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 HESCHELIndeed, 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 HESCHELMan’s true fulfillment depends on communion with that which transcends him.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELMundus vult decipi’—the world wants to be deceived.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELA test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELReality to us is thinghood , consisting of substances that occupy space; even God is conceived by most of us as a thing.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELThe worship of reason is arrogance and betrays a lack of intelligence. The rejection of reason is cowardice and betrays a lack of faith.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELWhen I marched with Martin Luther King in Selma, I felt my legs were praying.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELI have one talent, and that is the capacity to be tremendously surprised, surprised at life, at ideas. This is to me the supreme Hasidic imperative: Don’t be old. Don’t be stale.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELCelebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one’s actions. Source: The Wisdom of Heschel
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELOur concern is not how to worship in the catacombs but how to remain human in the skyscrapers.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELThere is no specialized art of prayer. All of life must be a training to pray. We pray the way we live.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELSelf-sufficiency, independence, the capacity to stand apart, to differ, to resist, and to defy-all are modes of being human.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELThis 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.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELSociety 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.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELMan has indeed become primarily a tool-making animal, and the world is now a gigantic tool box for the satisfaction of his needs.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELAll that is left is to us is our being horrified at the loss of our sense of horror.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL