Father Harrison's statement for Tuesday’s Tree-of-Life Vigil at Temple Beth Tikvah

Statement for Tree-of-Life Vigil at Temple Beth Tikvah, Madison, CT
Tuesday, October 30, 2018


Rabbi Offner’s beautiful invitation to this evening’s gathering included a second intention : “to celebrate our common values as Americans.” In all candor, I must tell you, that made me really nervous. In my experience, too often such “common values,” are not those that are held in Common, but are the ones which secure the pride and place of the privileged. That might even be said of our nation’s founders, but then I remembered how George Washington advocated and campaigned for religious liberty. Now there’s a fine American value! It’s one dimension of a larger value about which Washington often spoke. That larger value is actually a verse from the Hebrew Scriptures.

In Micah 4.4, we read, “…they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lordof hosts hath spoken it.”
Some of you are saying, Hold on buster, that’s from Hamilton! And you’re right! Lin-Manuel Miranda uses it to set-up George Washington’s decision to teach the people “how to say goodbye,” and to inform them that he will not be a candidate for a third term. Washington asks Alexander Hamilton’s help in writing what became his famous “farewell address.” Miranda has George Washington say to Hamilton, that he needs to say goodbye, so that the country may survive, and as Scripture says, “Everyone shall situnder their own vine and fig tree; And no one shall make them afraid.”

That was near the end of his second term, and Washington was speaking of his personal hopes. As it happened, this was a go-to quotation for Washington, often found in his writings and speeches. And so it was, that quite early in his first administration Washington, along with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, and others, campaigned for the adoption of what we call the Bill of Rights on his second trip through New England.
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During a public meeting in Newport, RI, {on August 17, 1790) the president of the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Moises Seixas, was one of the speakers to thank Washington for his efforts to secure religious liberty in the new American republic. That letter of goodwill prompted a letter in response from George Washington; this brief letter came to be known as Washington’s presidential declaration of liberty. If you want fine American values, here they are:

To the Hebrew Congregation of Newport Rhode Island, August 21, 1790

Gentlemen:
[While I received with much satisfaction your address replete with expressions of esteem, I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you that I shall always retain grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced on my visit to Newport from all classes of citizens.

The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security.
If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good government, to become a great and happy people.]

The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

[It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my administration and fervent wishes for my felicity.]

May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants—while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.

May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.

G. Washington