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Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett: public radio's conversation about religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas.
 

The influence of Abraham Joshua Heschel

As part of our biographical series on important religious figures, we're delving into the teachings and present-day relevance of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Heschel is perhaps best immortalized in a famous photograph taken of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery civil rights march with Martin Luther King Jr.

Heschel said of the march, "I felt my legs were praying."

Heschel spent nearly three decades of his life at the intellectual center of the conservative tradition of Judaism, the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. But his reach extended far beyond that institution and he was a challenging presence even within it. Jews of every tradition today revere and study Heschel's life and his many books, including God in Search of Man, Man Is Not Alone, and his definitive works on The Prophets and The Sabbath.

A mystic who wrote inimitable, transcendent words about God, Heschel also embodied the extreme social criticism and activism of the biblical prophets he studied. The opposite of good is not evil, Heschel insisted, it is indifference. He articulated spiritual, practical wisdom against indifference — on race, war, and interreligious encounter — as penetrating in our time as in his own.

As we're producing this program, we'd like to hear from you. How do Heschel's challenging ideas and poetic texts speak to you in your current life?

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