Monday 2 July 2007

Getting the story straight - Just When SHOULD we celebrate our independence?

Originally published 7/2/07, 10:53 PM, Eastern Daylight Time.
NB: Even Canadians can learn a bit about history from this post...

I received the following e-mail from a Scholar of American History named Philip Trumbull Adams. [PTA] He and I were discussing history versus original intentions and how things get morphed over the years, until events are twisted out of their original form.

PTA permitted me to clip bits and pieces of our e-mail correspondence for your reading pleasure...

----
Is celebrating the 4th of July philologically correct or a symptom of giving in to the regnant culture?

Q: What was the prime agitator for American independence?
A: Why it was the feisty John Adams of Massachusetts

Q: What was HIS original comments on the proper celebration of American
independence
A: *Independence Day will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. . . . It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."*

===========================================================

Certainly my ancestor John Adams was Prescient! He foresaw the great hoopla that would accompany the annual celebration of American Freedom.

But the quote above is misleading. Just look at the original intent of great-great-great-grandpa and get HIS philology here.
The Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. . . . It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."*
--John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776*
The momentous decision of the Continental Congress to sever its ties to Great Britain came on July 2, 1776, which is the date that John Adams thought should be celebrated by future generations. The Declaration of Independence, drafted mostly by Thomas Jefferson, and edited by his colleagues in the Continental Congress, was adopted 2 days later.

The Declaration was a stirring call to throw off the bonds of tyranny. This revolutionary document expressed an abiding faith in humanity and political ideals to which this nation still aspires. The Declaration of Independence has been called the birth certificate of the United States, and it is its adoption that Americans celebrate each year with fireworks on the Fourth of
July.

We see below two close-up views of a resolution, adopted July 2, 1776, in which the Continental Congress affirmed their independence from Great Britain. The words of the resolution, originally proposed by Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee, are echoed in the Declaration of Independence.
....
==========================================================
So, it is the SECOND of July that my prescient forefather foresaw as the anniversary of that momentous date. The original philological date has been corrupted by the Regnant Culture to use the FOURTH of July instead of the fundamentally correct SECOND of JULY!

We must abolish all subsequent history and restore Independence Day to its correct original date! It is the revisionists who have betrayed us! ] I propose, dear Rabbi Wolpoe, the establishment of the:

The Boldly & Uniformly Loyal Laborers of the ....[acronym deleted]
about the Second of July In order to Restore its rightful place in our society!

---------------------------------------------------------------------

While I questioned the acronym implicit in the first line of the title, nevertheless, I must say that PT Adams is right on. Maybe we should undo all this corny stuff about the 4th of July and Yankee Doodle Dandy and go back to the good old days of the good old ways and get it right! Hail to the 2nd of July.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

KT,
RRW

3 comments:

Rabbi Ben Hecht said...

Let us not ignore the significance of this issue within the world of Halacha and the subsequent role of minhag in disagreement with the clear academic halachic analysis. It actually is a significant issue within Halacha as it emerges in every instance where a minhag is seen as violating what should be the clear halachic ruling.

Of course there are many more dimeensions within the halachic issue and Halacha itself deals analytically with this issue as part of the academic halachic process but the example that Rabbi Wolpoe presents in regard to the US is a good description of a problem that also emerges in Halacha. Dr. Chaim Soloveitchik's famous Tradition article of the 90s, "Rupture and Reconstruction" is exactly on point and it shows, while there may be a pre-disposition to simply ignore what the people did in the fact of halachic reasoning, that there was value in what the nation ended up doing. The issue is a major one within Halacha and should be recognized as such.

Maybe, to apply this halachic concept to America, there is argument to keep the 4th. I though am not paskening for the U.S.

Rabbi Richard Wolpoe said...

Three kinds of judicial philosophies predominate in the USA

1. Judicial Activitsts
2. Original intention types
3. Judicial "conservatives"

1. Activists are a bit like Liberal Rabbis [Reform and Conservative] let's make the law follow the society; or better yet - actively alter society's norms!

2.Original intention types say - "hey what happened? how come the law NOW does not follow the:
Constitution
Canon
Tanach
Talmud
as originally construed! These types are like "reformation" types or even Karaites. "Let's go back to the strict orginal meaning of the text and forget about the consequences"

3. Judicial conservatives are probably most like Justice Felix Frankfurter - "Stare Decisis" let the decision stand. These people advocate stability and gradual evolutionary change. They do not want any radical alterations of law or society in either a liberal or fundmanetalistic direction.

The post I made was a bit of a spoof on some fundamentalists who come from many different camps. Yet the post is primarily just food for thought. When DO WE go back to original intentions and when do we go with the gentle flow of historical changes - even those founded upon mis-understandings!

Or in other words, when is a minhag taut better left alone and when is it better to be discarded. Rosh says that the 60 days following the equinox for v'Tain Tal uMatar is based upon Babylonian
agricultural needs- and that in Europe there is no such reasoning!
While conceding the error of our ways, he states that since Mashiach is coming any day now why bother setting this trivial matter straight! IOW, Rosh is honest that the logic is faulty but conservative in messing with precedent on a legal level.

This type of thinking might be an early ancestor of open-minded Observance or open-minded Orthopraxy, etc.

If we suddenly reverted back to some earlier Canon, e.g.
Tanach
Bavli
Rambam
we would making radical changes albeit for a fundamentalistic cause
This is against "stare decisis"

Anonymous said...

A somewhat similar argument can be made regarding the "Liberty Bell"
The biblical quotation inscribed thereon, Proclaim Liberty throughout the land, to all the inhabitants thereof" had absolutely NOTHING to do with American (sorry, US) independence.
That inscription was cast with the bell years earlier in honor of the yovel/jubilee of religious tolerance in Pennsylvania.