Heschel’s Wonder-01/31/2021

THE PEOPLE

Plucked from the Fire

I speak as a member of a congregation whose founder was Abraham, and the name of my rabbi is Moses.I speak as a person who was able to leave Warsaw, the city in which I was born, just six weeks before the disaster began. My destination was New York, it would have been Auschwitz or Treblinka. I am a brand plucked from the fire, in which my people was burned to death …

I speak as a person who is afraid lest God has turned away from [man] in disgust.

I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology

Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Edited by Samuel H. Dresner