First of three parts.
Dateline Jerusalem — I gave the guest address this week for the English-speaking chapter of a religious women’s charity in my town. Some in the audience requested copies of my speech. This essay is not my talk, but it incorporates material. The title of my speech was “Torah and Talmud’s Influence on U.S. Laws and Government.” I am not an authority on Torah, Talmud, U.S. laws, or U.S. government.
Having had a career in both law enforcement and law, I have been fascinated by the influence Torah and Talmud had upon America’s founding fathers. This was especially true after attended a conference 20 years ago where the panel of speakers included Israel’s Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. Rabbi Steinsaltz received the Israel Prize for Talmudic scholarship. Antonin Scalia, the longest serving Supreme Court Justice, who often quotes the Talmud in his published Supreme Court opinions, also spoke.
According to Rabbi Noson Gurary, “Jewish law is the basis of our legal system in America.” The United States may be the only nation explicitly founded on the seven Noahide laws, which were included in the Capital Laws of New England, codified in the 1600s. The Capital Laws of New England, was part of a legal code known as the Body of Liberties, which was comparable in scope to the Magna Carta. The Capital Laws were a codification of laws to ensure consistent court rulings. They specifically referenced biblical verses from which the laws were derived.
The American Constitution, U.S. laws, and the U.S. government were rooted in the ethical and political principles of the Torah. State governments and the colonies prior to the American Revolution adopted them as well. Almost half of the statutes in the New Haven Code of 1665 derived their authority from Torah and the laws of the State of Massachusetts were based on the same premise. The Puritans of New England and other Protestants saw in the Torah models for modern government.
America’s founding fathers had crucial words to say.
Rules of Governing
George Washington, the first President, said, “It is impossible to govern a nation without G-d and the Bible.” The second President, John Adams, said, “The Jews have done more to civilize men than any other nation…They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited the earth.” The Higher Law Doctrine of the Declaration of Independence, primarily written by Thomas Jefferson, the third president, is rooted in the Torah. The Declaration of Independence was signed by Congressional representatives of the 13 original states at the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. They declared the U.S. to be independent of the British Crown and officially gave birth to the United States of America.
Many of the founding fathers were educated in Hebraic studies at Harvard and Yale Universities. In 1775, Harvard University president Samuel Langdon addressed the Congress of Massachusetts Bay. “Every nation, when able and agreed, has a right to set up over itself any form of government which it may appear most conducive to its common welfare,” he said. “The civil polity of Israel is doubtless an excellent general model”. Yale University President the Rev. Ezra Stiles agreed. “No nation has been more profoundly influenced by the Old Testament than America,” he said. To this day, Yale, Columbia and Dartmouth have Hebrew inscriptions on their official seals.
(To be continued)
L’hitraot, Shachar