Heschel’s Wonder
Rabbi Abraham Heschel presenting Judaism and World Peace award to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1965. (Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons)
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), a descendant of two important Hasidic dynasties, was born in Warsaw, educated in Poland, taught in Germany, London and United States, and was considered by many to be a prophet’s prophet. He aimed, through his writing and teaching, to challenge modern people to be open to a renewed spiritual dimension and to engage the issues of the day with faith and moral fortitude. His timely writings liberated many and inspired a generation of faith and social leaders whose impact is felt today in the 21st century. His active role in the historic civil rights movement and peace movement of the 20th century created a unique and vital coalition for transformative social change agents.
Mankind’s Greatest Privilege
The Bible is mankind’s greatest privilege.
It is so far off and so direct in its demands and full of compassion in its understanding. No other book so loves and respects the life of man. No loftier songs about his misery and hope have ever been expressed, and nowhere has man’s need for guidance and the certainty of his ultimate redemption been so keenly conceived. It has the words that startle the guilty and the promise that upholds the forlorn. And he who seeks a language in which to utter his deepest concern, to pray, will find it in the Bible.
I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology
Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Edited by Samuel H. Dresner
Archived Quotes
Defiance of Despair
A religious man
is a person who hold God and man
in one thought at one time,
at all times,
who suffers in himself harms done to others,
whose greatest passion is compassion,
whose greatest strength is love
and defiance of despair.
I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology
Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Edited by Samuel H. Dresner
Always
It takes three things to attain a sense of significant being:
God
A Soul
And a Moment.
And the three are always here.
I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology
Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Edited by Samuel H. Dresner
Youth
“What message have you for young people?” asked Carl Stern of NBC in concluding a television interview with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel shortly before his death.
Rabbi Heschel replied: “… Let them remember that there is a meaning beyond absurdity. Let them be sure that every deed counts, that every word has power, and that we all can do our share to redeem the world in spite of all absurdities and all frustrations and all disappointments.
“And, above all, [let them] remember … to build a life as if it were a work of art.”
I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology
Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Edited by Samuel H. Dresner
Great the Challenge
Great is the challenge we face at every moment
sublime the occasion, every occasion.
Here we are, contemporaries of God,
some of His power at our disposal.
I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology
Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Edited by Samuel H. Dresner
Unending Love
We live by the conviction that acts of goodness
reflect the hidden of His holiness.
His light is above our minds
but not beyond our will.
It is within our power to mirror His unending love
in deeds of kindness,
like brooks that hold the sky.
I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology
Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Edited by Samuel H. Dresner
Neutrality
… The world is not a vacuum.
Either we make it an altar for God
or it is invaded by demons.
There can be no neutrality.
Either we are ministers of the sacred
or slaves of evil.
from the book
I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology
Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Edited by Samuel H. Dresner
The Word of Prayer
Words of prayer are commitments, We stand for what we utter … The word of prayer is like a pledge in the making.
To begin to pray is to confront the word, to face its dignity, its singularity, and to sense its potential might. And it is the spiritual power of the praying man that makes manifest what is dormant in the text.
from the book
I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology
Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Edited by Samuel H. Dresner
Inner Vision
At the beginning of all action is an inner vision in which things to be are experienced as real. Prayer, too, is frequently an inner vision, an intense dreaming for God-the reflection of the Divine intentions in the soul of man. We dream of a time “when the world will be perfected under the Kingship of God, and all the children of flesh will call upon Thy name, when Thou wilt turn unto Thyself all the wicked of the earth.” We anticipate the fulfillment of the hope shared by both God and man. To pray is to dream in league with God, to envision His holy visions.
from the book
I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology
Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Edited by Samuel H. Dresner
A Thought of God
The purpose of prayer is to be brought to His attention, to be listened to, to be understood by Him; not to know Him, but to be known to Him To pray is to behold life not only as a result of His power, but as a concern of His will, or to strive to make our life a divine concern. For the ultimate aspiration of man is not to be a master, but an object of His knowledge. To live “in the light of His countenance,” to become a thought of God- this is the true career of man.
from the book
I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology
Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Edited by Samuel H. Dresner
Prayer clarifies our hopes and intentions. It helps us discover our true aspirations, the pangs we ignore, the longings we forget. It is an act of self-purification, a quarantine for the soul. It gives us the opportunity to be honest, to say what we believe, and to stand for what we say. For the accord of assertion and conviction, thought and conscience is the basis of all prayer.
from the book
I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology
Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Edited by Samuel H. Dresner