Other parallels exist between ancient Israel and the United States, both rhetorical and operational. For example, the Puritans considered Britain, the Atlantic Ocean and America to be modern-day Egypt, the Red Sea and the Promised Land. Even if other forces, ranging from the European Enlightenment to the Iroquois Nation, may have influenced the thinking of the Founders, none provided a structural detail contravening those within the Torah.

The underpinnings of the U.S. Constitution are uniquely and exclusively Jewish. The premises of the Constitution – its purpose, its function and the government it outlines – exalt its strong Jewish legacy. There is no getting around it: the Constitution’s Enlightenment philosophy – astonishingly, perhaps – is derived from Old Testament innovations.

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Michael David Sklaroff is a senior at Barrack Hebrew Academy in Philadelphia; Dr. Robert Sklaroff is a hematologist/oncologist.