On November 15, 1776, Col. Robert Magaw rejected the British demand to surrender Fort Washington:

Actuated by the Most Glorious Cause that mankind ever fought in, I am determined to defend this post to the very last extremity.

By 3:00 PM the following day, Col. Magaw capitulated, forfeiting New York City to the British.  In a sense, the incident is a microcosm of the American Revolution, grounded in lofty ideals but marked by more defeats than victories—not so much a Glorious Cause as an Improbable one.

I would guess that the secondary school takeaways most Americans, without a specific interest in the subject, have of the American Revolution and Independence are of the Boston Tea Party, Lexington and Concord, crossing the Delaware, freezing at Valley Forge, and “we won.”  And of course, the Declaration of Independence.  But of the specifics of how we arrived at this “Most Glorious Cause,” most of us know very little.

However many books I’ve read on the founding of America (including The Glorious Cause by Robert Middlekauff, there is none that has brought to life for me the birth pangs of the United States in the way the musical 1776 did.

Tiring of writing songs for the likes of Elvis Presley, Sherman Edwards struck off in a new direction.  He embarked on writing a show portraying the contentiousness in which the country was born.  Of the founding fathers, he observed that “They disagreed and fought with each other. But they understood commitment, and though they fought, they fought affirmatively.”  Forgive me if I detect in his observation a certain Jewish sensibility—“argument for the sake of Heaven”—perhaps forged in his upbringing in Weequahic, Newark’s Jewish neighborhood.  While the music and lyrics remained his, the show’s book was rewritten by Peter Stone.

The show recounts the debates over the justice, prudence, and politics of separating from England.  But however glorious the cause, independence could not happen with a piece of paper alone; it required the resolve to support the only viable path to realizing the aspiration—the war effort.

Congress, though, lacked the will and the wherewithal.  General Washington had to continuously beseech it for funds, as this appeal on June 7, 1776:

Having heard that the Troops at Boston are extremely uneasy and almost mutinous for want of pay (several months of which being now due) I must take the liberty to repeat a question contained in my Letter of the 5 Ulto, “what mode is to be pursued respecting It, whether is money to be sent from hence by the paymaster Genl, or some person subordinate to him to be appointed there for that purpose?[”] I expected some direction would have been given in this Instance long ’ere this, from what was contained in yours accompanying, or about the time of the last, remittance. I presume It has been omitted by reason of the multiplicity of Important business before Congress.

Washington’s missives to Congress became a refrain—literally—in the musical:

I have been in expectation

Of receiving a reply

On the subject of my last fifteen dispatches

Is anybody there?

Does anybody care?

Y’r humble and & ob’d’t—

It must have felt to Washington as trying to draw water from the proverbial rock.  Which, of course, brings us to this week’s Torah portion.  Moses and Aaron are once again besieged by a mob—the forlorn and unfaithful Israelites, in the last year in the desert, immediately after the death of their sister, Miriam.

“The community was without water, and they joined against Moses and Aaron.”

While God instructs Moses to speak to a rock to bring forth water, Moses, perhaps struggling emotionally with the death of his sister, instead yells at his people:

“Listen, you rebels, shall we get water for you out of this rock?”

And he strikes it angrily.  God delivers the water, but also condemns Moses to die with the remainder of the Exodus generation in the desert, without reaching the Promised Land.

Washington, beset with failures on the battle field and rampant desertions from his under-fed, under-equipped, under-trained ranks, could well have succumbed to frustration as did Moses:

“Listen, you rebels, shall we get water for you out of this rock?”

But he did not.  Even in the War’s last year, in March 1783, when his officers at Newburgh threatened revolt over Congress’ failure to provide pay:

I cannot, in justice to my own belief, & what I have great reason to conceive is the intention of Congress, conclude this Address, without giving it as my decided opinion; that that Honble Body, entertain exalted sentiments of the Services of the Army; and, from a full conviction of its Merits & sufferings, will do it compleat Justice: That their endeavors, to discover & establish funds for this purpose, have been unwearied, and will not cease, till they have succeeded, I have not a doubt.

Washington was arguably a less-than-brilliant tactician; he lost more battles than he won.  But, if not for forty years, for eight-and-a-half, he gave hope in the face of hopelessness.  He inspired his Army and his Nation.  He crowned an Improbable Cause in glory.

So, today, we can celebrate.

Happy Independence Day and Shabbat Shalom.