Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof.
— Leviticus 25:10
In its original context, this verse—and the word for liberty (dror) referred very specifically to the proclamation of the jubilee year. Every 50th year, the Torah teaches, all indentured servants are freed, all debts are forgiven, the land is allowed to rest, and each person returns to his or her ancestral holdings. It is an idealistic vision, a complete rebalancing and redistribution of wealth.
Carved on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, the word takes on a new valence, and liberty becomes a motto of a new nation–one dedicated to the truths that we hold “to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
All these years later, we are still looking to define, understand, and pursue this promise.
— Rabbi Sari Laufer