Episode One: Moses and the American Republic, with Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm

In the summer of 1788, as the New Hampshire Convention met to decide whether or not it wanted to become the ninth state to ratify the Constitution and thereby put it into effect, Samuel Langdon, who would eventually become the president of Harvard, took the stage. Urging his fellow Americans to vote “yes” on the nation’s founding document, he urged them to find inspiration in the greatest blueprint ever written for fledgling democracies busy being born: The Book of Deuteronomy. Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm joins us to explore how Moses’s final speech inspired the American Founding Fathers, and how the ancient words can give us moderns, raging about our flawed political systems, both solace and hope. The Republic of Moses is a project from the Simchat Torah Challenge, bringing Jews modern wisdom from our ancient books. To sign up for our free newsletter, visit simchattorahchallenge.org