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Abraham Joshua Heschel: 260 quotes6 likes

“Instead of indulging in jealousy, greed, in relishing themselves, there are men who keep their hearts alert to the stillness in which time rolls on and leaves us behind. … those who are open to the wonder will not miss it. Faith is found in solicitude for faith, in an inner care for the wonder that is everywhere.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

"The Holy Dimension", p. 331
Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

“Man is a messenger who forgot the message.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

(2008)

“Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time, to attached to sacred events, to learn how to consecrate sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of year. The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals; and our Holy of Holies is a shrine that neither the Romans nor the Germans were able to burn.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Prologue p. 8
The Sabbath (1951)

“Worship is a way of seeing the world in the light of God.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

"The Light of God" in I Asked for Wonder : A Spiritual Anthology (1983) edited by Samuel H. Dresner, p. 20

“Those of faith who plant sacred thoughts in the uplands of time, the secret gardeners of the Lord in mankind's desolate hopes, may slacken and tarry but rarely betray their vocation.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

"The Holy Dimension", p. 332
Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

“Acceptance is appreciation, and the high value of appreciation is such that to appreciate appreciation seems to be the fundamental prerequisite for survival. Mankind will not die for lack of information; it may perish for lack of appreciation.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Source: Who Is Man? (1965), Ch. 5

“Trust is the core of human relationships, of gregariousness among men. Friendship, a puzzle to the syllogistic and critical mentality, is not based on experiments or tests of another person's qualities but on trust. It is not critical knowledge but a risk of the heart which initiates affection and preserves loyalty in our fellow men.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

"The Holy Dimension", p. 339
Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

“Pagans exalt sacred things, the Prophets extol sacred deeds.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

The Earth Is The Lord's : And The Sabbath (1963), p. 14

“Being is transcended by a concern for being.
Our perplexity will not be solved by relating human existence to a timeless, subpersonal abstraction which we call essence. We can do justice to human being only by relating it to the transcendent care for being.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Source: Who Is Man? (1965), Ch. 5

“Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense the grandeur of what is eternal in time.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Prologue p. 6
The Sabbath (1951)

“Freedom is not a natural disposition, but God's precious gift to man. Those in whom viciousness becomes second-nature, those in whom brutality is linked with haughtiness, forfeit their ability and therefore their right to receive that gift. Hardening of the heart is the suspension of freedom.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Volume 1, p. 191
The Prophets (1962)

“Being as we know it, the world as we come upon it, stands before us as otherness, remoteness. For all our efforts to exploit or comprehend it, it remains evasive, mysteriously immune. Being is unbelievable.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Source: Who Is Man? (1965), Ch. 5

“This is the predicament of man. All souls descend a ladder form heaven to the world. Then the ladders are taken away. Once they are in this world, they are called upon from heaven to rise, to come back. It is a call that goes out again and again. Each soul seeks the ladder in order to ascend above; but the ladder cannot be found. Most people make no effort to ascend, claiming, how can one rise to heaven without a ladder? However, there are souls which resolve to leap upwards without a ladder. So they jump and fall down. They jump and fall down, until they stop. Wise people think that since no ladder exists, there must be another way. We must face the challenge and act. Be what it may, one must leap until God, in His mercy, makes exultation come about.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

"No Religion is an Island", p. 266
Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

“Ultimate meaning is not grasped once and for all in the form of timeless idea, acquired once and for all, securely preserved in conviction. It is not simply given. It comes upon us as an intimation that comes and goes. What is left behind is a memory, and a commitment to that memory. Our words do not describe it, our tools do not wield it. But sometimes it seems as if our very being were its description, its secret tool.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Source: Who Is Man? (1965), Ch. 4

“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. 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 Heschel

"No Religion is an Island", p. 264
Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

“Ultimately there is no power to narcissistic, self-indulgent thinking. Authentic thinking originates with an encounter with the world.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Source: Who Is Man? (1965), Ch. 5

“The striking surprise is that prophets of Israel were tolerated at all by their people. To the patriots, they seemed pernicious; to the pious multitude, blasphemous; to the men in authority, seditious.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Volume 1, p. 19
The Prophets (1962)

“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.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Source: Who Is Man? (1965), Ch. 5

“The opposite of freedom is not determinism, but hardness of heart. Freedom presupposes openness of heart, of mind, of eye and ear.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Volume 1, p. 191
The Prophets (1962)