Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land: The Hebrew Bible in the United States: A Sourcebook Corrects the Historical Record

Jul 17, 2019 by Alex Grobman

By Alex Grobman, PhD

Meir Y. Soloveichik, Matthew Holbreich, Jonathan Silver, and Stuart W. Halpern, the editors of Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land: The Hebrew Bible in the United States: A Sourcebook (The Toby Press), recognize that a proper understanding of the United States—its culture, institutions, and concepts of freedom, liberty, and balance of powers—demands an examination of the Hebrew Bible, the source book that influenced the leaders who helped shape American life.

In a review of this newly published important and fascinating anthology for the Wall Street Journal, William McGurn, a former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush, explained that ever since the Second Continental Congress invoked the unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in its declaration of independence from Great Britain and King George III, “an argument has raged over the Christian roots of the American founding.” According to Mr. McGurn, if only the Christian Bible is considered when trying to understand the new American nation, “we may be arguing over the wrong testament.”

In compiling their sourcebook, Messrs. Soloveichik, Holbreich, Silver, and Halpern seek to correct the historical record, which is precisely why their book is currently number one on Amazon’s Jewish history list. They recognized that the tradition created by the founders of this nation continue to unite its people, and, as such, the Hebrew Bible must remain part of the framework in which Americans discuss and debate the meaning of freedom and equality, concepts that determine the United States’ national destiny and place in world history.

Of course, there were other wellsprings that played a role in the establishment of the American ethic, including Roman republicanism, the tradition of English Common Law, and the political creeds of John Locke, Cato, and Montesquieu, but none of these inspired the founders as deeply as the Hebrew Bible.

Names, Prayers, and Concepts

This can be seen in at least four dimensions. For example, throughout the United States, there are still cities, towns, rivers, valleys, and colleges that bear Biblical names, such as Zion, Canaan, Salem, and Shiloh. Yale and Dartmouth colleges, among many others, were initially established as seminaries and selected Hebrew adages to express their goals. Students at Harvard College were required to learn Hebrew.

Until very recently, virtually all political meetings began with prayers, and, to this day, many national and local political leaders quote the Hebrew Bible as a “unifying text.” Throughout American history, from colonial times to the Civil Rights movement, American clergy and lay leaders have drawn from this Hebrew religious text to inspire and teach. In many ways, this profound connection to the Hebrew Bible distinguishes the United States from other nations.

The political and cultural language of the United States is also indebted to the Hebrew Bible, whose concepts, including “chosenness,” the exodus, and the covenant, inform issues such as tyranny, slavery, freedom, liberation, judgment, sacred honor, sacrifice, and dedication.

“Hebraic Lens”

By using the Hebrew Bible as a rhetorical tool in cultural and political debates, America’s Founders demonstrated how this text influenced American discourse. It was deemed that an argument founded on the Hebrew Bible bestowed it with legitimacy, and each side sought to prove that the Hebrew Bible championed its view.

However, perhaps nothing shows the dramatic influence of the Hebrew Bible on American life more than the ubiquitous adoption of the Hebraic worldview by many of the icons of culture in the United States. The moving, expressive, forceful language of the King James Bible’s Old Testament shaped our writers, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Faulkner, and Herman Melville, and provided Presidents, ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt with their soaring visions. Throughout their history, Americans have viewed their struggles and sorrows, in fact all their national experiences through a “Hebraic lens.”

It is most fitting that this book was edited by the staff of Yeshiva University’s Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought and published under its imprimatur. The center’s mission is to “expose students to both halakhic and Western schools of thought,” and, in this way, to bring the wisdom of Torah “into conversation with diverse fields, including philosophy, politics, art, literature, law, economics, and the sciences.”

To ensure that this work becomes the valuable educational resource that should be its destiny, the authors should consider developing academic guidelines for educators in high schools and colleges.

Dr. Grobman, a Hebrew University-trained historian, is senior resident scholar at the John C. Danforth Society and a member of the Council of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East.