Session 4: Parashat Bo
"What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?", Frederick Douglass, 1852
One of the most powerful points of the Yom Kippur liturgy is the Haftarah reading from Isaiah, where the prophet intones against empty fasts and rote prayers while injustice festers in society. The false ritual seems equally offensive to God as the oppression against the weak and poor. In this season of Presidential Inauguration, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and President’s Day, we have an opportunity to reflect on the integrity of our national rituals, and ask whether they reflect the underlying values of our society.
Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” stands as one of the most foundational documents in our national story. Following Isaiah, Douglass decries not only the suffering of the enslaved, but also the empty pieties of a national ritual.
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