America is no utopia, and that’s a good thing. Revolutionaries promising utopia have never been good for Jews or Judaism.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, our revolution was led by thinkers grounded in the wisdom of Torah — which was radical when given at Sinai, and radical still in 1776.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them: Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
If government (or a King) is the source of rights, then government can take them away. Our Declaration of Independence says that God — not man — is the source of inalienable rights. That made our revolution different.
Most revolutions before and since have been led by men thirsty for power — Robespierre, Lenin, Mao, the Ayatollah — who promised to a perfect world while justifying endless violence and the suppression of speech, religion, and thought in service of the cause.
Our General Washington, however, was content to win the Revolution and go back to farming. Even after relenting to calls to become President, he set his own term limit. He believed America was bigger than him.
At his first inauguration, he called this country “the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
Washington didn’t promise a perfect world- he believed individuals are responsible for their own pursuit of happiness while government protected life and liberty and associations and religious institutions took care of their neighbors.
Government could not replace the need for moral and productive individual behavior, which was in turn was maintained by freedom of religion, speech and thought.
In 1790, the Hebrew Congregation of Newport wrote to welcome the new President. Washington replied, promising a government “which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance,” and blessed the “children of the Stock of Abraham” that they would “sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”
For Washington, the prophet Micah’s vision of sitting under his own vine and fig tree embodied “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness”.
America is not a utopia.
America is an exceptional nation for the people, by the people, under God — still standing after two hundred and fifty years.
As Americans and as Jews, let’s continue to celebrate with unabashed joy and gratitude.
