The Martin Luther King, Jr.

Research and Education Institute

Heschel, Abraham Joshua
Biography
January 11, 1907 to December 23, 1972

Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Jewish theologian and philosopher with a social consciousness that led him to
participate in the civil rights movement. Considered “one of the truly great men” of his day and a “great prophet”
by Martin Luther King, Jr., Heschel articulated to many Jewish Americans and African Americans the notion that
they had a responsibility for each other’s liberation and for the plight of all suffering fellow humans around the
world (“Conversation with Martin Luther King,” 2).

Heschel was born in 1907 in Warsaw, Poland, to Rabbi Moshe Mordecai and Reizel Perlow Heschel. He received his
PhD from the University of Berlin (1933), as well as a liberal rabbinic ordination from the Hochschule für die
Wissenschaft des Judentums (1934). Heschel then succeeded Martin Buber as the director of the Central
Organization for Jewish Adult Education in Frankfurt, Germany, until his deportation by the Nazis in 1938. Heschel
taught in Warsaw and London before emigrating to the United States in 1940. In 1945, he became professor of
Jewish ethics and mysticism at New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary of America, a post he held for the rest of his
life.

As a theologian deeply interested in studying the relationship between God and humankind, Heschel believed that
when one understands the spark of the divine that exists within each person, he or she cannot harbor hatred for
fellow human beings. A prolific scholar, Heschel also used his writings to express that social concern was an outlet
for religious piety in noted works such as Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion (1951) and God in Search of
Man: A Philosophy of Judaism (1955).

In his opening address at the National Conference on Religion and Race in Chicago on 14 January 1963, at which
King was also a featured speaker, Heschel maintained that Americans had the chance to find redemption through
their efforts to combat racism: “Seen in the light of our religious tradition, the Negro problem is God’s gift to
America, the test of our integrity, a magnificent spiritual opportunity” (Fierman, 34). Heschel also viewed
ecumenism as the necessary means to attack this social ill.

A social consciousness infused with an ecumenical approach brought Heschel and King together again on 19
November 1963, when both men addressed the United Synagogue of America’s Golden Jubilee Convention in New
York. King expressed his deep accord with Heschel’s cause—which was to stand against the Soviet Union’s
treatment of its Jewish population—by restating his own view that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere.” King stated that he could not neglect the plight of his “brothers and sisters who happen to be Jews in
Soviet Russia” (King, 15).

In March 1965, Heschel responded to King’s call for religious leaders to join the Selma to Montgomery March for
voting rights. The march was spiritually fulfilling for Heschel, and he recalled feeling like his “legs were praying” as
he walked next to King (Heschel, “Theological Affinities,” 175). When King delivered his famous address against the
Vietnam War at Riverside Church on 4 April 1967, Heschel followed him as a speaker and ended his own
presentation saying, “I conclude with the words of Dr. King: ‘The great initiative of this war is ours. The initiative to
stop it must be ours’” (Heschel, 4 April 1967).

King later remarked that “Rabbi Heschel is one of the persons who is relevant at all times, always standing with
prophetic insights to guide persons with a social consciousness” (Conversation with Martin Luther King, 2). Both
men were driven by the notion of a collective responsibility for the fate of all mankind and believed that the
struggle to overcome injustice must be ecumenical.

"I felt my feet were praying." (Rabbi

Abraham Joshua Heschel, writing of his

march alongside Dr. King

from Selma to Montgomery in 1965)

Footnotes

“Conversation with Martin Luther King,” Conservative Judaism 22, no. 3 (Spring 1968): 1–19.

Fierman, Leap of Action, 1990.

Heschel, Address at Riverside Church, 4 April 1967, CSKC.

Heschel, God in Search of Man, 1955.

Heschel, Man Is Not Alone, 1951.

Heschel, No Religion Is an Island, ed. Harold Kasimow and Byron L. Sherwin, 1991.

Susanna Heschel, “Theological Affinities in the Writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther
King, Jr.,” in Black Zion, ed. Chireau and Deutsch, 2000.

Kaplan, Spiritual Radical, 2007.

King, “What Happens to Them Happens to Me—and to You,” United Synagogue Review (Winter 1964): 15.
America The Jesuit Review
OCTOBER 26, 2015 ISSUE
The legacy of Abraham
Joshua Heschel
Paolo Gamberini
October 14, 2015
The Catholic Church is celebrating this year the
50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s
“Declaration on the Relationship of the Church
to Non-Christian Religions” (“Nostra Aetate”).
The document was approved on Oct. 28, 1965,
after intense debate and some strong
opposition. It is one of those texts in which the
self-understanding of Catholic identity does not
sound as a monologue but a dialogue. The
category of “otherness” plays a decisive role. The
declaration was initially prepared with the intent
of healing relations with the Jewish people. The
approval of this document occurred just 20
years after the end of World War II and the
Holocaust.
Out of the smoke of the Shoah, in the spirit of
repentance and commitment, Christians have
understood that their relation with the Jewish
people cannot be seen as an option or a transient
historical element, an embellishment for the
Christian identity. After the Holocaust a process
began in which Christian and Catholic identity
could not be understood anymore without
Jewish identity. At the council, the awareness
that “the other” is rooted in the core of one’s
own identity came to its fulfillment.
The two key figures that inspired the preparation
of “Nostra Aetate” were Cardinal Augustin Bea, the
Jesuit who was head of the Secretariat for
Christian Unity, and Rabbi Abraham Joshua
Heschel, theological consultant of the American
Jewish Committee. Between them a sincere
friendship began, which helped to work out the
declaration, though not without difficulties. From
the very beginning, Rabbi Heschel worked hard
to remove from the teaching of the Catholic
Church any anti-Semitic words and any reference
to a mission of the church for the conversion of
the Jews. In May 1962 he presented a
memorandum in which he asked the council
fathers to eliminate once and for all any
accusation of deicide on the part of the Jewish
people, to acknowledge the integrity and the
perpetuity of the election of Jews in the history
of salvation and, lastly, to give up proselytizing
Jews. The American Jewish Committee presented
three memoranda; in the last of these his
influence was essential. He wanted the council
fathers to know that a Jew has a dignity as a Jew
and not as a possible convert to Christianity. He
repeated quite often: “If I were asked either to
convert or to die in Auschwitz, I’d rather go to
Auschwitz.”
During the years of the council, Rabbi Heschel
met Pope Paul VI and asked him to support
Jewish requests against the accusation of deicide
and against the mission to the Jews.
Unfortunately, these requests were not all
accepted in the final Vatican document. The
council’s decree asserted that the death of Jesus
was not to be blamed on all Jews collectively,
eliminated the word deicide and condemned any
form of anti-Semitism. The Catholic Church
acknowledged the abiding validity of God’s
covenant with Israel. The council fostered and
recommended mutual knowledge and respect
between Jews and Christians. The church should
not preach and teach anything that could give
rise to hatred or contempt of Jews in the hearts
of Christians. Pope Paul VI promulgated the text
immediately as official church doctrine. A solid
foundation was established for future decades of
Jewish-Christian dialogue and cooperation. Even
if the declaration was a document of
compromise, it represents a leap
forward on the path to respectful mutual relations
between Christians and Jews.
Pope Paul VI was so moved by the figure of Rabbi
Heschel that he encouraged the publication of
his works in Italy. Abraham
Heschel died on Dec. 23, 1972, in New York.
During the general audience held in the Vatican
on Jan. 31, 1973, Paul VI quoted from one of his
books, God in Search of Man: “Before man
searches for God, it is God who is in search of us.”
It was unusual for a non-Christian source to be
quoted in an official discourse of a pope.
Connected and Transformed
Abraham Heschel’s contribution to Jewish
Christian dialogue has been of utmost
importance and has made it possible for many
Christians to rediscover the Jewish roots of their
faith, which lie not only in the Old Testament but
in Judaism as well. He urged Christians to be
faithful to their roots and not to worry about
converting Jews, leaving behind once and for all
the scandal of the past centuries: “I recognize in
you the presence of holiness. I see it; I perceive it;
I hear it. You do not embarrass us; we want you
not to be embarrassed by what we are.” Each
religious identity is connected and transformed
by its relationship with the identity of other
religions. Dialogue consists in highlighting the
singularity of each faith and not hindering or
neglecting this particularity. The Jew has to be
acknowledged as a Jew and not as a potential
Christian. For Christians, Judaism is considered
preparatio evangelica; for Jews, Christianity is
considered preparatio messianica.
Rabbi Heschel’s work helped Christians to know
Jewish spirituality and way of life better,
especially the Hasidic tradition. “A Christian
ought to realize that a world without Israel will be
a world without the God of Israel. A Jew, on the
other hand, ought to acknowledge the eminent
role and part of Christianity in God’s design for
the redemption of all men.”
In dialogue with the American Jesuit Gustave
Weigel, S.J., Rabbi Heschel asks: “Is it really the
will of God that there be no more Judaism in the
world? Would it really be the triumph of God if the
scrolls of the Torah would no more be taken out of
the Ark and the Torah no more read in the
Synagogue, our ancient Hebrew prayers in which
Jesus himself worshiped no more recited, the
Passover Seder no more celebrated in our lives,
the law of Moses no more observed in our
homes? Would it really be ad maiorem Dei
gloriam to have a world without Jews?” Many
years later a Catholic cardinal, Roger Etchegaray,
echoed his words: “Christianity cannot think of
itself without Judaism, cannot stand without
Judaism.” Christianity and Judaism have their
specific role in redemption. “While Christians
rejoice for the already, Jews remind us of the not
yet, and this fruitful tension is alive in the heart of
the Church.”
Rabbi Heschel’s approach to Jewish-Christian
dialogue is different from that of many other
Jewish and Christian theologians involved in the
dialogue between these two faiths. He was not
interested in discussing controversial issues that
still divide Jews and Christians, like the divinity of
Jesus, the Trinity or Paul’s Judaism. The aim of
interreligious dialogue “is neither to flatter nor to
refute one another but to help one another; to
share insight and learning, to cooperate in
academic ventures on the highest scholarly level,
and, what is even more important, to search in
the wilderness for wellsprings of devotion, for
treasures of stillness, for the power of love and
care for man.”
Partners in the Jewish-Christian dialogue should
neither give up their own identity in order to meet
and please the other partner nor put aside their
own faith. Dialogue begins with and is grounded
in respect for the other’s commitment, for the
other’s faith. “The first and most
important prerequisite of interfaith is faith....
Interfaith must come out of depth, not out of void
absence of faith.”
Rabbi Heschel’s vision for the Jewish-Christian
dialogue was fulfilled in the speech Cardinal
Walter Kasper gave in Jerusalem in November
2001, when the former president of the
Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and the
Commission for Religious Relations With the
Jews made his own, on behalf of the Catholic
Church, Rabbi Heschel’s expectation: “The term
mission properly refers to the conversion from
idols to the one true God, to the God who
revealed himself in the history of salvation of his
chosen people...; therefore, one cannot speak of
the mission to the Jews, because they already
believe in the one true God. Therefore, there is no
dialogue and there is no ‘Catholic mission’
towards the Jews.”
Dialogue and Identity
Interfaith dialogue never shapes religious identity
without the other; the all-inclusiveness of God
embraces the different religious identities
without absorbing them in a vague idea of God,
without enclosing the other within the
framework of one’s own identity. The aim of
interreligious dialogue is “depth theology”—the
act of believing that has the capacity to unite
every believer. Rabbi Heschel repeated quite
often that “theologies divide us; depth theology
unites us.” The heart of depth theology is neither
the halacha for the Jews nor the church for the
Christian but the idea of God’s pathos, a divine
reality concerned with the destiny of human
beings. “It is God’s will that in this aeon there
should be diversity in our forms of devotion and
commitment to Him. In this aeon diversity of
religions is the will of God.” From this deep and
broad vision of divine concern, Rabbi Heschel
could recognize that “Christianity and Islam, far
from being accidents of history or purely human
phenomena, are regarded as part of God’s
design for the redemption of all men.” His
remarks on interreligious dialogue moved
forward the legacy of the council document and
reached its climax during the visit of Pope John
Paul II to the synagogue in Rome in 1986. The
pope recalled the spiritual bond between
Christians and Jews. “The Jewish religion is not
‘extrinsic’ to us, but in a certain way is ‘intrinsic’
to our own religion. With Judaism therefore we
have a relationship which we do not have with
any other religion. You are our dearly beloved
brothers, and, in a certain way, it could be said
that you are our elder brothers.” Rabbi Heschel
has been for many Christians such an elder
brother.
A later document (1994) of the Pontifical Council
for Interreligious Dialogue, “Dialogue and
Proclamation,” moved further ahead the legacy
of the conciliar declaration by saying that
“Christians must be prepared to learn and to
receive from and through others the positive
values of their traditions. Through dialogue they
may be moved to give up ingrained prejudices,
to revise preconceived ideas, and even
sometimes to allow the understanding of their
faith to be purified” (No. 49). Religious humility
mandates listening as a basic mode of being in
an interreligious context. The golden rule of
interreligious dialogue can be so formulated: Try
always to understand the other, as you would
like to be understood. By listening and being
mutually respectful, each faith learns, as Paul
Ricoeur says, “to be oneself as another” and
participates in the mystery of God’s self-giving
(pathos), which alone can mend the brokenness
of our interfaith relations. “One does not live
without the others,” wrote Michel De Certeau. In
his first apostolic exhortation, “The Joy of the
Gospel,” Pope Francis reminded us, in the spirit
of Rabbi Heschel, that “we are pilgrims
journeying alongside one another. This means
that we must have sincere trust in our fellow
pilgrims, putting aside all suspicion or mistrust, and
turn our gaze to what we are all seeking: the
radiant peace of God’s face” (No. 244).

This article also appeared in print, under the

headline “Understanding ‘the Other’,” in the
October 26, 2015, issue.
 My Jewish learning
Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Prophet’s Prophet
Heschel aimed, through his writing and teaching, to shock modern people out of complacency and into a
spiritual dimension, BY ROBERT M. SELTZER

Originally Polish, Heschel studied at the University of Berlin, he received his doctorate for a study of the
biblical prophets (1934). In 1937 Heschel became head of adult Jewish education in Germany, but the
following year, he and other Polish Jews were deported by the Nazis. The Frankfurt Lehrhaus, an
experimental center for adult Jewish education, aimed to teach marginal, acculturated Jews about
Judaism.

After stays in Warsaw and London, in 1940 he came to the United States to teach at the Hebrew Union
College. In 1945 Heschel became professor of ethics and mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary in
New York. He published a series of works, ranging from studies on the piety of East European Jewry and
the inward character of Jewish observance, to religious symbolism, Jewish views of humanity, and
contemporary moral and political issues.

Heschel’s literary style is unique among modern Jewish religious authors. Remarkable juxtapositions of
the concrete and the abstract, suggestive similes and metaphors, striking aphorisms and extended
images, concepts from classical and existentialist philosophy, are all used to evoke the numinous quality
of the divine and the capacity for human self-transcendence. Heschel’s aim is to shock modern man out of
his complacency and awaken him to that spiritual dimension fading from the contemporary
consciousness.

Heschel’s Thought: “Radical Astonishment” and Confronting the Ineffable

In Heschel’s view, the basic intuition of reality takes place on a “preconceptual” level; a disparity always
remains between what we encounter and how we can express our encounter in words. The great
achievements of art, philosophy, and religion are brought forth in movements when the individual senses
more than he can say. “In our religious situation we do not comprehend the transcendent; we are present
at it, we witness it. Whatever we know is inadequate; whatever we say is an understatement…Concepts,
words must not become screens; they must be regarded as windows.” How can modern man regain a
personal awareness of God?

A universally accessible feeling is the experience of the sublime—for example, in the presence of the
grandeur of nature. A sense of the sublime entails wonder and “radical astonishment.” Astonishment is
radical because it embraces not only what one sees but the very act of seeing and the very self that is
astonished in its ability to see.

The individual confronts the “ineffable,” that which cannot ever be expressed in words. Heschel insists
that the ineffable is not a psychological state but an encounter with a mystery “within and beyond things
and ideas” The divine is “within” because the self is “something transcendent in disguise.” The divine is
“beyond” because it also is, “a message that discloses unity where we see diversity; that discloses peace
where we are involved in discord…God means: No one is ever alone.”
A second experience that, according to Heschel, awakens the individual to the presence of God is a
pervasive, underlying anxiety that he calls “the need to be needed.” Religion entails the certainty that
something is asked of man and that he is not a mere bystander in the cosmos. When the individual feels
the challenge of a power, not born of his will, that robs him of self-sufficiency by a judgment of the
rightness or wrongness of his actions—then God’s concern for his creatures is grasped.

The Prophetic Model of Spirituality

For Heschel, it is the Bible—particularly the prophets—that provides a primary model for authentic
spirituality. Biblical revelation is not a mystical act of seeking God but an awareness of being sought and
reached by Him: The prophets bear witness to an event that they formulate in their own words, but the
event itself is God’s reaching out. It is not propositional truths about God or general norms and values
that the prophets transmit but the “divine pathos” (pathos from the Greek root denoting emotion,
feeling, passion). The divine pathos is God’s outraged response to man’s sin and his merciful response to
man’s suffering and anguish. Heschel does not actually attribute “pathos” to God’s metaphysical essence,
but sees it as a corrective to a conception of monotheism that restricts the scope of God’s knowledge to
universal principles only…(that is, God cares about each person, each creature).

A Jew Takes Leaps of Action

A third mode of apprehending God’s presence is the life of holiness.

A few of Heschel’s aphorisms convey his rejection of a utilitarian, sociological approach to Jewish
observance and his supracognitive, mystical feeling for halacha [Jewish law]. The halacha sharpens men’s
sympathy to the ineffable: “To perform deeds of holiness is to absorb the holiness of deeds.” “A Jew is
asked to take a leap of action rather than a leap of thought. He is asked to do more than he understands
in order to understand more than he does.” Whereas the term ceremony merely expresses what we
think, mitzvah expresses what God wills: a mitzvah [commandment/good deed] is “a prayer in the form of
a deed.”

For Heschel, Jewish survival is a spiritual act. God’s concern with man is expressed in Judaism through the
idea of a covenant imposing a mutual, correlative responsiveness on man and God both, because God
needs man for the attainment of his ends in the world.

Heschel stands in that stream of modern Jewish thought which emphasizes the limitations of reason to
grasp the full significance of the religious life. His approach has been called “devotional philosophy”,
Heschel himself characterized his method as “depth theology,” the attempt to rediscover the questions to
which religion is the answer…Heschel was concerned above all, by the aim to recover biblical faith as an
inward dynamic process…in Heschel traditional Hasidic piety finds its authentic modern voice.

Overview - Abraham Joshua Heschel

Worksheet
(New world encyclopedia
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Abraham_Joshua_Heschel#The_Prophets)
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972) was a major thinker of
Conservative Judaism and leading U.S. social activist, considered by many to be one of the most
significant Jewish theologians of the twentieth century. An exponent of the Jewish prophetic
and mystical traditions, Heschel sought a middle ground between the critical approach to Jewish
tradition as represented by Reform Judaism and what he saw as the legalism of Orthodoxy. He
also sought to interpret Judaism in terms of the modern philosophy of religion.

On the foundation of his intellectual achievements in the 1950s, Heschel won fame as an
activist for civil rights and an opponent of the Vietnam War in the 1960s. He was also a leading
activist for freedom for Soviet Jewry. Heschel was chosen by American Jewish organizations to
negotiate with leaders of the Roman Catholic Church at the Vatican Council II. He helped
persuade the Church to eliminate or modify passages in its liturgy that demeaned the Jews and
called for their conversion to Christianity.

Complete the table using the notes above.

Abraham’s purpose regarding Judaism Abraham’s key Involvements

● ●
● ●
●

Heschel is one of the few Jewish theologians widely read by Christians. His most influential
works include Man is Not Alone, God in Search of Man, The Sabbath, and The Prophets. His
theological works argued that the religious experience was a fundamentally human impulse,
not just a Jewish one, and that no religious community could claim a monopoly on religious
truth.[1]

Key Works:
❖
❖
❖
❖
Biography

Born in Warsaw on January 11, 1907, Heschel was a member of preeminent rabbinic families of
Europe both on his father's and mother's sides, and a descendant of Rebbe Avrohom Yehoshua
Heshl of Apt.[2] He was the youngest of six children. In his teens he received a traditional
yeshiva education, and obtained ordination as a rabbi. He then studied at the University of
Berlin, where he received his doctorate, and at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des
Judentums, where he earned a second, more liberal, rabbinical ordination.

Heschel's teachers included some of the best German-Jewish thinkers: Chanoch Albeck, Ismar
Elbogen, Julius Guttmann, and Leo Baeck. He later taught the Talmud in Berlin, Frankfurt, and
Warsaw. Escaping from the Nazis, he found refuge both in England and the United States,
where he briefly served on the faculty of Hebrew Union College (HUC), the main seminary of
Reform Judaism, in Cincinnati.

Increasingly uncomfortable with the lack of observance of Jewish law at HUC, Heschel sought
for an academic institution which upheld Jewish customs as normative but, like HUC, also
allowed critical modern scholarship of the Bible and the Talmud. He found such a place in 1946
when he came to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS), the main seminary of
Conservative Judaism. He accepted a position there as Professor of Jewish Ethics and Mysticism,
where he served until his death in 1972.

He married Sylvia Straus on December 10, 1946, in Los Angeles. They had a daughter named
Susannah who eventually became a scholar of Judaism in her own right.

Heschel explicated many facets of Jewish thought including studies on medieval Jewish
philosophy, Kabbalah, and Hasidism. He had a special interest in the prophets and their lives.
His books contain civil but pointed rejoinders toward those in Reform Judaism who no longer
held that Jewish law was normative, and also toward those in Orthodox Judaism who valued
legalism over the spirit of the law, according to Heschel.

His views were strongly criticized by his colleague Mordechai Kaplan, founder of
Reconstructionist Judaism. Kaplan affirmed that God is not personal, and that all
anthropomorphic descriptions of God are, at best, imperfect metaphors. Kaplan also held that
Jewish law is no longer binding on Jews. Many students who attended JTS in the 50s sympathized
with Kaplan over Heschel.
 Kaplan’s view on God and Jewish law…...

Heschel also saw the teachings of the Hebrew prophets as a clarion call (strong request) for
social action in the United States and worked for black civil rights and against the Vietnam War.
After marching with Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma, Alabama, Heschel said: "Legs are not lips,
and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was
worship. I felt my legs were praying." Heschel played a prominent role at the National
Conference of Religion and Race in Chicago in 1963, which helped to organize the March on
Washington later that year. Later, Heschel served as co-chairman of Clergy and Laity Concerned
about Vietnam, a key component of the growing opposition to the Vietnam War. He was also a
major force in the campaign to promote the human rights of Soviet Jewry.

Which social action events was Heschel involved in:

1.
2.
"Legs are not lips, and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even
without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying."

Explain this quote in your own words, what does it teach about Heschel and social action?

Heschel also made history in his efforts to reconcile Jews and Catholics. He was an important
influence at the Second Vatican Council in crafting the 1965 statement Nostra Aetate which is
seen as a turning point in the relations between Christians and Jews. Several aspects of Catholic
teaching and liturgy were changed as a result, no longer blaming the Jews for Christ's death and
refraining from calling for Jews to convert to Catholicism.

Outline Heschel’s role in the crafting of the 1965 statement Nostra Aetate.

Heschel died on December 23, 1972 at his home in New York City.
Works

The Prophets
This work started out as his Ph.D. thesis in German but was later expanded and translated into
English. Originally published in a two-volume edition, it covers their life and the historical
context that their missions were set in, summarizes their work, and discusses their
psychological state. In it Heschel promulgated what would become a central idea in his
theology: that the prophetic (and, ultimately, Jewish) view of God is best understood not as
anthropomorphic but rather as anthropopathic—that God has human feelings. He emphasized
the social role of the prophets as men who courageously spoke the truth to those in power, be
they kings, priests, or those who controlled great wealth. It remains widely read today.

Define the terms: anthropomorphic and anthropopathic.

Outline Heschel’s view of the Prophets.

The Sabbath
The Sabbath: Its Meaning For Modern Man is a work on the nature and celebration of the
Jewish Sabbath. This work is rooted in the thesis that Judaism is a religion of time, not space,
and that the Sabbath symbolizes the sanctification of time. He also promulgated Hasidic and
Kabbalistic views which see the Sabbath as a type of manifestation of God's grace, which is to
be welcomed by the Jewish community with mystical gratitude. Unlike Reform Jews, Heschel
insisted that proper observance of the Sabbath was crucial to Judaism.

Outline Heschel’s view on the Sabbath.

Explain the difference between his view and Reformist view.

Man is Not Alone

Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion offers Heschel's views on how man can approach
God, who is beyond comprehension. Judaism views God as being radically different from man,
so Heschel explores the ways that Judaism teaches that a person may have an encounter with
the ineffable. A recurring theme in this work is the radical "amazement" that humans
experience in the presence of the Divine. Heschel also explores the problems of doubt and
faith, what Judaism means by teaching that "God is one," the essence of humans and their
needs, the definition of religion and Judaism, and man's yearning for spirituality.
God in Search of Man
God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism is a companion volume to Man is Not Alone. In
this book Heschel discusses the nature of religious thought, how thought becomes faith, and
how faith creates responses in the believer. He discusses ways that humans can seek God's
presence and the radical amazement that humans receive in return. He offers a criticism of
nature worship, a study of man's metaphysical loneliness, and his view that we can also
consider God to be in search of man. He studies the concept of Jews as a chosen people, the
idea of revelation, and what it means for one to be a prophet. Heschel rejects the idea that
mere faith (without law) is enough, but then cautions against adding too many added
restrictions in Jewish law, as imposed, he believes, by many Orthodox rabbis. He discusses the
need to correlate ritual observance with spirituality and love, the importance of Kavanagh
(intention) when performing mitzvot.

Prophetic Inspiration After the Prophets

Heschel also wrote a series of articles on the existence of prophecy in Judaism after the
destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E. These essays were published in English as
Prophetic Inspiration After the Prophets: Maimonides and Others by the American Judaica
publisher Ktav. The book counters the traditional view that prophecy ended early in the Second
Temple era, around the fourth century B.C.E. Countering this, Heschel argued that prophecy
continued during the intertestamental and medieval periods. He held that prophetic inspiration
occurred even in post-Talmudic times into the modern period and emphasized that prophecy
involves men of God standing not only for religious truth, but also for social justice.

Torah min HaShamayim (Heavenly Torah)

Many consider Heschel's Torah min HaShamayim BeAsafklariah shel HaDorot (Torah from
Heaven in the light of the generations) to be his masterwork. The three volumes of this work
are a study of classical rabbinic theology and Aggadah (exegesis), as opposed to halakha (Jewish
law.) It explores the views of the rabbis in the Mishnah, the Talmud, and the Midrash about the
nature of Torah, the revelation of God to mankind, prophecy, and the ways that Jews have used
scriptural exegesis to expand and understand these core Jewish texts. In this work Heschel
views the second century sages Rabbis Akiva and Ishmael ben Elisha as paradigms for the two
dominant world-views in Jewish theology.
 Briefly outline the significant writings of Heschel.

● Man is Not Alone

● God in Search of Man
● Prophetic Inspiration After the Prophets
● Torah min HaShamayim (Heavenly Torah)

Explain why these writings are so significant to Judaism.

Carl Stern and Abraham Heschel interview 1972

Trained as a child to live a life compatible with the mystery

of human existence. Learning is a source of inspiration, a
source of joy, learning for the purpose of self-discipline,
discovery. Life without discipline is not worth living. He is
surprised by everything, maybe his weakness. There is
nothing stale under the sun, except human beings. “A billion
faces in this world, no two faces are alike”.

God in search of Man - is a paradox, God is too wise to

consult him. Biggest message of the Bible is the story of
man. God keeps the human species alive, even though God sees one disappointment after another.
1. Bible expresses ideas about the position of man in the universe
2. The nature of religion - nature of religion is not a lonely man searching for God, God is also in search of
man. Despite everything man is still waiting and longing for God.

Challenges explained - God shares life with man, he gave humans freedom. Humanity can do anything,
“the primary purpose of prayer is to praise” - singing! Prayer may not save us, but prayer may make us
worthy of being saved. God needs our help. God is in need of man. In history he cannot do the job alone,
he gave us freedom.

Meaning of God - beyond mystery, with holiness we will sink in absurdity. God loves all men and has given
many nations an awareness of his love and is found in many hearts.
What has the Bible given us - appreciation of the greatness of man, a partner of man. There are ups and
downs in humanity. As a person committed to biblical faith, what keeps humanity alive is that we have a
father. “Judging a person on colour is an eye disease”.

Prophets - ideas of prophets are complex. The Prophet is a man who can hold God and man in one
thought at one time, and at all times. If I hurt a human being, I injure God.
The ultimate source of hope, to all of us, is aligned with the prophets. The prophet as a witness to the
great mystery of God. Great example we have today are the ancient prophets of Islam. Heschel is a
descendant of the prophets, he prays that he is worthy to be so.

War - justice and compassion is god. God condemns murder, killing of innocent people. “In an innocent
society, some are guilty, all are responsible.''

Politics - prophets and God always have mixed with God and social and political issues. One of the great
sins of contemporary education is that you can solve all problems, to be a man is to have problems. The
more complicated he is, the more problems he has. The greatness of life is to experience and face the
challenge, rather than just have satisfaction.
Religion deals with problems of human existence, it also challenges life. Even God has problems, man is a
problem to God. Will of God is to have more than one religion in the world, it is a marvellous thing to
realise. It is the will of God to have religious choice, religious schools are teaching people some of the
classics of religious tradition.

“How can you be human without being able to pray?” We need religious education. The aid to religious
schools is needed. Religion has tremendous power, but in today’s world, little is to be afraid of in religious
power.

Organised religion - is in a weakened position. Members and clergy are to blame. There are countless
assaults from all directions. Not enough people are going into religious thinking, into passion, into life.
The central problem in the Bible is how to answer or respond to the human situation. Religious leaders
become petrified of the human situation. A great many religious leaders have given up on themselves.
There is a wave of non-belief, religious institutions even disbelieve. Young people are craving for deeper
meaning, for a religious outlook.

Validity - what makes a religion valid? If it is true, if it corresponds to real urgencies, problems. The nature
of man is to love and to have goals. Man has needs too, but we need to determine what is authentic, and
what is false. People are full of contempt about the nature of man at the moment. Heschel fights the
ongoing dehumanisation of man that he sees everywhere. “The deepest passion in any human person is a
craving for the meaning of existence”. What is the meaning of our society, what is the meaning of the
world?

Salvation - consistent with Jewish faith, not a lot written about death. But life after death is less important
than life after death. Who knows what God wants with you after the grave? Collaboration between God
and man - old idea of Judaism, that God suffers when man suffers, God identifies himself as the misery of
man.

Young people - remember they are a meaning beyond absurdity, every deed and word counts. The
meaning of life is to build life as if it were a work of art, a work of art called human existence. Through
self-discipline, studying sources of wisdom, and recognition that life is a celebration. Man needs
exaltation, celebration.
Legacy (new encyclopedia)

Abraham Heschel had a significant impact on twentieth-century Judaism, taking a leading role in
the Jewish commitment to the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-Vietnam War protest
movement, and the campaign for the human rights of Soviet Jewry. Even if one did not agree
with some of his political opinions, his writings and example showed that the true spirit of the
prophets lives not simply in theology but in social action.

His ecumenical work with the Catholic Church during Vatican II did much to heal the historical
breach between Christianity and Judaism, by influencing the Church to remove many of the
parts of its liturgy that were offensive to Jews.

In theology, Heschel took the middle ground between the liberalism of Reform Judaism and the
conservatism of Orthodoxy. He emphasized that God is not anthropomorphic in form, but that
God and humans do share common feelings such as the desire for love and indignation at
injustice. His many thought-provoking books continue to stimulate questions and debates
among Jewish theological students today and remain among the few Jewish theological books
read by Christians.

Heschel's life's work has inspired three namesake schools: one on the Upper West Side of New
York City, one in Northridge, California, and one in Toronto, Canada.

Quotations

● "God is of no importance unless He is of utmost importance."

● "Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum hatred for a minimum reason."
● "Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge."
● "A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all
times, who suffers no harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion,
whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair."
● "Self-respect is the fruit of discipline, the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say
no to oneself."
● "Life without commitment is not worth living."
● "In regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty, while all
are responsible."
● "Never forget that you can still do your share to redeem the world in spite of all
absurdities and frustrations and disappointments."
● "When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people."
Major Works

● Heschel, Abraham Joshua. God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism. New York: Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1955. ISBN 0374513317
● Heschel, Abraham Joshua. The Prophets. New York: Perennial, 1962. ISBN 0060936991
● Heschel, Abraham Joshua. Theology of Ancient Judaism. London: The Soncino Press, 1962. OCLC 16830315
● Heschel, Abraham Joshua. Who is Man? Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1965. ISBN 0804702659
● Heschel, Abraham Joshua. Man is not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux,
1976. ISBN 0374513287
● Heschel, Abraham Joshua. Man's Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism. Hudson River editions.
New York: Scribner's Sons, 1980. ISBN 0684168294
● Heschel, Abraham Joshua. A Passion for Truth. A Jewish Lights classic reprint. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights
Pub., 1995. ISBN 1879045419
● Heschel, Abraham Joshua, and Abraham Rattner. Israel: An Echo of Eternity. A Jewish Lights classic reprint.
Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Pub., 1997. ISBN 1879045702
● Heschel, Abraham Joshua, and Ilya Schor. The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man. Boston: Shambhala,
2003. ISBN 1590300823
● Heschel, Abraham Joshua, and Gordon Tucker. Heavenly Torah: As Refracted through the Generations.
Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2004. ISBN 0826408028
● Heschel, Abraham Joshua, and Morton M. Leifman. The Ineffable Name of God—man: Poems. New York:
Continuum, 2004. ISBN 0826416322

Notes

1. Neil Gillman, Conservative Judaism: The New Century (West Orange, NJ: Behrman House, 1993, ISBN
0874415470), 163.
2. Edward K. Kaplan, Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness (Yale University Press, 2007, ISBN
9780300124644).

References

● Gillman, Neil. Conservative Judaism: The New Century. West Orange, NJ: Behrman House, 1993. ISBN
0874415470
● Kaplan, Edward K. Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America, 1940-1972. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0300115406
● Kaplan, Edward K. Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.
ISBN 978-0300124644
● Merkle, John C. Abraham Joshua Heschel: Exploring His Life and Thought. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1985.
ISBN 978-0029209707
● Moore, Donald J. The Human and the Holy: The Spirituality of Abraham Joshua Heschel. New York, NY:
Fordham University Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0823212354
● Sherwin, Byron L. Abraham Joshua Heschel. Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1979. ISBN 978-0804204668
 Living the Legacy: Abraham Joshua Heschel
This document study is applicable to:

• Jewish clergy in the Civil Rights Movement

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972)

Born in Warsaw into a Hasidic dynasty in 1907, Abraham Joshua Heschel was ordained in Europe.

He also pursued a secular education but was unable to finish his doctorate in Germany because of

anti-Semitism. After Adolf Hitler came to power and began his campaign against the Jews, many

rabbinic seminaries in America invited European rabbis to teach at their schools. In this way,

Abraham Joshua Heschel came to Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of America (the Reform

movement's seminary) in 1940. Later, he moved to the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary,

feeling that this was a better fit with his traditional Jewish background and views.

Abraham Joshua Heschel is considered to be one of the great theologians of the twentieth

century. He wrote on many Jewish topics including the Prophets. Heschel's experience during the

Holocaust and his study of the Jewish prophets influenced his belief that Judaism required of one

both deeds and actions. Known as "Father Abraham" to many of Martin Luther King's followers,

Abraham Joshua Heschel was an outspoken activist for civil rights who marched with King, met

with John F. Kennedy about civil rights legislation, and is celebrated by many in the Jewish

community for his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and other movements for social

justice. His reflection on participating in the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery,

Alabama in March 1965 -- "I felt my legs were praying" -- has become a model of activism as

religious practice.
 Telegram from Abraham Joshua Heschel to President John F. Kennedy, June 16, 1963

Telegram from Abraham Joshua Heschel to President John F. Kennedy, June 16, 1963.
Published in Moral grandeur and spiritual audacity: essays, ed. Susannah Heschel (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux,
1996), vii.

Date / time
16 June 1963
Owner
Heschel, Susannah
Submitter
Heschel, Susannah
Date published
1996
Author(s)
Heschel, Abraham Joshua, 1907-1972
Editor(s)
Heschel, Susannah
Publisher
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Publication
Moral grandeur and spiritual audacity : essays Pages vii

Transcript
TO PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY, THE WHITE HOUSE, JUNE 16, 1963. I LOOK FORWARD TO
PRIVILEGE OF BEING PRESENT AT MEETING TOMORROW AT 4 P.M. LIKELIHOOD EXISTS THAT
NEGRO PROBLEM WILL BE LIKE THE WEATHER. EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT IT BUT NOBODY DOES
ANYTHING ABOUT IT. PLEASE DEMAND OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT NOT
JUST SOLEMN DECLARATION. WE FORFEIT THE RIGHT TO WORSHIP GOD AS LONG AS WE
CONTINUE TO HUMILIATE NEGROES. CHURCHES SYNAGOGUES HAVE FAILED. THEY MUST REPENT.
ASK OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS TO CALL FOR NATIONAL REPENTANCE AND PERSONAL SACRIFICE.
 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel on the Selma March, March 21, 1965

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marching with other civil rights leaders from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on
March 21, 1965. From far left: John Lewis, an unidentified nun, Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph
Bunche, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.

Questions to address.

1. Who wrote this telegram? When was it written? What was the context for writing the
telegram?
2. How do you think the format (a telegram) might have influenced the message?
3. Who was his specific audience? What larger audience might this telegram also have been
meant for?
4. In the first half of the telegram, Heschel asks the president to make some demands of
religious leaders. Let's recap: What are these demands? Why does Heschel think this is
necessary? Your interpretation: What do you think of a religious leader asking the
President of the United States (a secular leader) to make religious demands of religious
leaders?
5. In the second half of the telegram, Heschel makes certain proposals to the President. What
are these proposals? Your interpretation: How do they blend religious issues and political
issues?
6. Heschel says that "We forfeit the right to worship God as long as we continue to humiliate
Negroes." What do you think he meant by this?
7. What do you think Abraham Joshua Heschel meant when he said, "The hour calls for high
moral grandeur and spiritual audacity?" What do those words mean to you?
8. What do you think the purpose of this telegram is?
Jewish Women's Archive. "Abraham Joshua Heschel." (Viewed on December 24, 2020)
<https://jwa.org/teach/livingthelegacy/documentstudies/abraham-joshua-heschel>.
 INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES FROM ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL
(https://www.inspiringquotes.us/author/6345-abraham-joshua-heschel/)
●
“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ....get up in the morning and look at the
world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is
incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel
●
“Man is naturally self-centered and he is inclined to regard expediency as the supreme standard
for what is right and wrong. However, we must not convert an inclination into an axiom that just
as man's perceptions cannot operate outside time and space, so his motivations cannot operate
outside expediency; that man can never transcend his own self. The most fatal trap into which
thinking may fall is the equation of existence and expediency.” -- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“The essence of man is not what he is, but in what he is able to be.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, or mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a ruined city;
but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will.” --
Abraham Joshua Heschel

“People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be
amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or
appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state--it is to receive pleasure afforded by an
amusing act or a spectacle.... Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent
meaning of one's actions. Source: The Wisdom of Heschel” -- Abraham Joshua Heschel
● “Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

● “Awareness of the divine begins with wonder.”

-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

● “Remember that there is meaning beyond absurdity. Know that every deed counts, that every
word is power...Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art.” --
Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the
crisis of today is ignored because of the splendors of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom
rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than
with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless.” -- Abraham Joshua Heschel

● “Worship is a way of seeing the world in the light of God.”

-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

● “Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness.”

-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

● “When religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion,
its message becomes meaningless.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel
● “Mundus vult decipi'—the world wants to be deceived. To live without deception presupposes
standards beyond the reach of most people whose existence is largely shaped by compromise,
evasion and mutual accommodation. Could they face their weakness, their vanity and selfishness,
without a mask?”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

● “There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to
control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of
space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes our sole concern.” -- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“To sing means to sense and to affirm that the spirit is real and that its glory is present.” --
Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“Normal consciousness is a state of stupor, in which the sensibility to the wholly real and
responsiveness to the stimuli of the spirit are reduced. The mystics, knowing that man is involved
in a hidden history of the cosmos, endeavor to awake from the drowsiness and apathy and to
regain the state of wakefulness for their enchanted souls.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“Ultimately there is no power to narcissistic, self-indulgent thinking. Authentic thinking
originates with an encounter with the world.” -- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“The course of life is unpredictable; no one can write his autobiography in advance.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel
●
“Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred
moments.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“The road to the sacred leads through the secular.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“Man is a messenger who forgot the message.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

● “I would say about individuals, an individual dies when they cease to be surprised. I am
surprised every morning when I see the sunshine again. When I see an act of evil I don't
accommodate, I don't accommodate myself to the violence that goes on everywhere. I am still
so surprised! That is why I am against it. We must learn to be surprised.” - AJH

“To become aware of the ineffable is to part company with words...the tangent to the curve of
human experience lies beyond the limits of language. the world of things we perceive is but a
veil. It’s flutter is music, its ornament science, but what it conceals is inscrutable. It’s silence
remains unbroken; no words can carry it away. Sometimes we wish the world could cry and tell
us about that which made it pregnant with fear--filling grandeur. Sometimes we wish our own
heart would speak of that which made it heavy with wonder.” -- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“The hour calls for moral grandeur and spiritual audacity.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel
●
“When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

“A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times,
who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest
strength is love and defiance of despair.” -- Abraham Joshua Heschel

“A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants
and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the
incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture.” -- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“To pray is to dream in league with God, to envision His holy visions.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

● “The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth
living.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“Wise criticism always begins with self-criticism.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel
●

“Prayer is not a stratagem for occasional use, a refuge to resort to now and then. It is rather
like an established residence for the innermost self. All things have a home: the bird has a nest,
the fox has a hole, the bee has a hive. A soul without prayer is a soul without a home.” --
Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are
not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our
march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“The true meaning of existence is disclosed in moments of living in the presence of God”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“It is not enough for me to ask a question; I want to know how to answer the one question that seems
to encompass everything I face: What am I here for?”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“Things, when magnified, are forgeries of happiness.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel
● “Life is not meaningful...unless it is serving an end beyond itself; unless it is of value to someone
else.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

“There is no specialized art of prayer. All of life must be a training to pray. We pray the way we live.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense the grandeur of what is eternal in time.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“When we pray, we bring G-d into the world”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“To be spiritual is to be amazed.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“To become aware of the ineffable is to part company with words.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our
state of mind. Mankind will not perish for want of information; but only for want of appreciation.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel
●
“There is happiness in the love of labor, there is misery in the love of gain.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

● “The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live
under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in
time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the
results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the
world.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“Sometimes we wish the world could cry and tell us about that which made it pregnant with
fear-filling grandeur. Sometimes we wish our own heart would speak of that which made it heavy
with wonder.” -- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“God is not a hypothesis derived from logical assumptions, but an immediate insight, selfevident
as light. He is not something to be sought in the darkness with the light of reason. He is the
light.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“I have one talent, and that is the capacity to be tremendously surprised, surprised at life, at
ideas. This is to me the supreme Hasidic imperative: Don't be old. Don't be stale.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel
●
“We worry a great deal about the problem of church and state. Now what about the church and
God? Sometimes there seems to be a greater separation between the church and God than between
the church and state.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“Self-respect is the fruit of discipline.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to
oneself.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

● “The problem to be faced is: how to combine loyalty to one's own tradition with reverence for different
traditions.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

“Prayer begins where our power ends.”

-- Abraham Joshua Heschel
●
“Awe enables us to see in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the
beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple, to feel in
the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.” -- Abraham Joshua Heschel
●
“Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart. Audacious longing,
burning songs, daring thoughts, an impulse overwhelming the heart, usurping the mind--these
are all a drive towards serving Him who rings our hearts like a bell. It is as if He were waiting to
enter our empty, perishing lives.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“Feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal” --
Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“The primary purpose of prayer is not to make requests. The primary purpose is to praise,
to sing, to chant. Because the essence of prayer is a song, and man cannot live without a
song. Prayer may not save us. But prayer may make us worthy of being saved.” -- Abraham
Joshua Heschel

●
“A prophet's true greatness is his ability to hold God and man in a single thought.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn, or scoff at the totality of being.” --
Abraham Joshua Heschel

● “Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.”

-- Abraham Joshua Heschel
●
“There are no two hours alike. Every hour is unique and the only one given at the moment,
exclusive and endlessly precious. Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time; to learn
how to consecrate sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year.” --
Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“...morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human
beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but
all are responsible.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

●
“God is either of no importance, or of supreme importance.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel
●
“I did not ask for success; I asked for wonder.”
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

Copyright © 2020 Inspiring Quotes

 READING AND VIDEO LIST FOR ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL
Stanford University, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
Heschel, Abraham Joshua, Biography (January 11, 1907 to December 23, 1972)
- Overview of the life and achievements of AJH

Jewish Virtual Library, Abraham Joshua Heschel.

- More a teacher resource
America The Jesuit Review, October 26, 2015, The legacy of Abraham Joshua Heschel

America The Jesuit Review, October 26, 2015. Review: Abraham Heschel’s life of anguish and
hope
- More a teacher resource

Inspirational Quotes - 68 Famous Quotes by ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHE.

History of AJC and the Vatican - History of AJC and the Vatican

Wide Horizons: Abraham Joshua Heschel Wide Horizons: Abraham Joshua Heschel, AJC, and the Spirit of
Nostra Aetate, Gary Spruch
- More a teacher resource

Two Friends, Two Prophets: Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King Jr. by Susannah Heschel,
Susannah Heschel MAY 9, 2018

The Reasons for My Involvement in the Peace Movement, Submitted by Editor on 9/8/2001
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel From A.J. Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity (ed. by
Susannah Heschel; Farrar Straus & Giroux), pp. 224-6

(1963) Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, “Religion and Race”

POSTED ON AUGUST 12, 2017 BY CONTRIBUTED BY: BLACKPAST

VIDEOS
Abraham Joshua Heschel - 1972
Abraham Joshua Heschel Profile (PBS, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly)
50th Anniversary: AJC and Nostra Aetate