America's Prophet

Here’s a book to put on your winter reading list. It’s America’s Prophet: Moses and the American Story. Author Bruce Feiler draws on his Jewish and American roots to paint a compelling argument that America’s ideals and founding lie more in the Hebrew Scriptures, particularly the five Books of Moses, than in the New Testament.

This notion is not unique to Feiler, having been espoused by Heritage Foundation contributor Michael Novak. A 1973 study of by David Lutz and Charles Hyneman of the Revolutionary period writings pointed to a similar conclusion.

From Columbus to Bradford to Franklin, from Tubman to Lincoln, from Lady Liberty to Martin Luther King, says Feiler, is the story of Moses. Whether it be Moses the Liberator or Moses the Lawgiver or Moses the reluctant prophet, this prophet of the Jewish people provided the inspiration for most of the movements in our nation’s history that reinforced the concept of liberty under law.

This book is not just about interesting historical parallels, but the repeated citing of Moses and the Books of Moses by the movers of American History from its founding through the Presidential campaign of 2008.

Feiler gives us a much-needed reminder of the richness of our history, and he does so by celebrating both the blessings and responsibilities that freedom demands, while at the same time acknowledging both its honor and the warts.

As he closes his book, Feiler reminds us to remember. He refuses to surrender to the modern fad of blaming America first. He acknowledges our imperfections, but holds out the story of Moses who himself never reached the Promised Land, but whose teaching, examples, indeed the story fo his life pointed the way.

He reminds us to remember. Writes Feiler:

“What will I tell my children about the meaning of Moses? First, the power of story. Exodus opens with a memorable statement: ‘A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.’ The story begins with forgetting. The pharaoh does not remember how a son of Israel saved Egypt from famine. The rest of the Five Books of Moses become an antidote to this state of forgetfulness. God hears the groaning of Israel and ‘remembers his covenant’ (Exodus 2:24). Moses leads the Israelites from Egypt and urges them to ‘remember this day (Exodus 13:3). The Israelites are ordered to ‘remember the Sabbath day’ (Exodus 20:8) and to observe Passover as a ‘day of remembrance’ (Exodus 12:14). Moses’ goal is to build a counter-Egypt. He must construct a society that offers an alternative to ignorance and unknowingness. He must devise a community that remembers. …

“I will tell my daughters that this is the meaning of the Moses story and why it has reverberated through the American story. America, it has been said, is a synonym for human possibility. I dream for you, girls, the privilege of that possibility. Imagine your own Promised Land, perform your own liberation, plunge into the waters, persevere through the dryness, and don’t be surprised – or saddened – if you’re stopped just short of your dream. Because the ultimate lesson of Moses’ life is that the dream does not die with the dreamer, the journey does not end on the mountaintop, and the true destination in a narrative of hope is not this year at all. But next.”

Destroy a nation’s history and you will destroy a nation. There are those among us who are attempting just that. Bruce Feiler is not one of them.