The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of Sabbath. It is not an interlude but the climax of living.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELYou must build your life as if it were a work of art.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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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.
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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
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To 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.
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Prayer may not save us. But prayer may make us worthy of being saved.
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A soul can create only when alone.
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All that is left is to us is our being horrified at the loss of our sense of horror.
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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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Racism is man’s gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.
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Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one’s actions. Source: The Wisdom of Heschel
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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.
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Society today is no longer in revolt against particular laws which it finds alien, unjust, and imposed, but against law as such, against the principle of law.
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God is not a hypothesis derived from logical assumptions, but an immediate insight, self-evident as light. He is not something to be sought in the darkness with the light of reason. He is the light.
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Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder. Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice of your universe.
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The tragedy of religion is partly due to its isolation from life, as if God could be segregated.
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All action is vicarious faith.
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Trust is the core of human relationships, of gregariousness among men.
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It is the beginning of wisdom to be amazed at the fact of our being free.
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To serve does not mean to surrender but to share.
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Life is not meaningful…unle ss it is serving an end beyond itself; unless it is of value to someone else.
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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.
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Man’s sin is in his failure to live what he is. Being the master of the earth, man forgets that he is the servant of God.
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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.
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Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.
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Acceptance is appreciation, and the high value of appreciation is such that to appreciate appreciation seems to be the fundamental prerequisite for survival.
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Wise criticism always begins with self-criticism.
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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