I TORAH PORTION I

Enjoy

The Jewish Dedication
To Liberty Through Law

RABBI RICHARD HERTZ

Special to The Jewish News

T

his week's 'Ibrah por-
tion is concerned with
sabbatical and jubilee
years. Just as the seventh day
is sacred and a day of rest, so
the Torah stipulates that the
seventh month of the year is
special. The High Holy Days
and Succot occur then. Fur-
thermore, every seventh year
is to be a sabbatical year. A
jubilee year is to occur every
fiftieth year; the year after
seven times seven is known as
a year of freedom.
Amidst the detailed
specifications for the jubilee
year is a verse in Leviticus
25:10, "Proclaim liberty
throughout the land to all in-
habitants thereof." What a

Behar:
Leviticus 25:1-26:3
Jeremiah 32:6-27

great text! This pearl was not
lost on the patriots of colonial
America; they inscribed it on
the Liberty Bell. We are hear-
ing that bell today. The Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. rang
it for liberty, with a program
for more schools, more
housing, more jobs.
Jews have been ringing a
liberty bell of our own for
4,000 years. Our poeple are
dedicated to the concept of
liberty through law, justice,
compassion and equal oppor-
tunity. We have had that vi-
sion sunk deep in our
memory through centuries of
persecution. The vision of
liberty has been kept alvie
from the prophets of old down
to our own time; it is a vision
that exalts and endows a per-
son with a spark of God.
Here in America, where
religious and cultural groups
have their distinctive values
preserved in the building of
democracy, Jews and Judaism
have flourished as in no other
land. In the struggle for civil
rights and for racial equality,
Jews have been prominent in
the leadership of the NAACP
and the Urban League. Jews
have created and sustained
the American Jewish Com-
mittee, the Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai B'rith and
many other organizaions
committed to the idea that
freedom is indivisible and
that Jewish security can be
maintained only if all,
regardless of race or religion,

Richard Hertz is rabbi
emeritus of Temple Beth El.

are free to fulfill their highest
potentialities. We "proclaim
liberty throughout the land
and to all the inhabitants of
the world," not just to some,
but to everyone.
Another area where relig-
ious liberty is in jeopardy in-
volves the strict separation of
church and state. Bible
reading in the schools,
religious instruction for
special groups during school
time, prayers, hymns and
holiday observances, such as
Christmas or Chanukah, in-
trude upon the liberties of in-
dividual groups. Jews believe
religion is vital but best
observed in the home, the
church and the synagogue.
"Proclaim liberty, religious
liberty, throughout the land
to all the inhabitants there-
of," not just some times but
always.
Yet major cracks still exist
in the Liberty Bell. Chris-
tians and Jews need to
dialogue with each other;
working together across
religious lines for a better
America enhances human
life. Joining hands to combat
the cracks in the Liberty Bell
requires strengthening civil
rights, combatting juvenile
delinquency and eliminating
slums, poverty and drugs. We
need moral leadership to ad-
dress those cracks, whether
they involve race relations,
family relations, economic af-
fairs or world hunger. We
need to join hands so the
Liberty Bell may ring out,
"Proclaim lbierty to all the
land and to all the in-
habitants thereof." The first
step toward liberty Leopold
Zunz said, is to miss liberty.
The second is to seek it. The
third is to find it.
Liberty is conceived and
built upon three concepts: in-
dividual morality, social
justice and international
peace. The founding fathers of
this republic understood that.
But where do those concepts
come from? They were pro-
claimed by the people of
Israel in the land of Israel,
through the language of
Israel and in previous eras of
Israel's independence, as Ab-
ba Eban noted.

Jews who throughout his-
tory have been the victims of
religious intolerance, of com-
mercial envy, of racial animo-
sity, treasure the ideals of
liberty. Jews, who have had to
fight for their most elemental
rights in history, have found
in the inscription on the
Liberty Bell a reaffirmation

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