SHABBAT SHALOM!
By Prof. Paul Eidelberg
Although many of the framers of the American Constitution were not devout, their political mentality was shaped in universities whose curriculum was based very much on Jewish ideas, which is not to say they were not influenced by the writings of Locke and Montesquieu.
The curriculum at Harvard, like those of other early American colleges and universities, was designed by men of "Old Testament" persuasion. Many New England divines agreed with President Samuel Langdon of Harvard when he declared, in his election sermon of 1775, that "the Jewish government, according to the original constitution which was divinely established, if considered merely in a civil view, was a perfect republic."
Harvard graduate John Adams, the second president of the United States said: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
Hebrew and the study of Hebraic laws and institutions were an integral part of Yale University's curriculum. Yale president Ezra Stiles, who readily discoursed with visiting rabbinical authorities on the Mishna and Talmud, held that the American Constitution was based on the Ten Commandments.
Hebraic civilization was an integral part of the curriculum of the Princeton University (formerly the College of New Jersey), James Madison's alma mater. The same may be said of Columbia University (formerly Kings College), Alexander Hamilton's alma mater. The curriculum's of William and Mary, Rutgers, Dartmouth, and Brown University also stressed Hebraic studies.
The Capital Laws of New England included the "Seven Noahide Laws" of the Torah—the seven universal laws of morality, which, in addition to prohibiting idolatry, blasphemy, murder, robbery, immorality, and eating flesh from a living animal, requires the establishment of courts of justice to ensure the rule of reason as opposed to unruly passions.
The Seven Noahide Laws (together with their particular branches) comprised America's "genial orthodoxy." This genial orthodoxy transcends the social or economic distinctions among men: it holds all men equal before the law. By so doing it places constraints on governors and governed alike and thereby habituated Americans to the rule of law. This Hebraic orthodoxy moderated the demands of various groups, helped coordinate their diverse interests and talents, and thereby contributed to America's growth and prosperity.
Strange as it may seem, the Seven Noahide Laws were incorporated in Public Law 102-14, which established March 26, 1991 as "Education Day"! What presumably saves this Congressional joint resolution from violating the First Amendment is its silence about the Hebraic origin of the Noahide code.
The First Amendment states, in part: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion …" This clause is widely and grossly misconstrued by contemporary liberals. It was intended not to prevent Congress from enacting laws supportive of religion, but to prohibit Congress from establishing a state or national religion. In his "Farewell Address," George Washington declared:
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports…. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in the exclusion of religious principle.
James Madison and Alexander Hamilton are credited with having drafted the Farewell Address. These statesmen regarded America as a Christian nation. But given the variety of Christian sects in this country, they deemed it essential to political freedom and self-government to preclude any one sect from having constitutional primacy.
Their rejecting an ecclesiastically based system of governance does not mean they advocated the absolute separation of religion and state—the meaning dogmatic liberals now attribute to the First Amendment.
Of course, America has come a long way from those great statesmen as well as from their great educators. A narrow liberalism permeates the mentality of America's ruling elites, and moral relativism dominates the universities in which they have been educated.
Ironic that America became great having been founded very much on Jewish ideas, whereas Israel is now steeped in mediocrity having been founded on gentile ideas!
| 8To bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. | חלֶאְסֹּר מַלְכֵיהֶם בְּזִקִּים וְנִכְבְּדֵיהֶם בְּכַבְלֵי בַרְזֶל: | |
| 9To execute upon them a written judgment; that will be splendor to all His pious ones. Hallelujah! | טלַעֲשׂוֹת בָּהֶם | מִשְׁפָּט כָּתוּב הָדָר הוּא לְכָל חֲסִידָיו הַלְלוּיָהּ: |
