I don’t know if you’ve heard that this year we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia at Independence Hall, just around the corner from here. At the signing of the Declaration, the Liberty Bell was rung, pealing with sounds of joy and jubilation. The Liberty Bell became the iconic symbol of the United States along with the American Flag and the Statue of Liberty.
Inscribed on the Liberty Bell are words from this week’s Torah Portion “Behar” in the Book of Vayikra, Leviticus 25:10. : “K’ratem d’ror ba’aretz l’col yosh-veh-ha”
“Proclaim liberty throughout the land for all the inhabitants thereof.”
A little known fact is that the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania ordered the bell in 1751 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of William Penn’s “Charter of Privileges” which recognized religious liberty in 1701, which was 75 years before the Declaration Of Independence and the birth of our nation.
As Jews, we can feel a great deal of pride that our sacred text has served as an inspiration to the founders of the USA. Not only for the verse in Leviticus on the Liberty Bell, but for the very foundation of the most important concept in American history: [from the Declaration of Independence]: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” [Can we please agree that the founders meant to say “All human beings are created equal?” Thank you].
So now, on the 250th anniversary of those words, let us consider their true meaning and their connection to Judaism
Up until this point in history, laws were considered to come from the monarchy in nations, empires such as Great Britain. The Anglican Church of England was considered their true religion, and those who dissented were harassed and many left for America, such as the Quakers in Philadelphia, and the Puritans in Boston. The monarch, vested by the power of the Church of England had the power to make and enforce laws.
The founding of the United States saw a radical change from this concept. “The founders were rejecting the idea fundamental in the British system, that there were certain hereditary social classes, beginning with royalty and aristocracy that had more rights than other classes.” [Isaacson].
We believe the power to govern must come from the people. Thus the opening words of the Preamble to our Constitution, “We the People in order to create a more perfect union…” signifying that the US government derives its power directly from its citizens.
Where did our founders learn this? As Abraham Lincoln said in his immortal Gettysburg Address: “[The founders] brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Where does this concept originate? I believe they were inspired by another foundational verse in our Torah, B’reishit (Genesis) 1:27; “God created the human being in “B’tzelem Elohim” in the image of God; in God’s image did God create the human; male and female God created them. And God blessed them.”
When Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and John Adams wrote the Declaration Of Independence, they wrote the words: “all men are created equal.” And they were inspired and guided by our Torah’s verse “all people are created B’tzelem Elohim – in God’s image.”
Well, what took so long? The Torah has been around for millennia, but it was not until 1776 that the concept of treating all human beings as equal was placed into the most important document in American history. What took so long? Well that’s the topic for another sermon. But as Jews and as Americans we are grateful that this concept is the very foundation of our nation. However, we know that while these lofty words are the vision statement of the USA, they were not true in 1776, and we are still grappling with them today.
William Penn’s Charter of Privileges in 1701 was the inspiration for choosing the verse from our Torah Portion to be inscribed on the Liberty Bell. But Penn’s document declared religious freedom as its basic tenet. In fact, one of the main reasons people immigrated to America was for religious freedom. But Penn’s document did not outlaw slavery. Even so, Quakers in PA were among the leaders of the abolitionist movement, and in 1780 Pennsylvania passed a law providing for gradual emancipation.
Even though Jefferson was the principal author of the DOI he still owned more than 600 enslaved people. He claimed to hate slavery. In fact in his original draft of the DOI, he called the slave trade “a cruel war against human nature.” He called slavery a “moral depravity and a hideous blot.” But he knew that the DOI and later the Constitution would never have passed if they had outlawed slavery.
The founders did have the moral gravity to know that this would have to change eventually, so the genius of the Constitution is that it contains the means by which to correct errors – through the process of amendments, and the ballot box. As egregious a sin as was the outrage of slavery, the framers of the Constitution wrote into law ways to end this “hideous blot” from our nation.
Why do people continue to do what they know to be wrong? This is the quintessential question of Judaism on Yom Kippur (actually on every day of our lives) we go through the process of “cheshbon ha nefesh” we take an accounting of our soul. And we try to go through the process of “tshuva” repentance, atonement, returning to our true selves. Wiping the slate clean.
This is the true connection between our verse in this week’s Torah Portion and the Liberty Bell, the Declaration Of Independence, the Constitution, and the soul of America. When we examine our verse, we see that the “Jubilee Year” the 50th year, we are commanded to sound the Shofar on Yom Kippur within that 50th year. And on that year “You shall proclaim “release” throughout the land for all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a Jubilee Year.”
The Hebrew word for “Jubilee” here is “Yoveil” which means “rams horn” which we sound on the High Holy Days, the Days of Repentance. According to Rashi, the great commentator, ”Release” means to proclaim liberty to slaves.
The Quakers who chose this verse to be on the Old Bell in 1751 knew exactly what they were doing. They were perhaps the strongest opponents of slavery and became the leaders of the abolitionist movement in America. And they were the ones who changed the name the Old Bell to the Liberty Bell, which they used frequently to symbolize their cause.
Ben Franklin, perhaps the most famous Philadelphian of all time, (with the possible exception of Pat, King of Cheesesteaks!), took up the moral crusade of abolition. In 1787 Franklin became the President Of the PA Society for the Promoting of Abolition of Slavery. And in 1790 he presented a formal abolition petition to Congress, saying “mankind are all formed by the same Almighty Being, alike objects of his care, and equally designed for the enjoyment of happiness.” He said the duty of Congress was to secure “the blessings of liberty to the People of the US without distinction of color.”
Franklin and his petition were roundly denounced by the defenders of slavery, and as we know, it took many more years, and the bloody Civil War before the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865, formally abolishing slavery across our nation.
The struggle for liberty did not end there as it continued for many more years. In 1963, in his “I have a Dream” speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. invoked the words from Leviticus on the liberty Bell with his declaration “Let freedom ring,” praying for the day when freedom would ring throughout this land.
King also said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” “But it did not bend itself. It was and remains a constant struggle to make the phrase “all men are created equal” truly inclusive.” [Isaacson]
Too often today, I hear so much pessimism about our country. People describe the state of our nation as dark and fraught. But a careful reading of our history, and especially the Jewish inspiration found in our Declaration Of Independence and Constitution, can only give us hope. The founders made sure there would always be ways to correct any extreme. They built a system in which the pendulum would always swing from one point of view to another, until one day, God willing, we will all understand why this great nation was founded 250 years ago, and why it is still necessary.
Lincoln exhorted the assembly at Gettysburg to never be complacent. “It is rather for us to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us…that we here highly resolve to have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
AMEN.
MATERIAL GATHERED FROM:
Jewish Roots of American Liberty, Wilfred McClay and Stuart Halpern, Encounter Books, New York, 2025.
Benjamin Franklin, An American Life, Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2003.
The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2025.
Leviticus 25:9-10. Rashi Commentary of Lev. 25:10. Genesis 1:27. “Gettysburg Address” Abraham Lincoln 1863.
