"

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"Life, Liberty, & Pursuit of Happiness:

Understanding Independence as a Jewish Value
A July 4th Shiur

I.TheJewishRootsoftheAmericanRevolution

1. Frank H. Ridgeley,
Jewish Ethical Idealism
(Boston: Gorham Press, 1918), p. 88

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fig. 1
- The first design for the seal of the United States of America, drawn up by Franklin, Jefferson, &
Adams; the committee appointed immediately after the reading of the Declaration of
Independence, July 4th 1776

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The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and
independence by daring to exercise them.
- Joseph Heller, Catch-22

2. John Locke (1632-1704),

Second Treatise of Government
a.Perfect(Natural)Freedom(4)

TO understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider, what state all men are
naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and
persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of
any other man.
A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another; there
being nothing more evident, than that creatures of the same species and rank, promiscuously born to all the same
advantages of nature, and the use of the same faculties, should also be equal one amongst another without
subordination or subjection, unless the lord and master of them all should, by any manifest declaration of his will,
set one above another, and confer on him, by an evident and clear appointment, an undoubted right to dominion
and sovereignty.

b.Liberty&License(6,7)
But though this be a state of liberty, yet it is not a state of licence: though man in that state have an uncontroulable
liberty to dispose of his person or possessions, yet he has not liberty to destroy himself, or so much as any creature in
his possession, but where some nobler use than its bare preservation calls for it. The state of nature has a law of
nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult
it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions: for
men being all the workmanship of one omnipotent, and infinitely wise maker; all the servants of one sovereign
master, sent into the world by his order, and about his business; they are his property, whose workmanship they are,
made to last during his, not one anothers pleasure:

And that all men may be restrained from invading others rights, and from doing hurt to one another, and the law of
nature be observed, which willeth the peace and preservation of all mankind, the execution of the law of nature is, in
that state, put into every mans hands...

3. Jonathan Sarna, The Mystical World of Colonial American Jews in

Mediating
Modernity: Essays in Honor of Michael A. Meyer
, Eds. Lauren B. Strauss and
Michael Brenner (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2008) 185-94

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fig. 2 - A sample from the early colonial legislation for the colony of Massachusetts. Note the firm
biblical foundations for each law.
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None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Elective Affinities

4. Abraham I. Katsch,
The Biblical Heritage of American Democracy
(New York:
Ktav Publishing House, 1977)
a)p.159[PeterFolger,
LookingGlassoftheTimes]

b)p.159

c)pp.4243

5. Shalom Goldman, Two American Hebrew Orations, 1799 & 1800; Hebrew Annual
Review 13 (1991): 33-44 [Sampson Simson, Columbia Commencement of 1800]

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

- Henry David Thoreau

__________________________________________________________________________________

"The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to
Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy.
For happily the Government of the
United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance
, requires only
that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens. 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 every one shall sit under his own vine and fig tree,
and there shall be none to make him afraid."
- Speech of President George Washington delivered to the Newport Hebrew Congregation (Touro
Synagogue), 17 August 1790
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6. R. Moshe Feinstein, Resp.

Iggerot Moshe
; CM 2:29

7. R. Menachem Mendel Schneerson (Rebbe of Lubavitch),

Sihot Kodesh
[Shevat
5735/1974, al pi ha-shemua]

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,
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6

' .
, .
...
8. ha-Pardes Journal (ed. R. Simcha Elberg), vol. 38, no. 3 (December 1963)

9. Hodesh bHodsho (Newsletter of Munkaczer Hasidim), 24:3 (Nissan 5756)

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fig. 3 - Seals for American Universities, reflecting Hebraic and Old Testament influences
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7

.II,,,

1. Leviticus 25:55
:,

ForuntoMethechildrenofIsraelareservantstheyareMyservantswhomIbroughtforthout
ofthelandofEgypt:IamtheLORDyourGod.

2. Psalms 113:1

Praise,OyeservantsoftheLORD,praisethenameoftheLORD.

3. Mishna Avot 6:2

Nooneisfreerthanhe/shewhostudies[andkeeps]theTorah

4. b. Niddah 61b

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5. Clive Hamilton,
The Freedom Paradox: Towards a Post-Secular Ethics
(Sydney:
)Allen & Unwin, 2011