"Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land"

By Rabbi Toby Manewith

July 3, 2009

The Liberty Bell was was ordered by the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly for use in the Pennsylvania State House in 1751. It was cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London, and hung on temporary scaffolding outside of the State House in the spring of 1753.  While being tested, before it was ever installed in its permanent home, the bell cracked.

The Bell was rung to announce the opening of the First Continental Congress in 1774 and after the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775.  Though it is said to have been rung on July 8, 1776 to summon citizens of Philadelphia to a public reading of the Declaration of Independence, historians think this unlikely because the steeple was in considerable disrepair at that time.

Interesting bits of history, you may be thinking, but this isn’t a civics class, it’s a synagogue. So what’s the Jewish connection?

The Liberty Bell is inscribed with a partial verse from the Torah.  It reads: “proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” It seems, viewed from a distance, somewhat chutzpahdik that this verse graced the Liberty Bell years before the Declaration of Independence was signed.  Even as an aspirational statement, it pointed only to the freedom that those in governance thought was the God-given right of white men.

The entire verse, Leviticus 25:10, reads:

"And you should hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and you should return every man to his possession, and you should return every man to his family."

The verse describes the yovel – from where we get the word jubilee.  Coming after seven cycles of sabbatical –or shmita - years, during which the land is allowed to remain fallow, this is the year when property is returned to its owners and owners are returned to their property.  Fifty is a familiar number in Jewish life.  We celebrate Shavuot fifty days – or the day after seven cycles of seven weeks – after Passover.

Forty is also a familiar number in Judaism.  It is said to have rained for forty days after Noah and his family were confined to the ark.  Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days in anticipation of receiving the Torah. The Jewish people wandered in the desert for forty years.  A mikvah must be filled with forty measurs of water.  Some scholars believe that forty is a metaphor meaning “a lot” and is used in the Bible in much the same way we use the “a million” as in ‘I have a million errands to do.’

In Jewish time, where a new week begins as Shabbat ends, we are still in the week in which we commemorate the Stonewall riots, which, of course, occurred forty years ago on June 27^th through the night into June 28^th.

Rabbi Yehuda Loew – known as the Maharal of Prague suggests that forty is the number necessary for spiritual and emotional growth.  In the years since Stonewall, the GLBT community has certainly grown – in ways perhaps those present during the riots could have never imagined.

Despite this growth, we have not yet achieved “liberty throughout the land for ALL the inhabitants.

In looking at the verse from Leviticus that I quoted earlier, scholars note the multiple use of the pronoun, you: “it should be a jubilee to you” and “you should return.”  The first use refers to the person who has been enslaved, the second to the slave owner.  Both had an equal responsibility in making sure that freedom is reached. And so do we. As American statesman Carl Shurz said, “If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other.”

A word on this week’s Torah portion, Chukat-Balak.  Tomorrow we read about the Red Heifer, an animal that was sacrificied and the ashes of which were used in purification rituals. Once purified, those who had been viewed as impure were once again allowed the full rights and responsibilities of all of the other members of the community. According to Numbers 19:2, the red heifer must be: "without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke."  These animals were a very rarely seen genetic anomoly. 

There are two types of laws in the Torah, described as chukim and mishpatim. A mishpat is a law the motivation for which is easily discernable.  Do not murder and do not steal, for example.  A chok is often seen as a law without any apparent reason.  In academies of Jewish learning, the law of the Red Heifer is often given as the prime example of a chok.  Red Heifers are few and far between, unfortunately the same cannot be said about laws without reason, or laws whose time has long since passed. Like the ritual of the red heifer, overturning or repealing laws such a Proposition 8, and further reaching laws in Michigan, Mississippi and Ohio –to name a few – would allow ALL of the members of society full rights.

In Pirke Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers, Rabbi Juda ben Taima, in speaking of aging suggested that at forty for discernment, at fifty for counsel (5:25).  Forty years after Stonewall, we have the judgment to see where we have been and how far it is we still need to travel.  Let us pray that our collective counsel will be accepted speedily and that we will not need to wait until the fiftieth year for the statement on the Liberty Bell to be true.