Abraham Joshua Heschel Today

Voices from Warsaw and Jerusalem

Harold Kasimow

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781725273511
  9781725273528
• eBook ISBN:
  9781725273535
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish Theology

Abraham Joshua Heschel remains one of the most creative Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. These essays demonstrate that Heschel became a spiritual guide, not only in America but in many other parts of the world, especially in Poland, where he was born, and in Israel, where the prophets gave the world a dream of everlasting peace.

1

Editor’s Introduction

Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 6, 1 (2007)

Harold Kasimow

Grinnell College (Grinnell, Iowa)

A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers in himself harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.1

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was just such a religious person. With his brilliant mind and compassionate heart, he became one of the most influential religious teachers of America in the twentieth century. Among those who both admire Heschel and have woven his teachings into their work are not only Jews, but also Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims in many different parts of the world, all attracted by his powerful words of wisdom, by the generosity of his spirit, and by his personal integrity. Heschel’s impact on Jews and others was due in large part to the fact that many who met him in person or who meet him in his works feel that he is writing out of his own experience. He had the rare ability to speak, and be heard, beyond the boundaries of his own religious tradition.

For Byron Sherwin, Heschel’s disciple, secretary, and research assistant, who has written a book and many articles on Heschel, “Abraham Joshua Heschel was a jewel from God’s treasure chest.”2 Fritz A. Rothschild, a student and colleague of Heschel, speculates that Heschel’s great impact, especially on Jews and Christians, is due to the fact that “Heschel helps us to perceive life as the biblical prophets and psalmists perceived it; he thereby helps us discern in the biblical message the presence of God.”3 Samuel Dresner, Heschel’s student and disciple from the time that Heschel arrived in the United States until his death, spoke of Heschel as “nasi, a prince of his people. He was shalem, marvelously whole. He was zaddik hador, a master for our age.”4

Heschel also had a great impact on a number of the most influential Christians of his day, especially Catholics. He was greatly admired by Thomas Merton, Daniel Berrigan, Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, Cardinal Augustine Bea, who was responsible for the drafting of the Church’s revolutionary document Nostra Aetate, and even Pope Paul VI. Heschel convinced the Pope to remove a paragraph in Nostra Aetate that called for Jews to convert to Christianity.

In his essay “Heschel’s Impact on Catholic-Jewish Relations,” Eugene Fisher tells us that “when Heschel died, the American Catholic community mourned the loss of one who was, for us, a spiritual mentor and guide, a man whose faith helped form and mold our own faith at its deepest point. When Heschel died, the Jesuit journal America, reflecting the mood of the American Catholics throughout the country, took the unprecedented step of devoting an entire issue to a discussion of his work by the leading Catholic thinkers of the day.”5 The well-known American writer James Carroll stated, “ To read Heschel was to step aboard the endangered but still seaworthy idea that the most transforming adventure of all can be intellectual. Heschel changed my notions not only of Judaism but of religion itself, and of God.”6

Many prominent Protestants also became close friends and admirers of Heschel, including Jaroslav Pelikan and William Sloan Coffin, and no one more so than the great Christian theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. Niebuhr considered Heschel to be “the most authentic prophet of religious life in our culture” and the “commanding and authoritative voice not only in the Jewish community but in the religious life of America.”7 Martin Luther King, Jr., often expressed his deep appreciation of Heschel. He spoke of Heschel as “one of the persons who is relevant at all times, always standing with prophetic insight to guide us through these difficult days.”8 King saw Heschel as a “truly great man,” and “a truly great prophet.” He viewed him as a messenger of God because his words, “to think of man in terms of white, black, or yellow is more than an error. It is an eye disease, a cancer of the soul,” expressed King’s own dream for the world.9 Heschel’s writings have also made an impact on evangelical scholars. Marvin R. Wilson, one of the best-known evangelical scholars in America, who teaches courses on Heschel, stated to me in a letter, “The writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel have had a greater impact on my life than any other single source except the Bible.”10

We must not overlook the power of Heschel’s literary style as an important reason for people’s attraction to his works. This is explored most deeply by Edward Kaplan, who writes: “Heschel’s writings convincingly evoke the luminous presence of God For me particularly, he was a great artist. His poetic style enticed my yearning for faith.”11

In contrast to his widespread influence in America, Heschel has not received the attention he deserves in some other parts of the world, including Poland, where he was born, and Israel, where the prophets gave the world the dream of everlasting peace. This situation is now beginning to change as a number of Heschel’s books have been translated into Polish and Hebrew in recent years.

I am therefore very pleased to include in this special issue of Shofar some eminent thinkers from Israel and Poland who are deeply immersed in the works of Heschel. I am deeply grateful to all the contributors for their important and moving articles. I am especially happy to see the importance that some of them...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contributors
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Editor’s Introduction
• Chapter 2: In Search of Heschel
• Chapter 3: God’s Omnipotence and Presence in Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Philosophy
• Chapter 4: No Religion Is an Island
• Chapter 5: I Am What I Do
• Chapter 6: Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Declaration Dabru Emet
• Chapter 7: Heschel Book Reviews
• Bibliography