Let freedom ring!

The Biblical inscription on the Liberty Bell reveals an amazing set of ancient utopian laws.
By Irvin H. Jacobs

  Inscribed on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia are the words “Proclaim Liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof…” The passage is from the Torah, Leviticus 25:10, as translated by the King James Bible.

  In English, the quote is certainly idealistic enough for this American icon. But once the quote is reviewed in context and properly translated, it reveals a stunning decree relating to land ownership and the limits of loss – nearly unprecedented in recorded history.

  Most Americans don’t realize the Liberty Bell was not cast in conjunction with The Declaration of Independence. In fact, the Assembly of the Colony of Pennsylvania commissioned the Bell in 1751, well before the Colonies were at war with Britain. It was cast by an English foundry, the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and arrived in Philadelphia in September 1752. After being hung in a specially designed new steeple in the colony’s “State House” in Philadelphia, it cracked in March 1753 – at the first trial ring.

   American workmen recast the 2,080-pound bell twice after that (the first time, in an effort to prevent cracking, they added additional copper – so much that the Bell was too sturdy to ring melodically). This Bell hung for years in the building later renamed Independence Hall. It came to be identified with the Colonial Revolution against England.

   In 1777, with the threat of British occupation of Philadelphia, it and other local bells were hastily removed from the city and hidden at the Zion Reform Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to prevent capture by the British. The colonists feared the Brits would turn the metal into cannons.

   The Bell was used to celebrate many patriotic events until it cracked around 1835, most likely at the funeral procession of John Marshall, our first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. With a subsequent extension of this crack on George Washington’s birthday in 1843, it became useless. It was made into the heirloom we know today, protected by a glass display case.

   The inscription on the Bell was chosen to honor William Penn, founding father of Pennsylvania. A Quaker, Penn (1644-1718) allowed his citizens to take part in legislation, and gave each citizen the right to choose his preferred religion. The Torah inscription was meant to praise his egalitarian ways. But a more accurate translation of the Hebrew quote by today’s Jewish scholars is: “You shall proclaim release throughout the land for all its inhabitants.”

   The language of Leviticus Chapter 25 can be confusing, but essentially it advances two unprecedented business and labor statutes.

   The first ordinance (verses 2-7) declares a Sabbatical year every seven years. The second ordinance (verse 10) declares a jubilee every 50th year.

   The first ordinance reiterates the commandments from Exodus 23:10-11 and Deuteronomy 15:1-6. The Exodus commandment acknowledged the common ancient practice of leaving agricultural land fallow every seventh year.

   Soil, which in ancient times was typically irrigated and dedicated to a single crop, would become alkaline after several years and yield a poor harvest. The neo-Sumerian nation in Mesopotamia actually disappeared because it failed to restore its cropland. The ancients didn’t know what we know today, that rotating and fertilizing crops can prevent this problem.

   But the Leviticus legislations went further, adding an element of humanity to this economically sensible practice. Whatever the land spontaneously yielded during a fallow year was not to be officially harvested even if it was substantial. The corners of the field were to be left for the poor, widows and orphans. The rest was to be left for all to take at will, including slaves, paid servants, livestock, wild beasts and the landholder’s own family.

 
   In the Deuteronomy legislation, all debts are to be forgiven in the seventh year. In agrarian economies, virtually all debts were linked to the soil, such as loans for seeds, implements, work animals and money to pay workers, until the harvest profits came in. But what if there was a bad season, with no profit and/or actual loss?

   This resulted in long-term debt, often loss of land or even permanent indenture to creditors. In Leviticus, this legislation is clearly coincident with the nearly adjacent laws of indenture, in Chapter 25, 12-18, which declare that on the seventh year all indentured servants not redeemed by friends or family were to be released. It is commonly believed that the prices of such acquired land and indentured states were adjusted downward depending on the number of years remaining before the next sabbatical year. Overall, this legislation was a stunning advancement in social welfare legislation, essentially preventing debt slavery – a first of its kind in recorded history.

   Even more dramatic – although more problematic – was the unprecedented social legislation embodied in the Jubilee (release) year, in verse 10 (from where the inscription on the Bell directly originates). This legislation commanded that all land would revert back to its original owner after the 50th year.
However the land was lost – be it through mismanagement, the fates of fortune or even legal sale – the land was returned to its original owner family. The goal was to restore the land to its “rightful” owners: the original Israelite families who received their land distribution from Moses’ successor, Joshua.

   A basic formulation behind this idea is the Israelite thesis that no land belongs to any person. It is all G-d’s land, only loaned to the inhabitants. According to this, no one can declare that a land parcel is his forever, or that he earned or won it in perpetuity. Effectively all lands sold or mortgaged were looked at as technically “leased” to others for a period not to exceed 50 years. This idea is contrary to the known legislations of all other nations before and since. In our country, as in most, the contracted exchange of real estate is indefinite unless it is subsequently sold or lost.

   Noted Torah scholar Rabbi Baruch Levine belongs to a group that theorizes that Nehemiah, the Judean governor appointed by King Artaxerxes of Persia in 445 BCE, wrote these commandments. Nehemiah used these laws to help restore the Jewish population that had been exiled by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

   According to Levine, Nehemiah’s writings in the Bible (Nehemiah, Chapter 5) written around 430 BCE translate to show that he personally did much along the lines of Leviticus 25:10 to help impoverished and discouraged returnees, to the point of paying their property taxes to Persia from his own pocket!

   While noble in its goals, such legislation is impractical in the long run, as it discourages all sales of property and doesn’t account for new immigrants. It is also, ironically, utterly contrary to American principles of property rights. And in fact, authorities think the Jubilee idea was operational for only a few cycles.

   But leaders like Nehemiah, driven by crises in their time, will always be needed to restrain man’s typical greed for land and wealth, to permit attainment of more worthy national goals.

   I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Rabbi Baruch A. Levine’s “Torah Commentary of Leviticus” (Jewish Publication Society, 1989). Levine’s essay (Excursus 10) on the matter of The Inalienable Right to the Land of Israel is a major source for this piece.




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