Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschelwas a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, authored a number of widely read books on Jewish philosophy and was active in the American Civil Rights movement...
NationalityPolish
ProfessionEducator
Date of Birth11 January 1907
CountryPoland
writing life-is unpredictable
The course of life is unpredictable no one can write his autobiography in advance.
lying heart curves
to become aware of the ineffable is to part company with words...the tangent to the curve of human experience lies beyond the limits of language. the world of things we perceive is but a veil. It’s flutter is music, its ornament science, but what it conceals is inscrutable. It’s silence remains unbroken; no words can carry it away. 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.
unique years two
There are no two hours alike. Every hour is unique and the only one given at the moment, exclusive and endlessly precious. Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time; to learn how to consecrate sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year.
sacred faces tasks
The task of life is to face sacred moments.
prayer self consciousness
In prayer we shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender
heart thinking holy
Faith opens our hearts for the entrance of the holy. It is almost as though God were thinking for us.
spiritual audacity moral
The hour calls for moral grandeur and spiritual audacity.
taken thinking space
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. What is meant, however, is a higher category than being: the power of maintaining being.
creativity dark night
Proximity to the crowd, to the majority view, spells the death of creativity. For a soul can create only when alone, and some are chosen for the flowering that takes place in the dark avenues of night.
real men knowing
Normal consciousness is a state of stupor, in which the sensibility to the wholly real and responsiveness to the stimuli of the spirit are reduced. 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.
forgery
Things, when magnified, are forgeries of happiness.
ineffable company
To become aware of the ineffable is to part company with words.
meaningful life-is ends
Life is not meaningful...unle ss it is serving an end beyond itself; unless it is of value to someone else.
answers want answering-questions
It is not enough for me to ask question; I want to know how to answer the one question that seems to encompass everything I face: What am I here for?