Like Biblical Israel, America is a covenantal nation. Abraham Lincoln saw this parallel, and how it compels us to press onward when we fail to live up to our creed.
This summer, I spent a week in Washington DC at the American Enterprise Institute Summer Honors Program (SHP). My SHP class, taught by Rabbi Dr. Meir Y. Soloveichik was titled “The Almost Chosen People: Lincoln, the Hebrew Bible, and the Meaning of America.”
Rabbi Soloveichik introduced us to a new paradigm for viewing the nature of America: contractual and covenantal. Most of us have some familiarity with the idea that America was founded on social contract theory: the people endow government with power for the protection of the people’s natural rights. However, many of us fail to realize that America is also covenantal—founded not only upon a “ceasefire” but upon a commitment to uphold certain ideals. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks puts it, “Social contract is about laws and their enforcement. Social covenant is about the values we share.” Using this paradigm, we understand the Declaration as America’s covenant—the creed of freedom and equality that unites us—and the Constitution as the social contract. Or, as Lincoln puts it, the golden apple and the silver frame. A mutual agreement to sacrifice for a nation’s creed must underpin any covenantal society. America’s founding at a specific moment, expressly in the name of certain universal principles, sets it in a class with Biblical Israel alone.
America is also covenantal—founded not only upon a “ceasefire” but upon a commitment to uphold certain ideals.
In his 1861 address to the New Jersey State Senate, Lincoln refers to America as God’s “almost chosen people.” Lincoln clearly sees parallels between America and Biblical Israel, but why call Americans almost chosen? Rabbi Soloveichik believes that Lincoln uses this qualifier to denote a contingency. As Americans, our founding fathers chose to enshrine universal principles of equality and liberty in our covenantal creed, the Declaration. Our commitment to these principles makes America exceptional. If, as Americans, we fail to uphold these principles, we will no longer serve as a light to the nations. In contrast, Israel was sovereignly elected by God to be His among all nations. The Old Testament is filled with stories of Israel violating their covenant. Yet, Israel’s chosen status remains since it ultimately depends on God. As Lincoln saw it, we have more influence over our preeminence than did the people of Israel. Our distinctiveness fully stems from our covenant faithfulness.
As Americans, our founding fathers chose to enshrine universal principles of equality and liberty in our covenantal creed, the Declaration. Our commitment to these principles makes America exceptional.
Undeniably, we as Americans have failed to uphold our founding creed at times. Lincoln knew this. He saw the Civil War as an existential threat to America as a covenantal nation. In his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln soberly observes, “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” Yet, the nation has endured. The rebel cause that so vehemently rejected the American creed of liberty and equality in favor of slavery was defeated. It took another century for America to more fully guarantee our creedal promises to Black Americans by passing the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s. Yet, the greatest visionary leaders of the civil rights movement—Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King— recognized the inherent value of American ideals and called out America’s failures to uphold them.
We must not turn a blind eye toward America’s faults but instead call Americans to greater faithfulness to our founding creed.
Now, the mantle is passed to us. Rabbi Soloveichik explained that Judaism requires covenantal renewal with each generation, chiefly through Passover. So too, as God’s almost chosen people, we must affirm our willingness in this generation to uphold our covenant. Unfortunately, some Americans fail to see the goodness of our covenantal creed, arguing America was conceived in sin. In our generation especially, we passionately decry injustice and acutely perceive the manifold ills of our society. Yet, we must respond with Lincoln that our nation was “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” We must say this first because it is true—liberty and equality are the very DNA of America, despite our faults—and second because to do otherwise would be self-defeating. We must not turn a blind eye toward America’s faults but instead call Americans to greater faithfulness to our founding creed. That is the greatest form of patriotism. As we sacrifice and strive to better uphold our covenant, we show ourselves to be God’s almost chosen people.