And yet we must not regard this revolt as entirely negative. The energy that rejects many obsolete laws is an entirely positive impulse for renewal of life and law.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELTo us injustice is injurious to the welfare of the people; to the prophets it is a deathblow to existence: to us, an episode; to them, a catastrophe, a threat to the world.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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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 -
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.
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There are two primary ways in which mans relates himself to the world that surround him: manipulation and appreciation .
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
To serve does not mean to surrender but to share.
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Indeed, the sort of crimes and even the amount of delinquency that fill the prophets of Israel with dismay do not go beyond that which we regard as normal, as typical ingredients of social dynamics.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder. Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice of your universe.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
The answers are questions in disguise, every new answer giving rise to new questions.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Religion has become an impersonal affair, an institutional loyalty. It survives on the level of activities rather than in the stillness of commitment.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Every little deed counts.
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Ultimately there is no power to narcissistic, self-indulgent thinking. Authentic thinking originates with an encounter with the world.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
This may be the vocation of man: to say “Amen” to being and to the Author of being; to live in defiance of absurdity, notwithstanding futility and defeat; to attain faith in God even in spite of God.
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The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God.
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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.
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Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
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Only those will apprehend religion who can probe its depth, who can combine intuition and love with the rigor of method
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL






