Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes

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Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ....get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Life, Spiritual, Morning

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...morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Evil, Suffering, Limits

Abraham Joshua Heschel, Harold Kasimow (1991). “No Religion Is an Island: Abraham Joshua Heschel and Interreligious Dialogue”, Orbis Books

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Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder. Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice of your universe. Each day enrapture me with your marvelous things without number. ...I do not ask to see the reason for it all: I ask only to share the wonder of it all.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Dear Lord, Numbers, Grace

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When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendors of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Past, Compassion, Names

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1955). “Insecurity of Freedom”, p.181, Macmillan

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We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Thinking, Asking Questions, Asking

"SQ : Connecting with Our Spiritual Intelligence". Book by Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, 2000.

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In any free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty - all are responsible.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Guilty, Responsible, Terrible

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The opposite of good is not evil, the opposite of good is indifference.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Opposites, Evil, Indifference

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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. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Song, Prayer, Legs

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Remember that there is meaning beyond absurdity. Know that every deed counts, that every word is power...Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Art, Deeds, Remember

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1983). “I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology”, Crossroad Publishing Company

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Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, or mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a ruined city; but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Prayer, Heart, Bridges

"The Jewish moral virtues". Book by Eugene Borowitz, 1999.

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Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself. It is a silent justification affording evil acceptability in society.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Evil, Indifference, Silent

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Prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness, hatred, opportunism, falsehoods. The liturgical movement must become a revolutionary movement seeking to overthrow the forces that continue to destroy the promise, the hope, the vision.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Prayer, Pyramids, Hatred

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Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Men, Racism, Hatred

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1955). “Insecurity of Freedom”, p.86, Macmillan

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When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Bullying, Clever, Kindness

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The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Space, Trying, Six

Abraham Joshua Heschel (2005). “The Sabbath”, p.22, Macmillan

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Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme. Awe is a sense for transcendence, for the reference everywhere to mystery beyond all things. It enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine. ... to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple: to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal. What we cannot comprehend by analysis, we become aware of in awe.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Simple, Intuition, Analysis

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1983). “I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology”, Crossroad Publishing Company

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How embarrassing for man to be the greatest miracle on earth and not to understand it!

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Men, Miracle, Earth

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1965). “Who is Man?”, p.112, Stanford University Press

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To serve does not mean to surrender but to share.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Mean, Doe, Surrender

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1976). “Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion”, p.141, Macmillan

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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. Prayer may not save us. But prayer may make us worthy of being saved.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Song, Prayer, Men

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One of the major symptoms of the general crisis existent in our world today is our lack of sensitivity to words. We use words as tools. We forget that words are a repository of the spirit. The tragedy of our times is that the vessels of the spirit are broken. 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. By the word of God the world was created.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Prayer, Our World, Broken

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The degree to which one is sensitive to other people's suffering, to other (people's) humanity, is the index of one's own humanity

Abraham Joshua Heschel

People, Humanity, Suffering

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1965). “Who is Man?”, p.46, Stanford University Press

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Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Life, Faith, Gratitude

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1997). “Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays”, p.264, Macmillan

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A 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. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Children, Tyrants, People

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1955). “Insecurity of Freedom”, p.72, Macmillan

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Mundus vult decipi'—the world wants to be deceived. To live without deception presupposes standards beyond the reach of most people whose existence is largely shaped by compromise, evasion and mutual accommodation. Could they face their weakness, their vanity and selfishness, without a mask?

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Vanity, People, Deception

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1973). “A Passion for Truth”, p.190, Macmillan

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Awe enables us to see in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple, to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Simple, World, Common

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1965). “Who is Man?”, p.89, Stanford University Press

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Born: January 11, 1907
Died: December 23, 1972
Occupation: Rabbi
Cite this Page: Citation

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