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Caption transcript for Faith of our Fathers: “The Cost of Faith” (6/8)

• 00:03 male announcer: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots."
• 00:08 The Word of God has given us examples of faith that have
• 00:12 shaped virtually every aspect of the believer's life today.
• 00:17 Where would we be without the examples of Noah, Abraham and
• 00:22 Isaac, David, and ultimately that of Yeshua, Jesus?
• 00:28 Faith is woven into the fabric of America, as well, from the
• 00:32 pilgrims to John Adams, to Patrick Henry,
• 00:36 and George Washington.
• 00:38 God's providential hand remained highly esteemed
• 00:41 and honored above all.
• 00:44 Faith unshakable.
• 00:46 Faith unstoppable.
• 00:48 Faith of our fathers.
• 00:53 David Hart: Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 00:55 I am David Hart.
• 00:56 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 00:58 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: I am Jeffrey Seif.
• 01:00 We're talking about the faith of our fathers, but let's look
• 01:03 at the ladies, too.
• 01:04 Kirsten: Ooh, thank you. Appreciate that.
• 01:06 We get one program in here, huh?
• 01:08 Dr. Seif: Well.
• 01:10 David: Dr. Seif teaches about a mother of our faith.
• 01:13 Let's go to it right now.
• 01:15 ♪♪♪
• 01:29 Dr. Seif: Shalom.
• 01:31 In this series, we began to talk about the faith of our fathers,
• 01:37 and I'm good with that, but today we wanna talk about the
• 01:40 faith of one of our mothers.
• 01:43 You've heard it said behind every good man there's a good
• 01:46 woman.
• 01:47 Well, surely today, when we look at the book of Esther, we see
• 01:51 that story, a story of a woman behind the scenes.
• 01:56 You've seen in this series and you'll see later a dramatic
• 01:59 vignette of a famous woman behind the scenes who put
• 02:02 together the flag of our culture.
• 02:05 Well, truth be known, there was a woman behind the scenes who
• 02:08 preserved Hebraic culture in the Hebrew Bible.
• 02:13 It is a fascinating story, this woman of faith, and we wanna
• 02:18 look at her world and consider what she did in it.
• 02:24 In days like our own today, or in days like yesterday when we
• 02:29 were just forging a nation here on this side of the Atlantic,
• 02:33 whether today, yesterday, or way into yesteryear, there are
• 02:39 stories of individuals who've rolled the dice against an
• 02:43 uncertain future and taking a stand and walk by faith, a story
• 02:47 that we look at as we look at the faith of our fathers.
• 02:52 Or, as I'd said in this case, our mother, one of them.
• 02:57 The story takes place in the book of Esther.
• 03:01 I can just feel the tension when I enter into the biblical world.
• 03:07 The political backdrop was miserable.
• 03:11 Mordecai knew it.
• 03:13 He was chagrined because he knew the Jews were about to be
• 03:16 undone.
• 03:19 There's the news, and there's the news behind the news that
• 03:24 affected the Jews, God's people in this case.
• 03:27 Mordecai was pressed.
• 03:29 He leaned on Esther, "Can you help?"
• 03:32 But she was nervous to do so initially.
• 03:35 And who can blame her?
• 03:37 Because, you know, faith takes risk.
• 03:42 Whether it's hopping on a boat and coming into the new world to
• 03:45 come to America, or whether it's stepping up to take a chance
• 03:50 here in the biblical Word, whether it's the biblical Word
• 03:53 or whether it's the world that we live in, the truth of the
• 03:57 matter it takes faith for our mothers and fathers to move
• 04:01 forward.
• 04:03 In this case, Mordecai had a request.
• 04:05 "Listen, you gotta talk to the king.
• 04:08 You gotta do something. We're in trouble here."
• 04:10 She knew there was a risk associated with that,
• 04:13 but you know what?
• 04:14 She decided to roll the dice against an uncertain future, and
• 04:19 there's a holiday that's named after the rolling of the dice in
• 04:24 something of a dark and twisted sense because someone was game
• 04:29 to destroy the Jews, and he rolled the dice--his name was
• 04:33 Haman--to decide on a day to do it.
• 04:37 Well, what happened here is Esther had to get her faith up.
• 04:42 We're told here that Mordecai is leaning on her.
• 04:46 He was a guardian to her, a guide, a counselor, and he tells
• 04:50 her in chapter 4, verse 14, he says, "You know, Esther, you
• 04:56 need to take a chance."
• 04:58 You know why?
• 05:01 He says, "Who knows whether you've attained royal status
• 05:03 for such a time as this?"
• 05:06 Let's pause for a moment to speak of providence.
• 05:11 Those who forged our own culture spoke of providence that guided
• 05:15 into the future.
• 05:17 There really is quite a sense of God leading in the new
• 05:20 enterprise that is America.
• 05:23 Well, God's at work here in the Word.
• 05:25 What do you think?
• 05:27 And he reminds her, "You know, who knows?
• 05:28 Come on.
• 05:30 You know, providence put you here."
• 05:32 Well, she hears him on that score.
• 05:35 "You know, maybe I'm just not a pretty girl that got lucky and
• 05:37 won a beauty contest, you know?
• 05:40 Maybe God put me where I am to use influence."
• 05:44 And so it is faith prompts people to roll the dice against
• 05:50 an uncertain future, one of my expressions, and use influence.
• 05:54 Well, what she does in response to his petition in this
• 05:59 political moment, "Gather together the Jews.
• 06:02 Don't eat or drink. Let's fast."
• 06:05 They're calling for a fast and a prayer meeting, in effect, and
• 06:09 isn't that a good thing to do?
• 06:11 Faith prompts people to petition heaven before they decide for
• 06:17 things on Earth.
• 06:19 Subsequent to that, she says afterward--see, a lotta people
• 06:23 don't have an interior faith walk.
• 06:27 Not men, not women.
• 06:29 Sometimes, we just move.
• 06:31 Sometime, we just march.
• 06:34 The times are difficult here, and she petitions heaven first
• 06:39 with pietistic inclinations for prayer and fasting and what have
• 06:42 you, subsequent to which she says, "Then I," and I'm reading
• 06:46 from the text, "will go to the king, even though it is not
• 06:50 according to the law."
• 06:52 That is to say to show up uninvited.
• 06:55 You do it at your own risk, but she decided to throw herself
• 06:58 into uncertainty here, propelled by a kind of faith that maybe
• 07:02 destiny has her number dialed up.
• 07:05 And she says a line after that that is just so profound.
• 07:09 She says, "If I perish, I perish."
• 07:13 You know, we talk about the cost.
• 07:16 Faith comes with a cost.
• 07:19 People talk about the free gift of God in Messiah Jesus, and,
• 07:23 indeed, it's a free gift because he paid for it,
• 07:26 like the holidays.
• 07:27 I gave my kids, when they were growing up, free gifts, but
• 07:29 someone had to pay for the gift.
• 07:31 Come to think of it, I don't just do it when they
• 07:33 were growing up.
• 07:34 I do it when they were adults.
• 07:35 There's nothing free at the end of the day.
• 07:37 Someone's paying for it, and here we see someone taking a
• 07:41 deep breath and moving forward.
• 07:44 And so it was not just in Bible days, but in the forging of our
• 07:48 own world here in America.
• 07:51 There were people with faith who looked to God, who petitioned
• 07:54 heaven, subsequent to which they then moved forward.
• 07:59 And dangerous were the times.
• 08:01 Oh, goodness.
• 08:03 The political backdrop here is extremely dangerous, and so it
• 08:07 was when I think of our fathers and mothers in colonial America,
• 08:11 to tell you the truth.
• 08:12 And we'll get to that in a moment, you know?
• 08:14 But when I think about even the thought of breaking away from
• 08:17 Britain, powerful Britain.
• 08:20 It held the day.
• 08:21 And those that believed God had guided them here to this new
• 08:25 world and were then minded to take a stand in this world, to
• 08:29 make a place here, to stand up for principles in this world.
• 08:34 Oh, it took faith for them back then.
• 08:37 You know, it took faith for them here in Bible days.
• 08:40 It took faith for our fathers and mothers in Bible days.
• 08:44 And you know what?
• 08:45 It takes faith for us today, and so it is I'm pleased to come to
• 08:51 you, we all are, to look at the story of the faith of our
• 08:55 fathers, and in this case the faith of our mothers and
• 08:59 fathers, as well.
• 09:08 announcer: The Dead Sea referred to in the Bible
• 09:10 as the Salt Sea provides a wealth of beneficial ingredients
• 09:14 for skincare.
• 09:16 This week, our ministry is offering you three of Ahava's
• 09:19 most popular products, all made from the sea's
• 09:22 rejuvenating minerals.
• 09:24 For your kind donation we'll send you their mineral body
• 09:27 lotion and cream and foot cream.
• 09:31 They soften, they smooth, and, most importantly,
• 09:35 they're made in Israel.
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• 09:43 David: Join us right now for additional content that is only
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• 10:27 viewers like you.
• 10:30 Dr. Seif: Did you know that the word "providence" and the
• 10:33 word "from provision" are really in effect cut from
• 10:36 the same cloth?
• 10:38 In one case God provides, as in providence, as in
• 10:40 divine providence.
• 10:42 In another he works through individuals who
• 10:45 provide provision.
• 10:46 With that said, let me encourage you--we're considering divine
• 10:50 providence in this program, but let me ask you, please, lend a
• 10:54 hand to participate with him in providing.
• 10:59 That's what it means to be Christians at the end
• 11:01 of the day.
• 11:02 That is, that we love, we care, and we share.
• 11:05 It's intrinsic to our faith that our faith has works, and,
• 11:10 please, if God inspires you to do it, please help provide for
• 11:14 what we do.
• 11:16 We go all over the world.
• 11:17 We do this through the miracle that is television.
• 11:20 It's not just a stand-up preacher.
• 11:22 It's dramatic vignettes.
• 11:24 It's to and from Israel, special guests, a lotta television time.
• 11:28 It doesn't come cheap.
• 11:30 Please help us provide, and I wanna thank you in advance.
• 11:34 Kirsten: Providence is an interesting word.
• 11:36 It's not one that we use every day in our vernacular.
• 11:40 I think that's a big word also, but it's the protective
• 11:43 care of God.
• 11:44 And we just wanna let all of you know, yes, we're a television
• 11:48 program, but we also take tours to Israel.
• 11:50 We go two times a year and never once, right, never once in all
• 11:55 of our tours to the Holy Land have we felt unprotected
• 11:59 or unsafe.
• 12:01 That's probably our number-one question that we get, don't you
• 12:03 think, from people?
• 12:04 David: Oh, yeah. Our families even when we go.
• 12:06 Kirsten: Right.
• 12:07 A lot of our family go, "Do you feel safe?"
• 12:09 Every single time, so that is never something to worry about
• 12:13 or think about.
• 12:14 God's providence.
• 12:16 His care protects us, keeps our tour safe.
• 12:18 We'd love to be your hosts in the Holy Land.
• 12:20 We go two times a year.
• 12:22 Get in touch with our ministry for information.
• 12:24 Dr. Seif: You know, Kirsten, you say that, and I've been in
• 12:26 and out of Israel 50 times, and it's always the same story
• 12:30 over decades.
• 12:31 "Aren't you scared to go?"
• 12:33 Whether you're afraid of a virus or afraid of Iraq or a bullet,
• 12:36 whatever, it's people are always thrown on their heels, but those
• 12:40 that go there marvel.
• 12:42 It's such a joyous experience.
• 12:43 Kirsten: And that's the number one thing.
• 12:45 Everyone that's there is like, "I never knew the peace."
• 12:47 I mean, literally, where you can slice.
• 12:49 The peace is so thick.
• 12:50 Dr. Seif: There's such a chasm between the rhetoric
• 12:52 and the reality.
• 12:53 Kirsten: I agree.
• 12:55 David: A lotta prayer for the peace of Jerusalem also.
• 12:56 Dr. Seif: That's true. We do it on this program.
• 12:58 People have been drawn to the land.
• 12:59 It's just part of the mystery that is Israel, and pilgrims
• 13:04 have gone there from medieval times, way beyond that.
• 13:08 It's always had a certain allure.
• 13:10 If God's drawing you, come on.
• 13:12 Do it.
• 13:14 David: Right now, Betsy Ross and her clergyman friend discuss
• 13:16 the issue of providence in our dramatic reenactment.
• 13:19 Let's go there right now.
• 13:23 clergyman: Betsy, permit me to read from Mr. John Adams, a
• 13:28 fierce advocate and signer of the Declaration of Independence.
• 13:32 Betsy Ross: Please do so, sir.
• 13:35 clergyman: Herein he writes to his dear wife, Abigail.
• 13:39 "Yesterday, the greatest question was decided, which ever
• 13:43 was debated in America, and a greater, perhaps, never was nor
• 13:47 will be decided among men.
• 13:50 It is the will of heaven that the two countries should be
• 13:52 sundered forever.
• 13:55 I must submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling
• 13:58 providence, in which I firmly believe."
• 14:02 Betsy: It was a day many of us longed for, a day we believed
• 14:07 would never happen, and yet God's mighty hand guided those
• 14:11 gentlemen in providential fashion.
• 14:15 clergyman: Mr. Adams continues.
• 14:18 "This will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America.
• 14:24 I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding
• 14:28 generations as the great anniversary festival.
• 14:32 It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn
• 14:35 acts of devotion of God Almighty."
• 14:40 Betsy: A day of deliverance.
• 14:43 Sounds much like the official seal Mr. Jefferson says he
• 14:47 desires for America.
• 14:49 The children of Israel in the wilderness led by a cloud by day
• 14:55 and a pillar of fire by night.
• 14:58 clergyman: Yes, it does, and, clearly, to Mr. Adams,
• 15:04 the children of Israel should remain important.
• 15:08 "I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men
• 15:13 than any other nation.
• 15:15 They preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of
• 15:19 supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the
• 15:24 universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of
• 15:28 all morality, and consequently of all civilization."
• 15:34 Betsy: Sir, do you perceive, as do I, that the providence in
• 15:39 which you speak of is unfolding before our eyes?
• 15:43 That liberty will really ring throughout our land.
• 15:47 clergyman: I do, Betsy.
• 15:49 I do.
• 15:55 Dr. Seif: Getting people together and on the same page
• 15:58 comes replete with many challenges.
• 16:01 We think of the Founding Fathers getting together in one place
• 16:04 and coming up with that declaration, but many of them
• 16:07 never met each other.
• 16:09 They didn't know each other.
• 16:10 John Adams was the go-to guy to pull it together.
• 16:13 David Barton takes us there as we look at the faith of our
• 16:17 fathers and the factions of our fathers that needed
• 16:21 to be overcome.
• 16:25 Dr. Seif: The name "Adams" is rather interesting.
• 16:27 Comes from the Hebrew "adamah," which means Earth.
• 16:31 Adam, of course, we know from the Bible.
• 16:33 Adam and Eve derives from that.
• 16:34 God made him from the earth.
• 16:36 John Adams, he's a famous one, isn't he?
• 16:38 David Barton: He is a very famous one.
• 16:40 He is a very significant one.
• 16:42 America was so distinct back in the day.
• 16:45 You had 13 colonies, and most of these guys did not know each
• 16:49 other before they got together, so Adams, John Adams right here,
• 16:53 represents a lot of the New England kind of thinking.
• 16:56 You have Thomas Jefferson, who represents more of the Southern
• 16:59 type of thinking, and so getting groups together.
• 17:02 I mean, the guys from Georgia never met the guys from
• 17:04 Massachusetts.
• 17:05 The guys from New York didn't know anybody from South
• 17:09 Carolina, so getting these guys together around a set of
• 17:10 principles was very interesting, and John Adams was one of the
• 17:13 great leaders there.
• 17:15 Interestingly, when we write the Declaration of Independence,
• 17:17 it's Richard Henry Lee over here who makes the motion that we
• 17:20 should separate from Great Britain.
• 17:22 And Congress is ready to do that, but they said, "We can't
• 17:25 do it yet," so they tabled his motion for a month until we
• 17:28 wrote a document explaining why we're going to separate.
• 17:31 And so, they made these five guys right here--this is the
• 17:34 committee that wrote the Declaration of Independence.
• 17:36 They're presenting it to Congress right here.
• 17:38 This is John Hancock, the president of Congress, and these
• 17:41 five guys--John Adams was wise enough that when they got
• 17:45 together in that group he said, "You know, we really ought to
• 17:48 let Jefferson do the writing here."
• 17:51 And they all agreed, and so Jefferson is the principal
• 17:53 author, but it's because of his decision.
• 17:55 He's also the guy who said, "You know, we need
• 17:56 a military commander.
• 17:58 I think George Washington is the right guy," so he's the guy who
• 18:01 chose Washington.
• 18:02 So, he was very astute, very wise, very deep.
• 18:06 He called himself a church-going animal, which kinda tells you
• 18:09 the mentality he had, but he is a very significant
• 18:13 Founding Father.
• 18:14 Dr. Seif: Yes, and he really had an appreciation for the
• 18:16 Jews, interestingly.
• 18:17 David: He did.
• 18:19 He very early on, as president of United States, expressed the
• 18:22 desire that Judea should be rebuilt, come back to life.
• 18:25 It was a Zionist view.
• 18:27 I mean, very early on his relationship with leading Jews
• 18:30 like Mordecai and Noah were very strong.
• 18:32 Dr. Seif: I mean, to think for a moment, famous American
• 18:34 leaders are thinking about something beyond America.
• 18:37 That is, to put someone forth on the map that hasn't been there
• 18:39 for millennia.
• 18:40 David: That's right.
• 18:42 So, when Israel came back in 1948, so many people in the
• 18:44 1930s didn't even see Israel coming back yet.
• 18:47 I mean, it was almost a surprise for so many people.
• 18:49 It just never crossed their mind.
• 18:51 So, here he is, when there's no talk of that, and he's the guy
• 18:54 raising the issue, said, "Israel needs to come back as a nation."
• 18:58 Dr. Seif: Yes, we wanna say they're all racists, but that's
• 19:00 just not borne out by the principal literature, is it?
• 19:03 David: Well, he is a guy who never owned a slave in his life,
• 19:06 and he hated slavery.
• 19:07 So many of the Massachusetts guys, whether you take
• 19:10 John Adams or you take John Hancock or you take someone like
• 19:14 Robert Treat Paine or some of the other Massachusetts guys,
• 19:17 they hated slavery.
• 19:19 And there never was a time in Massachusetts when blacks could
• 19:21 not vote, I mean from the very beginning, back to the time of
• 19:24 the pilgrims, so this is part of the conflict that Jefferson
• 19:27 found, 'cause he's a Virginia guy.
• 19:30 And when we talked about George Washington, he, too,
• 19:32 owned slaves.
• 19:33 Jefferson owned slaves.
• 19:35 Both of them did not want to own slaves.
• 19:36 Jefferson entered the state legislature and introduced laws
• 19:40 to abolish slavery in Virginia.
• 19:42 He always lost, but he did, in 1784, introduce a national law
• 19:46 to end slavery, and it lost by one vote in Congress.
• 19:49 Jefferson was really strongly against slavery.
• 19:52 It's just not known today.
• 19:54 Dr. Seif: You know, and when I think about the story you're
• 19:56 telling, bringing people together from different places
• 19:58 and different perspectives, that's the genius of America.
• 20:01 That's the play here.
• 20:02 You don't just burn the--you just don't destroy people you
• 20:05 don't agree with, the cancel culture.
• 20:08 I mean, here they had to open up, and it's a little bit of
• 20:10 give and take, and that's what moves the ball forward.
• 20:12 David: Well, it's also a bad narrative to say, "Well, these
• 20:15 guys were white, so the whole nation is white."
• 20:17 No, no.
• 20:18 The American Revolution was fought by whites and blacks, and
• 20:20 the greatest heroes, military heroes in history were black
• 20:22 heroes in the revolution.
• 20:24 It was Jews. It was Christians.
• 20:26 It was women. It was men.
• 20:27 It was Hispanics.
• 20:28 There were about 20 different nationalities that were involved
• 20:33 in building America, so it really was a collection of what
• 20:36 you see in Revelation 7, where they gathered around his throne,
• 20:39 people from all tribes, all languages, all nations,
• 20:41 all people--
• 20:43 Dr. Seif: Yeah, I think different people from
• 20:45 different places and different races.
• 20:46 And nothing's perfect, but they saw something promising in
• 20:49 America that existed nowhere else on planet Earth.
• 20:53 David: You know, it's interesting when you see how
• 20:54 unique America is today.
• 20:56 Back in John Adams's day, 42 years after the American
• 21:00 Revolution and--well, actually, about 40 years.
• 21:03 I guess it's about 1816.
• 21:05 A young man named Hezekiah Niles came to him, and he would be
• 21:09 kind of like a millennial, that generation.
• 21:11 He's the younger generation.
• 21:12 Adams is now old, 40 years after the revolution.
• 21:14 1816, he says, "I'm going to write a book about
• 21:18 the American Revolution."
• 21:19 This is the book he did. This came out in 1822.
• 21:22 He said, "But you were actually there.
• 21:24 You were part of what happened, and I want your
• 21:28 eyewitness account."
• 21:29 He said, "So, when you, as a great Founding Father, look back
• 21:33 at the American founding, who do you think was important?"
• 21:37 And John Adams wrote him.
• 21:39 He said, "Well, I think the Reverend Charles Chauncy, the
• 21:44 Reverend Dr. Samuel Cooper, the Reverend Dr. Jonathan Mayhew,
• 21:48 George Whitefield."
• 21:50 He goes through all these preachers.
• 21:52 Now, we never do that, but this--I mean, this is
• 21:54 Charles Chauncy.
• 21:56 This is a sermon about the Stamp Act.
• 21:59 Now, how many people today would preach a sermon about
• 22:02 an economic tax?
• 22:04 But this is the kind of thinking we had biblically.
• 22:06 This is a sermon done by Dr. Mayhew, these two sermons.
• 22:10 One's on earthquakes and one's on the great fire.
• 22:12 Whatever was in the headline of the newspapers, we were
• 22:14 preaching from the pulpit, and so John Adams points--these are
• 22:18 all Whitefield sermon, George Whitefield's sermons, but
• 22:21 John Adams points to these guys.
• 22:23 And it's interesting that when you look at the Declaration of
• 22:25 Independence, historians have now documented that every single
• 22:29 right set forth in the declaration had been preached
• 22:33 from the American pulpit prior to 1763.
• 22:36 So, if you want a radical thought think about the
• 22:39 Declaration of Independence as listening to sermon topics that
• 22:42 these guys have been hearing for a couple decades
• 22:45 leading up to this.
• 22:46 It really was the leadership of church and Christian leaders and
• 22:49 pastors in the Bible that built America and made it so unique,
• 22:53 and that's why you see so much diversity in it, as well.
• 22:57 Dr. Seif: But we know nothing about the faith of our
• 22:59 fathers today.
• 23:01 For young in America today, John Adams is a beer.
• 23:03 "Yo, dude.
• 23:05 I want one of them," and people are clueless about what really
• 23:06 lived in his heart and mind.
• 23:08 David: Yeah.
• 23:10 And, as you mentioned, you know, Sam Adams right over here.
• 23:12 Sam Adams's a beer.
• 23:13 That's what people think about today, and so they don't know.
• 23:15 And the same with this.
• 23:17 I often put this picture up when I speak at universities, and I
• 23:19 asked the guys, I said, "Okay.
• 23:21 Who up there can you call by name?"
• 23:24 And they can point, usually, to Franklin, Jefferson
• 23:27 and that's as far as they go.
• 23:29 So, I met one kid one time at one college say Adams, but you
• 23:33 just pointed out the two least religious Founding Fathers of
• 23:35 the group.
• 23:37 And you think the whole group is built around that, when so many
• 23:39 of these guys--I mean, John Hancock, for example,
• 23:43 called the state of Massachusetts to pray and fast.
• 23:46 He called for days of prayer.
• 23:48 Twenty-two separate times he calls a state to days of prayer.
• 23:51 You know, that's not atheist or agnostic.
• 23:53 We just don't know these guys today.
• 23:55 Dr. Seif: Yeah, he was bold, Hancock.
• 23:57 My understanding is that when he wrote in big letters on the
• 23:59 document--King George had bad vision.
• 24:02 He says, "I bet George can read that."
• 24:04 David: Yeah, that was the anecdote that goes with it.
• 24:06 "John Bull can read this now."
• 24:07 And, by the way, he had to sacrifice his own business
• 24:12 to do that.
• 24:14 By signing that document, he wiped out his business, and so a
• 24:16 lot of these guys, ten of them, never lived to see the freedom
• 24:19 they wanted us to have.
• 24:20 And we just don't know the sacrifices.
• 24:22 Dr. Seif: Yeah, they made great sacrifices.
• 24:24 David: They made great sacrifice.
• 24:25 Dr. Seif: You made one to be with us today.
• 24:26 Thank you for doing that.
• 24:28 David: My pleasure. Good to be with you.
• 24:31 David: David Barton has brought to us some major
• 24:32 artifacts in this series.
• 24:34 We're so thankful he's with us, but also some little tidbits
• 24:37 that hopefully you've learned with us, things like
• 24:40 John Hancock and his large signature so the king could read
• 24:43 the Declaration of Independence.
• 24:44 Wow.
• 24:46 Dr. Seif: Yeah, I learned that years ago.
• 24:47 King George had bad vision, and he was a little snotty.
• 24:51 He wrote it large.
• 24:52 He said, "I bet George could read that," and George did.
• 24:56 And he paid dearly for it.
• 24:57 That is, John Hancock for his courage to weigh in and
• 25:01 contribute his name, his fortune, and it was something.
• 25:06 Kirsten: Many of the Founding Fathers paid for it a lot, but
• 25:08 also 20--David Barton, thank you so much for this insight.
• 25:12 Twenty different nationalities fought in the Revolutionary War.
• 25:16 Never knew that, either.
• 25:18 Dr. Seif: We stand on the shoulders of giants, and those
• 25:20 giants are obscured from history because we don't think about the
• 25:24 signers of the Declaration of Independence.
• 25:26 We know Hancock.
• 25:28 There were others and there were plenty others from different
• 25:30 cultures, different peoples that contributed to the war effort.
• 25:33 Kirsten: And our backdrop is Israel.
• 25:35 So, I think you're watching this program.
• 25:37 It's called "Our Jewish Roots."
• 25:39 Our Jewish roots run deep even into the Revolutionary War, with
• 25:43 the Jewish people fighting in different ways, and it's almost
• 25:46 like they're always fighting for their freedom.
• 25:50 Always.
• 25:51 Dr. Seif: Yeah, the Touro Synagogue is the one synagogue
• 25:53 from the era that's still standing.
• 25:55 There was one in New York, Shearith Israel, but it moved.
• 25:58 It was on Mill Street, at the base of the island.
• 26:00 But the Touro Synagogue in New England,
• 26:04 Judah Touro was a philanthropist.
• 26:06 He didn't just give to Jewish causes.
• 26:07 He was of Jewish extract himself, but he gave to
• 26:09 non-Jewish causes, as well.
• 26:11 In fact, to date, he--when he made his donations in his will,
• 26:16 no one had given more money to the American experiment
• 26:20 than he did personally.
• 26:22 A lotta people contribute to the world that we have right now,
• 26:25 and we can thank the faith of our fathers.
• 26:28 Some came from different faiths, as in the case of Touro
• 26:31 with the Jewish faith.
• 26:33 Kirsten: Which is wonderful. I mean, did you know that?
• 26:35 David: I did not.
• 26:36 Kirsten: We didn't, unfortunately.
• 26:38 I mean, there are some things we do know, but that's what's so
• 26:39 wonderful about this program and having special guests like
• 26:42 David Barton on our program that bring insights, especially about
• 26:47 our Jewish roots.
• 26:49 Dr. Seif: And to that point, I think it's a weakness in
• 26:51 television and Christian television.
• 26:53 A lotta ministers are trying to come up with things that
• 26:55 are new and fanciful.
• 26:58 We're interested in teaching things that have been forgotten.
• 27:00 Kirsten: And thank you for your teaching today also.
• 27:03 More to come next week.
• 27:04 David: So good.
• 27:05 We end our program today with a song from our founder,
• 27:07 Zola Levitt.
• 27:08 Dr. Seif: And a Scripture. Sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:11 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 27:16 ♪♪♪
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• 28:06 ♪♪♪