We cannot approach the spirit unless we repair the vessels. Reverence for words – an awareness of the wonder of words, of the mystery of words – is an essential prerequisite for prayer.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELWonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
-
-
Being points beyond itself. Accustomed to think in terms of space, the expression “being points beyond itself” may be taken to denote a higher point in space.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Faith is an awareness of divine mutuality and companionship, a form of communion between God and man.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
We worship God through our questions.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn, or scoff at the totality of being.
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.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
In our daily lives we attend primarily to that which the senses are spelling out for us: to what the eyes perceive, to what the fingers touch.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
There is no answer to Auschwitz…To try to answer is to commit a supreme blasphemy. Israel enables us to bear the agony of Auschwitz without radical despair
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
We must first peer into the darkness, feel strangled and entombed in the hopelessness of living without God, before we are ready to feel the presence of His living light.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Only in His presence shall we learn that the glory of humankind is not in its will to power but in its power of compassion.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
I am commanded therefore I am.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Wisdom, maturity, tranquility do not come all of a sudden when we retire.
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 -
Sometimes there seems to be a greater separation between the church and God than between the church and state.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL