FREE GOD IN SEARCH OF MAN: A PHILOSOPHY OF JUDAISM PDF Abraham Joshua Heschel | 464 pages | 05 Mar 2009 | Souvenir Press Ltd | 9780285638365 | English | London, United Kingdom 28+ quotes from God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism by Abraham Joshua Heschel Sign in with Facebook Sign in options. Join Goodreads. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. God in Search of Man Quotes Showing of It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion--its message becomes meaningless. Awe enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple; to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal. The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living. What we lack is not a will to believe but a will to wonder. We must not indulge in self-scrutinization; we must not concentrate upon the problem of egocentricity. The way to purify the self is to avoid dwelling upon the self and God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism concentrate upon the task. A dead thought has been compared to a stone which one may plant in the soil. Nothing will come out. A living thought is like a seed. In the process of thinking, an answer without a question is devoid of life. It may enter the mind; it will not penetrate the soul. The surest way to suppress our ability to understand the meaning of God and the importance of worship is to take things for granted. Indifference to the sublime wonder of living is the root of sin. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion—its message becomes meaningless. Yet most of us succumb to such fancy, forgetting that the cardinal sin in thinking about ultimate issues is literal-mindedness. Ideas of faith must not be studied in total separation from the moments of faith. If a plant is uprooted from its soil, removed from its native winds, sun-rays and terrestrial environment, and kept in a hothouse— will observations made of such a plant disclose its primordial nature? The growing inwardness of man God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism reaches and curves toward God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism light of God God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism hardly be transplanted into the shallowness of mere reflection. Torn out of its medium in human life, it wilts like a rose pressed between the pages of a book. Religion is, indeed, little more than a desiccated remnant of a once living reality when reduced to terms and definitions, to codes and catechisms. It can only be studied in its natural habitat of faith and piety, in a soul where the divine is within reach of all thoughts. How does a man lift up his eyes to see a little higher than himself? The grand premise of religion is that man is able to surpass himself; that man who is part of this world may enter into a relationship with Him who is greater than the world; that man may lift up his mind and be attached to the absolute; that man who is conditioned by a multiplicity of factors is capable of living with demands that are unconditioned. How does one rise above the horizon of the mind? How does one free oneself from the perspectives of ego, group, earth, and age? How does one find a way in this world that would lead to an awareness of Him who is beyond this world? No one is truly inspired for his own sake. He who is blessed, is a blessing for others. Unless we recover the question, there is no hope of understanding the Bible. To examine our religious existence is, therefore, a task to be performed constantly. Even His will or His wisdom is not completely expressed through the prophets. This spiritual hierarchy is explicitly stated by the Rabbis. Revelation is not vicarious thinking. Its purpose is not to substitute for but to extend our understanding. They tried to teach us how to think in the categories of God: His holiness, justice and compassion. The appropriation of these categories, far from exempting us from the obligation to gain new insights in our own time, is a challenge to look for ways of translating Biblical commandments into programs required by our own conditions. The full meaning of the Biblical words was not disclosed once and for all. Every hour another aspect is unveiled. The word was given once; the effort to understand it must go on for ever. It is not enough to accept or even to carry out the commandments. To study, to examine, to explore the Torah is a form of worship, a supreme duty. For the Torah is an invitation to perceptivity, a call for continuous understanding. Love of man is the way to the love of God. Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. God in Search of Man Quotes by Abraham Joshua Heschel Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Americaauthored a number of widely read books on Jewish philosophy and was active in the civil rights movement. His mother was also a descendant of Avraham Yehoshua Heshel and other Hasidic dynasties. Their father Moshe died of influenza in when Abraham was nine. His mentor in Berlin was David Koigen. He joined a Yiddish poetry group, Jung Vilna, and inpublished a volume of Yiddish poems, Der Shem Hamefoyrosh: Mentsch, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism to his father. In late Octoberwhen Heschel was living in a rented room in the home of a Jewish family in Frankfurthe was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Poland. Heschel's sister Esther was killed in a German bombing. His mother was murdered by the Nazisand two other sisters, Gittel and Devorah, died in Nazi concentration camps. He never returned to Germany, Austria or Poland. He once wrote, "If I should go to Poland or Germany, every stone, every tree would remind me of contempt, hatred, murder, of children killed, of mothers burned alive, of human beings asphyxiated. Heschel arrived in New York City in March He served as professor of Jewish ethics and Mysticism until his death in Their daughter, Susannah Heschelbecame a Jewish scholar in her own right. Heschel explicated many facets of Jewish thought, including studies on medieval Jewish philosophy, Kabbalahand Hasidic philosophy. According to some scholars [ who? He was not given a graduate assistant for many years and was relegated to teach mainly in the education school or Rabbinical school, not in the academic graduate program. Heschel became friendly with his colleague Mordecai Kaplan. Though they differed in their approach to Judaism, they had a very cordial relationship and visited each other's homes from time to time. Heschel believed the teachings of the Hebrew prophets were a clarion call for social action God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism the United States and worked for African Americans' civil rights and against the Vietnam War. He also specifically criticized what he called "pan-halakhism", or an exclusive focus upon religiously compatible behavior to God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism neglect of the non-legalistic dimension of rabbinic tradition. At the Vatican Council IIas representative of American JewsHeschel persuaded the Catholic Church to eliminate or modify passages in its liturgy that demeaned the Jews, or referred to an expected conversion to Christianity. His theological works argued that religious experience is a fundamentally human impulse, not just a Jewish one. He believed that no religious community could claim a monopoly on religious truth. King and John Lewis. This work is rooted in the thesis that Judaism is a religion of time, not space, and that the Sabbath symbolizes the sanctification of time. Judaism views God as being radically different from humans, so Heschel explores the ways that Judaism teaches that a person may have an encounter with the ineffable. A recurring theme in this work is the radical amazement that people feel when experiencing the presence of the Divine. Heschel then goes on to explore the problems of doubts and faith; what Judaism means by teaching that God is one; the essence of humanity and the problem of human needs; the definition of religion in general and of Judaism in particular; and human yearning for spirituality. He offers his views as to Judaism being a pattern for life. In this book God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism discusses the nature of religious thought, how thought becomes faith, and how faith creates responses in the believer.