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Quote by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Work

God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism

This work presents a comprehensive philosophy of Judaism, arguing that the divine is not distant but actively in search of human beings. The book delves into key concepts such as revelation, faith, and the nature of religious experience, emphasizing a dynamic and personal relationship with God. It explores how Jewish traditions, texts, and practices reflect this ongoing search, offering a framework for understanding Judaism as a living, responsive faith rather than a static set of beliefs. more

Author

Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel

Abraham Joshua Heschel was a renowned rabbi and Jewish scholar, born on January 11, 1907, and passed away on December 23, 1972. He had a profound impact on religious philosophy, Jewish theology, and moral ethics. more

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“It is in the nature of political bodies always to see the evil in the opposite group, just as the individual has an ineradicable tendency to get rid of everything he does not know and does not want to know about himself by foisting it off on somebody else. Nothing has a more diverse and alienating effect upon society than this moral complacency and lack of responsibility, and nothing promotes understanding and rapprochement more than the mutual withdrawal of projections.”

“Nothing about his life is more strange to [man] or more unaccountable in purely mundane terms than the stirrings he finds in himself, usually fitful but sometimes overwhelming, to look beyond his animal existence and not be fully satisfied with its immediate substance. He lacks the complacency of the other animals: he is obsessed by pride and guilt, pride at being something more than a mere animal, built at falling short of the high aims he sets for himself.”

“The abjectly poor, and all those person whose energies are entirely absorbed by the struggle for daily sustenance, are conservative because they cannot afford the effort of taking thought for the day after tomorrow; just as the highly prosperous are conservative because they have small occasion to be discontented with the situation as it stands today.”

“I shall attempt to prove two things: first, that the actions and dispositions of mankind are the offspring of circumstances and events, and not of any original determination that they bring into the world; and, secondly, that the great stream of our voluntary actions essentially depends, not upon the direct and immediate impulses of sense, but upon the decisions of the understanding.”