How Passover Impacted American Liberty

Passover is a Jewish national liberation holiday, which features Moses and the Exodus. The legacy of Passover deeply impacted the first American settlers and the Founding Fathers, and was essential in shaping the US culture, in general, and the structure of the US political discourse and political system (e.g., the three branches of government and the separation of power), in particular.

Contemporaries called George Washington an “American Moses,” while John Adams was referred to as an “American Joshua.”

The term “Federalism” — based on foedus, the Latin word for “The Covenant” — was coined by the Founding Fathers, who considered themselves as “the Modern-Day People of the Covenant.”

Benjamin Franklin, explicitly invoked Exodus when discussing civic leadership and public order. During the Constitutional Convention, Franklin referred to Jethro’s counsel to Moses in Exodus 18:21, which laid down the foundation for the Mosaic 3-branch-government, separation of powers, and the authority of the 12 Tribal Presidents/Governors. Moses was the Executive, Aharon was the Judiciary, and the 70 Elders were the Legislature.

In 1776, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson proposed Exodus-based designs for the Great Seal of the USA: Moses with his rod and the Egyptian chariots drowning in the sea, with the Israelites led through the wilderness by the pillars of cloud and fire.​ Their proposed inscription was: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to G-d.”

According to Max Dimont’s Jews God and History: “The Mosaic Code … was the first truly judicial, written code… its passion for justice, its love of democracy…. The Mosaic Code laid down the first principles for a separation of church and state. … The Mosaic law established the principle that the Jews could do anything not specifically denied to them [by the Constitution]….”

The principles of due process — procedural fairness and equality before the law, explicitly guaranteed in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments — are found throughout the Laws of Moses, most especially in Exodus 23:1–9, which has for centuries been called the “Ten Commandments of Due Process.”

The Abolitionist movement, as a whole, and Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, in particular, drew much inspiration from Passover’s Exodus and the Mosaic legacy. Harriet Tubman of the “Underground Railroad” (1822-1913) was highlighted as Mama Moses. Martin Luther King’s leading theme was “Let my People Go,” which was reverberated earlier by Paul Robson and Louis Armstrong.

Finally, the Chamber of the US House of Representatives, the Chambers of the US Supreme Court, and the main reading room in the Library of Congress feature statues and engravings of Moses and the Ten Commandments.

The author is a commentator and former Israeli ambassador.