Behar/Behukotai 5785

In fact, when the bell arrived from England in 1752, the rim actually cracked upon the first test of its clapper. After local foundry men re-cast the bell, the tone it made was so unattractive they re-cast it yet again before it finally rang out a resonant E-flat. Contrary to legend, the twice re-cast bell did not actually ring out on July 4, 1776 at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, nor do we even know when and how it acquired its signature crack, though that probably didn’t happen until the 1840s. Perhaps the least known part of its history, and the most intriguing, is that it was the abolitionists who gave the Liberty Bell its famous name. The bell is inscribed with Leviticus 25:10, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” The verse refers to the Year of Jubilee when slaves were to be set free in accordance with Hebrew tradition. William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist and publisher of The Liberator, seizing upon the verse’s true context, re-printed a poem, “The Liberty Bell,” in 1844. The poem’s potent line “Ring it, til the slave be free” was a rebuke; that despite its inscription, the bell did not proclaim liberty to all the inhabitants of the land so long as slavery was allowed to persist. https://time.com/4464934/ben-carson-liberty-bell-history/

“The Liberty Bell” by William Ross Wallace
A sound like a sound of thunder rolled,
And the heart of a nation stirred—
For the bell of

Freedom, at midnight tolled,
Through a mighty land and was heard.
And the chime still rung From its iron tongue
Steadily swaying to and fro;
And to some it came
Like a breath of flame—
And to some a sound of wo.
Above the dark mountain, above the blue wave
It was heard by the fettered, and heard by the brave—
It was heard in the cottage, and heard in the hall—
And its chime gave a glorious summons to all—
The sabre was sharpened—the time-rusted blade
Of the Bond started out in the pioneer’s glade
Like a herald of wrath:
And the host was arrayed!
Along the dark mountain, along the blue wave
Swept the ranks of the Bond—swept the ranks of the Brave;
And a shout as of waters went up to the dome.
When a star blazing banner unfurled,
Like the wing of some Seraph flashed out from its home,
Uttered freedom and hope to the world.
O’er the hill-top and tide its magnificent fold,
With a terrible glitter of azure and gold,
In the storm, in the sunshine, and darkness unrolled.
It blazed in the valley—it blazed on the mast—
It leaped with its Eagle abroad on the blast;
And the eyes of whole nations were turned to its light;
And the heart of the multitude soon
Was swayed by its stars, as they shone through the night
Like an ocean when swayed by the moon.
Again and through the midnight that Bell thunders out,
And banners and torches are hurried about:—
A shout as of waters! a long-uttered cry!
How it leaps, how it leaps from the earth to the sky!
From the sky to the earth, from the earth to the sea,
Hear a chorus re-echoed, “The People are Free!”
That old Bell is still seen by the Patriot’s eye,
And he blesses it ever, when journeying by;
Long years have passed o’er it, and yet every soul
Will thrill in the night to its wonderful roll;
For it speaks in its belfry, when kissed by the blast,
Like a glory-breathed tone from the mystical Past.
Long years shall roll o’er it, and yet every chime
Shall unceasingly tell of an era sublime
More splendid, more dear than the rest of all time. O yes!
If the flame on our altars should pale,
Let its voice but be heard, and the Freeman shall start
To rekindle the fire, while he sees on the gale,
All the stars, and the stripes of the Flag of his heart!