Feast of freedom
Jared Silverman wrote a very interesting column, quoting Yoram Hazony (“What ‘truths’ are our college students learning?” March 4). One of Hazony’s issues is whether universities can accommodate ideas from the Hebrew Bible and Judaism as a legitimate source for true ideas and principles. My reply is “certainly.” Judaism has ideals of major significance to contemporary America.
The basic founding principle of Judaism is freedom. The primary festival is the “Freedom Holiday” — Passover — celebrating the Exodus from Egypt. Egypt was a statist society. The government controlled allocation of resources and food and dictated where people could live. The new Israelite society was free of strong government control, limited to judges and police. God tells us in the Bible that He has given us a choice between good and life, and evil and death; God then politely asks that we choose the good.
The Hebrew Bible repeats many, many times the command not to forget the Exodus from Egypt, from a statist society to a society of free people. We must constantly remember this, in the face of government trying to get more power and letting people have less freedom.
Dr. Sanford Aranoff
Monroe Township
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