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A Jew looks at America's founding

Discussion in 'History Forum' started by Helen, Mar 20, 2006.

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  1. Helen

    Helen <img src =/Helen2.gif>

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    A friend of ours in Israel had the following letter printed in a paper there. It is certainly worth the read, in our opinion:

    DEI'AH ve DIBUR

    15 Adar 5766 - March 15, 2006 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly

    Produced and housed by

    Shema Yisrael Torah Network

    Opinion & Comment

    The Success of America May be Derived from the Chumash
    To the Editor:

    Further to "How Hebrew Came to Yale in 1777" (10 Adar), the caliber of America's Founding Fathers was very great. They were gentiles steeped and schooled in Hebraic civilization.

    The curricula at Harvard, King's (later Columbia), William and Mary, Princeton, Rutgers, Dartmouth and Brown universities were designed by men of "Old Testament persuasion." Many of them knew Hebrew and even studied Talmud. In those days, Hebrew and Penateuchal laws was as much a part of the curriculum as was Latin: "Hebrew is essential to a gentleman's education!" (Samuel Johnson).

    When looking for a model for their new nation, they looked to the Torah: "The civil polity of Israel is an excellent general model" (Samuel Langdon). The US Declaration of Independence refers to "the Laws of Nature and Nature's G- d", "The Higher Law," and appeals to the "Supreme Judge" and "Providence." How unlike the State of Israel's own Declaration, which outside of the Communist nations, is the only one in the world that does not explicitly mention the Creator!

    The statutes of New Haven, New England and Massachusetts derived straight from the Chumash. The Torah's Seven Universal Laws of morality played a major role in the US success in integrating, subordinating, and moderating its many diverse immigrants, nationalities.

    The holding of all men equal before the law, the district election of representatives, the senate, the federal system, the presidency (and the limitations on whom can bear the title), the Unitary Executive (unlike the State of Israel's fractious multi-party Plural Executive farrago!), the Supreme Court and the system of checks and balances placed on it (unlike Israel's Supreme Court which constantly rides roughshod with impunity over the abiding beliefs of the Jewish people) etc. etc., all these derived from and were inspired by our Torah, and were why the USA became the most successful nation in history.

    A success whose time may be up!

    Yours truly

    Amnon Goldberg

    Tzefas
     
    #1 Helen, Mar 20, 2006
  2. rsr

    rsr <b> 7,000 posts club</b>
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    With due respect, I think Goldberg is blowing a good deal of smoke. He is intent on criticizing Israel's governmental system by comparing it to America's, but there is precious little evidence for his assertion that the Torah is the basis of U.S. civil polity.

    The Founders consulted a multitude of sources, including the Old Testament, I'm sure, but were chiefly influenced by the enlightenment philosophers (chiefly Locke and Montesquieu) and they looked not to Jerusalem but to Rome when they began building a republic.
     
    #2 rsr, Mar 20, 2006
  3. Helen

    Helen <img src =/Helen2.gif>

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    What was interesting to me was actually what he wrote about Israel. But I do not think he is blowing as much smoke as you seem to think. The Judeo/Christian ethic IS the basis of our Constitution and legal system -- or at least it was.
     
    #3 Helen, Mar 21, 2006
  4. Aaron

    Aaron Member
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    http://www.coralridge.org/OneNationUnderGod/constitution.htm
     
    #4 Aaron, Mar 21, 2006
  5. mima

    mima New Member

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    Here's an interesting fact about Israel's immigration policy. Their official statements pay great lip service to the fact that Israel is a homeland for ALL Jews. But in fact if a incoming Jewish immigrant to Israel puts on his immigration papers that he is messianic (a Jew that has accepted Jesus Christ) he will not be accepted for citizenship in Israel. This was the fact just six years ago. Of course things change and I cannot witness as to what the situation is today. But certainly this is not a well-known fact.
     
    #5 mima, Mar 21, 2006
  6. Johnv

    Johnv New Member

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    We need to be careful there. I respect Dr Kennedy and Coral Ridge Ministries greatly (and I have even supported them financially), but they unfortunately have engaged in a fair amount of revisionism on the topic. Dr Kennedy goes so far as to endorse David Barton, who is no stranger to making false claims about the topic (such as the alleged "Geo Washington prayerbook", for starters).
     
    #6 Johnv, Mar 21, 2006
  7. fromtheright

    fromtheright <img src =/2844.JPG>

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    I agree with Johnv on this one. He and I disagree on the extent of that spiritual heritage but we're agreed on the need to look to credible historical sources to buttress historical points. I am also curious about the reference to Lutz. I've seen that reference to the 15,000 documents before but I've not seen the title of his study. What documents? Does it include sermons which would understandably rely more heavily on Scripture? As to the more common sources, they are not more heavily laced with Scriptural references. If one looks to writings of the Founders and even their sources, their references are more to classical (Greece, Rome, early England) than Biblical, including John Locke and Algernon Sidney, two of the major influences on the Founders, though Sidney does have several Old Testament references. I can't answer for Montesquieu and have heard both sides dispute the extent of his reliance on Scriptural references.
     
    #7 fromtheright, Apr 12, 2006
  8. Eliyahu

    Eliyahu Active Member
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    You are quite right!

    Look at this site:

    http://www.cmy.on.ca/toraportions2000/modeim/pesach/5766/pesach.en.htm

    You can read the same story in the latter part of Parsha.
     
    #8 Eliyahu, Apr 13, 2006
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