“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

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Abraham Joshua Heschel 130

Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi 1907–1972

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Abraham Joshua Heschel 130

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