin
Signer of the Constitution and
Declaration of Independence
[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of
freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.
(Source:
Benjamin Franklin, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Jared Sparks,
editor (Boston: Tappan, Whittemore and Mason, 1840), Vol. X, p. 297, April 17,
1787. )
I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the
longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs
in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His
notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been
assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that "except the Lord build the
House, they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I
also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political
building no better, than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our
partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves
shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse,
mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing
governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.
I therefore beg leave to move that
henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our
deliberations be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to
business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to
officiate in that service.
(Source:
James Madison, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, Max
Farrand, editor (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1911), Vol. I, pp. 450-452,
June 28, 1787.)
[iv] These
were the words of the Reverend Thaddeus Fiske of Cambridge, MA on December 29,
1799.
[v] The U.S.
Census Bureau estimates that the population of the 13 colonies in 1776 was a
little more than 2.5 million people, very nearly the same estimate offered by
Jacob Milgrom in Excurses 2, “The Census and Its Totals” in Numbers 1:1-46 in
the JPS Numbers Commentary at pp. 336-339. http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/cb11-ff13.html
[vi] Part of
his survey work was incorporated into an early map of Maryland by his
co-surveyor Joshua Frye which can be seen in Mapping Maryland: The Willard
Hackerman Collection at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore.
[vii] Facebook Jeopardy answers: 1. Brikat ha gomel http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/5415/features/the-tish-and-the-thanksgiving-table/ Page 415 Siddur; 2. 1655 first Kosher Butcher in New Amsterdam, insisted on serving guard duty instead of paying fine in order to become a burgher (citizen); 3. 1682 first purchase of burial ground in North America, probably more like Abraham than Moses; 4. First notable Chazzan of Shearith Israel in NYC; first Jewish regent of Columbia; 5. Moses chazzan at Touro Newport RI synagogue; 6. First President of Princeton, Teacher of Hebrew to James Madison, signer of the Declaration of Independence and teacher of law and politics to at least 70 founding fathers; 7. Smith found tablets and the history of the lost tribes in NY, then walked to Missouri; Young led the trek to Deseret in Utah and is the subject of a biography, Brigham Young: American Moses; 8. timed his first escape to coincide with Passover; 9. he had a dream and marched on Washington and other places; 10. radiant visage, torch and tablets; launched by his parents in a space basket with a mission to repair the world.
[vii] Facebook Jeopardy answers: 1. Brikat ha gomel http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/5415/features/the-tish-and-the-thanksgiving-table/ Page 415 Siddur; 2. 1655 first Kosher Butcher in New Amsterdam, insisted on serving guard duty instead of paying fine in order to become a burgher (citizen); 3. 1682 first purchase of burial ground in North America, probably more like Abraham than Moses; 4. First notable Chazzan of Shearith Israel in NYC; first Jewish regent of Columbia; 5. Moses chazzan at Touro Newport RI synagogue; 6. First President of Princeton, Teacher of Hebrew to James Madison, signer of the Declaration of Independence and teacher of law and politics to at least 70 founding fathers; 7. Smith found tablets and the history of the lost tribes in NY, then walked to Missouri; Young led the trek to Deseret in Utah and is the subject of a biography, Brigham Young: American Moses; 8. timed his first escape to coincide with Passover; 9. he had a dream and marched on Washington and other places; 10. radiant visage, torch and tablets; launched by his parents in a space basket with a mission to repair the world.