Kol+HaLev-+All+Community+Program+4


 * OUTLINE OF ALL-COMMUNITY PROGRAM #4**
 * WRESTLING WITH MAKING A DIFFERENCEE IN OUR WORLD**
 * FEBRUARY 17, 2007**

1) Explore the Jewish obligation of //tikun olam// (repairing the world) using the customs of Purim as prototypes for our communal responsibilities to stand up to injustice, share our good fortune, and strive to improve the world. 2) Familiarize ourselves with what Jewish texts says are our communal responsibilities 3) Examine three historic individuals from varying faith backgrounds who dared to stand up and speak out against injustice. 4) Identify ways that we can and should speak out .
 * GOAL:** The goals of the program are to
 * MATERIALS:** Deb as Queen Esther with crown and gown, Jeff as Gandhi in robe, Steve dressed as MLK (face paint would be a nice touch), and Estelle as Abraham Joshua Heschel, (and ????? making a cameo appearance as Haman with ???? as King A), zeroed pages one containing the writings/speeches etc of Martin Luther King, one for Abraham Joshua Heschel, and one for Mahatma Gandhi, bald head, MLK mask

. Deb as Esther opens, saying “I am Queen Esther of Persia, and I have lived well here in the Palace. What is not to like, servants to fulfill my needs, plenty of food, clothes, and wonderful entertainment. And the king, he has grown to really love me. I tell you a girl can really get used to a life like this. At times, I feel funny that the King does not know I am Jewish, but…. Its not like I’m lying, the subject just hasn’t come up so I haven’t volunteered the information. Not that I think it would really matter to King A. He’s a good guy, as long as people obey his laws, he tolerates all. I think he is a fine guy and one of these days, I probably will get around to telling him. But whets the hurry, life is good here for the Jews and for me, and I really don’t think my being a Jew will even matter. (Deb is welcome to embellish some more along these lines) Deb/Esther is interrupted by Haman played by ???? and King A played by ???? who runs in say respectively “There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed among the other peoples in all the provinces of your realm, whose laws are different from those of any other people and who do not obey the king’s laws; and it is not in Your Majesty’s interest to tolerate them. If it please Your Majesty, let an edict be drawn for their destruction, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the stewards for deposit in the royal treasury.’… And the king said, ‘The money and the people are yours to do with as you see fit’” (Esther 3:8-11). Then they both leave. Esther/Deb addresses the group again saying “So much for what I was saying before. Now what should I do? No one knows I am Jewish and I can keep it secret and live….. but my people? I probably am the only one who can save them. The king just might listen to me over Haman. I have a chance of stopping Haman and saving all my people. But that would mean risking my life, and I might not succeed and then I would die too. It is much safer for me not to say or do anything. Why should it be my responsibility to put my life on the line for others? (again this part can be played up) At this point Gandhi, King, and Heschel run in. Each in turn addresses Esther/Deb. Each gives a brief introduction of who they are, and what they did historically, and telling Deb/Esther she can’t ignore her responsibility to others using the language/quotes of their character/tradition. Heschel then tells the group that they will be divided into three groups; one to go with King to the Bonim Classroom, one with Gandhi to the Shorashim classroom, and one with himself to go to the Zorim classroom. In each of the three smaller groups, the leader (Gandhi, King, or Heschel) will pass out the quote/background sheet for the person whom they are that day. (Sheets will be provided as addendum to this lesson and will be zeroed to pass out to the participants). Each group will as a group read through the speeches/quotes/background on their character and discuss what each is saying. Then as a group, come up with how they think there character would have reacted if he had been Esther and prepare a presentation/skit etc to go back to- to persuade Esther to go to King A. (use the methods/language of who you are!) We will come back together to here each group present the teachings of their character to Esther to try to convince her (0r perhaps not) that she does have the responsibility to save her people!!!! We will have a debate b/n the three social activists. Each will make a connection b/n a Purim concept and a current social justice issue. Each activist will review who they area and their history and why they would not have sat idle while the issue they are assigned is happening. (see just below the three highlighted mitzvoth and social justice issues). INTRO TO DEBATE: The connection can be made that Purim is the holiday of opposites. Just as the story of Esther, which begins with the evil Haman ordering all the Jews be killed and ends with Haman himself put to death, is full of the “upside down,” so too are our celebrations. We change our appearances with costumes, change our drinking habits for the day, and create Purim spiels in which we make fun of our rabbis, our tradition, and ourselves. Nothing is sacred on Purim. In spite of, or perhaps because of, our topsy-turvy silliness, Purim remains a holiday about social justice. The commandments to eat, drink, and be merry are accompanied by three mitzvoth that have to do with social justice… 3. A third social justice mitzvah of Purim is that **the day before Purim is traditionally Ta’anit Esther, the Fast of Esther, which commemorates the three-day fast that Esther asks the Jews to hold before she goes to plead before the king**. Fasting for a day is not only a very personal way to tap into your compassion for the suffering of others, but also a very powerful way to act in solidarity with the people being persecuted. As a people painfully familiar with the horrors of genocide, we know all too well the persecution that comes from being a people “scattered and dispersed,” with laws “different from those of any other people.” Today, thousands of people around the world are persecuted because of differences in race, religion, gender, or political affiliation**. The genocide in Darfur** is the most recent such crisis to find the global spotlight. (Gandi) Ask entire for ideas about what we can do to deal with the current social justice issues. Have them reflect on the character whose thoughts they studied, the mitzvoth of the holiday, and a lesson that it teaches us about social justice today. Steve will wrap up the idea of the program that the story of Purim is also a lesson in our own responsibility. At the end of the //megillah//, we read that on the thirteenth of Adar, the day before Purim, the Jews kill 75,000 of their enemies. While Purim is a day on which we celebrate our victory over Haman’s plot to destroy us, we must remember the violent way in which we triumphed. None of us are blameless. In honor of Purim, let us take the opportunity to learn about persecution and human rights violations and work towards peaceful solutions to these conflicts.
 * TIME TABLE:**
 * 12:15****-** **12:30****: OPENING SKIT**
 * 12:30****-** **1:00****: LEARNING GROUPS**
 * 1:00****-** **1:15****: MAKING OUR CASES TO ESTHER**
 * 1:15****-** **1:30****: DEBATE**
 * 1:30-1:45****: SIYUM**
 * METHOD**:
 * 12:15-12:30** **OPENING SKIT**
 * 12:30****-** **1:00****: LEARNING GROUPS**
 * 1:00-1:15****: MAKING OUR CASES TO ESTHER**
 * 1:15-1:30** **DEBATE: BRING IT BACK TO PURIM AND TODAY’S ISSUES**
 * 1.the //mitzvah// of //matanot l’evyonim//, giving //tzedakah// (literally “gifts to the poor”).** In the Book of Esther, we read, “the same days on which Jews enjoyed relief from their foes and the same month which had been transformed for them from one of grief to joy and from mourning to festival, they were to observe them as days of feasting and merry-making. In our giving //matanot l’evyonim// on Purim, and in the larger sense of pursuing social justice, we recognize the need for an inversion in society, a turning upside down of the inequalities we see. By engaging in social action on Purim, we hope to erase the hierarchy of the haves and the have-nots. **This custom connects to the modern day social justice issues of homelessness, poverty, and hunger**. (MLK group)
 * 2. the mitzah of sending gifts [//mishloach manot//]** (Esther 9:22) to our friends and neighbors showing we appreciate them and remember them. The forgotten one from our Purim story is Vashti, who is the example of a women who stood up for women’s right. Thus another social justice issue of this holiday is that of **women’s rights.** In //Megillat Esther//, both Vashti and Esther are in vulnerable positions because of their gender but stood up for themselves in spite of the tremendous risk. We must work towards a day on which women are no longer susceptible to abuse and discrimination. And as Jews, we are uniquely sensitive to the evil of persecution. Although Haman’s plot to kill the Jews rings farcical in our story, the instances of ethnic or gender based violence and persecution that exist in the world today are all too real. It is our obligation to demand an end to these atrocities. (Heshel group)
 * 1:30-1:45****: SIYUM**


 * Martin Luther King, Jr., Quotations**
 * //Press on and keep pressing . . .//**
 * We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.
 * From "Letter from** **Birmingham** **Jail,"** **April 16, 1963** ||
 * Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
 * From //Strength to Love//, 1963** ||
 * I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow, but to God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
 * From "Rediscovering Lost Values,"** **Feb. 28, 1954** ||
 * Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.
 * From a speech given to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,** **Aug. 16, 1967** ||
 * I just want to do God's will. And he’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.
 * From an address given in** **Memphis** **the night before his assassination,** **April 3, 1968** ||
 * I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
 * Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech,** **Dec. 10, 1964** ||
 * [[image:file:clip_image001.gif width="100" height="128" align="center"]]I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
 * From the [|"I Have a Dream"] speech,** **Aug. 28, 1963** ||
 * The sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
 * From the [|"I Have a Dream"] speech,** **Aug. 28, 1963** ||
 * Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
 * From "Letter from** **Birmingham** **Jail,"** **April 16, 1963** ||
 * If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.
 * On learning of threats on his life,** **June 5, 1964** ||
 * From the [|"I Have a Dream"] speech,** **Aug. 28, 1963** ||
 * The sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
 * From the [|"I Have a Dream"] speech,** **Aug. 28, 1963** ||
 * Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
 * From "Letter from** **Birmingham** **Jail,"** **April 16, 1963** ||
 * If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.
 * On learning of threats on his life,** **June 5, 1964** ||
 * If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.
 * On learning of threats on his life,** **June 5, 1964** ||
 * On learning of threats on his life,** **June 5, 1964** ||

MAHATMA GHANDI QUOTES
Your character must be above suspicion and you must be truthful and self controlled. The truest test of civilization, culture and dignity is character, not clothing. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers. Men of stainless character will easily inspire confidence and automatically purify the atmosphere around them. The real property that a parent can transmit to all equally is his or her character and educational facilities. All your scholarship would be in vain if at the same time you do not build your character and attain mastery over your thoughts and your actions.
 * CHARACTER**

Civil disobedience is the assertion of a right which law should give but which it denies. Civil disobedience presupposes willing obedience of our self-imposed rules, and without it civil disobedience would be cruel joke. Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the State becomes lawless corrupt. Civil disobedience means capacity for unlimited suffering without the intoxicating excitement of killing. Disobedience to be civil has to be open and nonviolent. Disobedience to be civil implies discipline, thought, care, attention. Disobedience that is wholly civil should never provoke retaliation. Non-cooperation and civil disobedience are different but branches of the same tree call Satyagraha (truth-force).
 * CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE**

Coercion cannot but result in chaos in the end. One who uses coercion is guilty of deliberate violence. Coercion is inhuman.
 * COERCION**

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good. Nonviolent action without the cooperation **of** the heart and the head cannot produce the intended result
 * COOPERATION**

Democracy necessarily means a conflict of will and ideas, involving sometimes a war to the knife between different ideas. The very essence of democracy is that every person represents all the varied interests which compose the nation. Democracy is a great institution and, therefore, it is liable to be greatly abused. Democracy is an impossible thing until the power is shared by all, but let not democracy degenerate into mobocracy. Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep. Democracy and violence can ill go together. Evolution of democracy is not possible if we are not prepared to hear the other side. Democracy, disciplined and enlightened, is the finest thing in the world. The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within. My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest should have the same opportunity as the strongest. To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect and their oneness. Intolerance, discourtesy and harshness are taboo in all good society and are surely contrary to the spirit of democracy. In true democracy every man and women is taught to think for himself or herself. The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular. Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today.
 * DEMOCRACY**

True discipline gives enthusiastic obedience to instructions even though they don not satisfy the reason. Conscience is the ripe fruit of strictest discipline. Unless discipline is rooted in nonviolence, it might prove a source of infinite mischief. Non-cooperation is a measure of discipline and sacrifice, and it demands respect for the opposite views.
 * DISCIPLINE**

Faith gains in strength only when people are willing to lay down their lives for it. Faith is not like a delicate flower which would wither away the' slightest' stormy-'weather. Robust faith in oneself and brave trust of the opponent, so-called or real, is the best safeguard. A living faith cannot be manufactured by the rule of majority. What is faith if it is not translated into action? Faith is not imparted like secular subjects. It is given through the language of the heart. Every living faith must have within itself the power of rejuvenation if it is to live. Just as the body cannot exist without blood, so the soul needs matchless and pure strength of faith. Nonviolence succeeds only when we have a real living faith in God. My effort should never be to undermine another's faith but to make him a better follower of his own faith. My faith is brightest in the midst of impenetrable darkness. Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed. Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion -human religion- but any number of faiths.
 * FAITH**

Love is the subtlest force in the world. The force of nonviolence is infinitely more wonderful and subtle than the material force of nature, like electricity. The truth is that God is the force. He is the essence of life. He is pure and undefiled consciousness. He is eternal. The more efficient a force is the more silent and the more subtle it is.
 * FORCE**

Freedom is like birth. Till we are fully free, we are slaves. Freedom received through the efforts of others, however benevolent, cannot be retained when such effort is withdrawn. No charter of freedom will be worth looking at which does not ensure the same measure of freedom for the minorities as for the majority. No society can possibly be built on a denial of individual freedom True nonviolence should mean a complete freedom from illwill and anger and hate and an overflowing love for all. This freedom from all attachment is the realization of God as Truth. I do not want my house to be walled in on sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. Independence means voluntary restraints and discipline, voluntary acceptance of the rule of law. Independence of my conception means nothing less than the realization of the "Kingdom of God" within you and on this earth. Complete independence does not mean arrogant isolation or a superior disdain for all help. If it is man's privilege to be independent, it is equally his duty to be inter-dependent.
 * FREEDOM**

Justice will come when it is deserved by our being and feeling strong. Justice does not help those who slumber but helps only those who are vigilant. Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of justice lived and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds.
 * JUSTICE**

Moral results can only be produced by moral restraints. Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort. True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in finding out the true path for ourselves and in fearlessly following it. To observe morality is to attain mastery over our mind and our passions. Performance of duty and observance of morality are convertible.
 * MORAL FORCE/MORALITY**

Noncooperation means refusal both to help the sinner in his sin and to accept any help or gift from him till he has repented. Noncooperation is measure of discipline and sacrifice and it demands respect for the positive views. Nonviolent noncooperation with evil means cooperation with all that is good. Noncooperation is intended to pave the way to real, honorable and voluntary cooperation based on mutual respect and trust. Noncooperation in political field is an extension of the doctrine as it is practiced in the domestic field. The avowed policy of noncooperation has been not to make political use of disputes between labor and capital. Real noncooperation is noncooperation with evil and not with the evil doer. Noncooperation is not a hymn of hate. My Noncooperation is with methods and systems, never with men. Nonviolence is the rock on which the whole structure of noncooperation is built.
 * NONCOOPERATION**

Passive resistance is a method of securing rights by personal suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms. Passive resistance is an all-sided sword; it can be used anyhow; it blesses him who uses it and him against whom it is used. Passive resistance is a misnomer for nonviolent resistance. It is active than violent resistance. Passive resistance, unlike nonviolence, has no power to change men' s hearts. The sword of passive resistance does not require a scabbard. Jesus Christ, Daniel and Socrates represented the purest form of passive resistance or soul force.
 * PASSIVE RESISTANCE**

My patriotism is not an exclusive thing. It is all-embracing and I should reject that patriotism which sought to mount the distress or exploitation of other nationalities. By patriotism I mean the welfare of the whole people, if I secure it at the hands of my opponent, I should bow down my head to him.
 * PATRIOTISM**

It is my firm conviction that if the State supressed capitalism by violence, it will be caught in the coils of violence itself, and will fail to develop non-violence at any time. The State represents violence in a concentrated and organized form. The individual has a soul, but as the State is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence. I look upon an increase of the power of the State with the greatest fear, because although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality, which lies at the root of all progress. We know of so many cases where men have adopted trusteeship, but none where the State has really lived for the poor. "Love thy neighbor as thyself" is no counsel of perfection. The capitalist is as much a neighbor of the laborer as the latter is a neighbor of the former, and one has to seek and win the willing co- operation of the other. Nor does the principle mean that we should accept exploitation lying down. Our internal strength will render all exploitation impossible. It can be easily demonstrated that destruction of the capitalist must mean destruction in the end of the worker and as no human being is so bad as to be beyond redemption, no human being is so perfect as to warrant his destroying him whom he wrongly considers to be wholly evil.
 * SOCIALISM**

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. A person who has realized the principle of nonviolence has the God-given strength for his weapon and the world has not yet known anything that can match it. A definite forgiveness would mean a definite recognition of our strength. The greater our innocence, the greater our strength and the swifter our victory. The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law, to the strength of the spirit. If your heart acquires strength, you will be able to remove blemishes from others without thinking evil of them.
 * STRENGTH**

Sorrow and suffering make for character if they are voluntarily borne, but not if they are imposed. True suffering does not know itself and never calculates. The only way love punishes is by suffering. The hardest heart and the grossest ignorance must disappear before the rising sun of suffering without anger and without malice.
 * SUFFERING**

Truth is what the voice within tells you. Truth is the right designation of God. Truth and nonviolence will never be destroyed. Truth is like a vast tree which yields more and more fruit the more you nurture it. Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. Truth and untruth often con-exist; good and evil often are found together. Truth is self-evident, nonviolence is its maturest fruit, it is contained in Truth, but is not self-evident. Every truth is self-acting and possesses inherent strength. Truth, which is permanent, eludes the historian of events. Truth transcends history. Truth and nonviolence demand that no human being may debar himself from serving any other human being, no matter how sinful he may be. Truth is the first to be sought for, and Beauty and Goodness will then be added unto you. An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Truth without humility would be an arrogant caricature. The quest of truth involves self-suffering, sometimes even upto death. Use truth as your anvil, nonviolence as your hammer and anything that does not stand the test when it is brought to the anvil of truth and hammered with nonviolence, reject it.
 * TRUTH**

__**Abraham Joshua Heschel**__
Rabbi **Abraham Joshua Heschel** (January 11, 1907, Warsaw, Poland – December 23, 1972) was considered by many to be one of the most significant Jewish theologians of the 20th century. Heschel was a descendant of preeminent rabbinic families of Europe, both on his father's (Moshe Mordechai Heschel, who died of influenza in 1916) and mother's (Reizel Perlow Heschel) side, and a descendant of the rebbes of Apt (known in Polish as Opatow) and other dynasties. He was the youngest of six children including his siblings: Sarah, Dvora Miriam, Esther Sima, Gittel, and Jacob. In his teens he received a traditional yeshiva education, and obtained traditional semicha, rabbinical ordination. He then studied at the University of Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate, and at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, where he earned a second liberal rabbinic ordination. Heschel's teachers included some of the best German-Jewish teachers: Chanoch Albeck, Ismar Elbogen, Julius Guttmann, and Leo Baeck. He later taught the Talmud there. Escaping from the Nazis, he found refuge both in England and the United States, where he briefly served on the faculty of Hebrew Union College (HUC), the main seminary of Reform Judaism, in Cincinnati. Increasingly uncomfortable with the lack of observance of Jewish law at HUC, Heschel sought an academic institution where critical, modern scholarship of the Bible was allowed, and yet also held that Jewish law was normative. He found such a place in 1946 when he came to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS), the main seminary of Conservative Judaism. He accepted a position there as Professor of Jewish Ethics and Mysticism, where he served until his death in 1972. Heschel explicated many facets of Jewish thought including studies on medieval Jewish philosophy, Kabbalah, and Hasidism. He has a special interest in the prophets, and in the proper way for Jews to incorporate religion into their lives. His books contain civil but pointed rejoinders towards those in Reform Judaism who no longer held that Jewish law was normative, and also towards those in Orthodox Judaism, who Heschel held valued legalism over the spirit of the law. Heschel did not fully fit in JTS either, however. He was more interested in spirituality than critical text study, which was a specialty of scholars at JTS. A similar disconnect between him and much of JTS faculty were due to his views on the Hebrew prophets and social justice. Heschel saw the teachings of the Hebrew prophets as a clarion call for social action in the United States, but his social activism was at the time dismissed as unimportant by most JTS faculty. They saw their job as academics and educators, and left the role of social activism to pulpit rabbis and laypeople. In later years there would be a sea change in how JTS faculty viewed this position; today most JTS faculty are more involved in social activism, and some have written that it was a mistake for JTS not to follow Heschel's lead at that time. Heschel was particularly looked down upon by his colleague Mordechai Kaplan, founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, and many students who attended JTS in the 50s sympathized with Kaplan over Heschel. He married Sylvia Straus on December 10, 1946, in Los Angeles. They had a daughter named Susannah. Susannah Heschel eventually became a scholar of Judaism in her own right. Heschel was also known as an activist for civil rights in the USA, and an activist for freedom for Soviet Jewry. He is one of the few Jewish theologians widely read by Christians. His most influential works include //Man is Not Alone//, //God in Search of Man//, //The Sabbath//, and //The Prophets//. His life's work has inspired three namesake schools: one on the Upper West Side of New York City, one in Northridge, California, and one in Toronto.

//The Prophets//
This work started out as his Ph.D. thesis in German, which he later expanded and translated into English. Originally published in a two-volume edition, this work studies the books of the Hebrew prophets. It covers their life AND the historical context that their missions were set in, summarizes their work, and discusses their psychological state. Heschel gives a detailed treatment of the entire phenomenon of prophecy, what it is, and what it is not.

//The Sabbath//
//The Sabbath: Its Meaning For Modern Man// is a work on the nature and celebration of Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath. 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.

//Man is Not Alone//
//Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion// offers Heschel's views on how man can apprehend God. Judaism views God as being radically different from man, 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 man experiences when experiencing the presence of the Divine. Heschel then goes to explore the problems of doubts and faith; what Judaism means by teaching that God is one; the essence of man and the problem of man's needs; the definition of religion in general and of Judaism in particular; and man's yearning for spirituality. He offers his views as to Judaism being a pattern for life.

//God in Search of Man//
//God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism// is a companion volume to //Man is Not Alone//. In this book Heschel discusses the nature of religious thought, how thought becomes faith, and how faith creates responses in the believer. He discusses ways that man can seek God's presence, and the radical amazement that man receives in return. He offers a criticism of nature worship; a study of man's metaphysical loneliness, and his view that we can consider God to be in search of man. The first section concludes with a study of Jews as a chosen people. Section two deals with the idea of revelation, and what it means for one to be a prophet. This section gives us his idea of revelation as a process, as opposed to an event. This relates to Israel's commitment to God. Section three discusses his views of how a Jew should understand the nature of Judaism as a religion. He discusses and rejects the idea that mere faith (without law) alone is enough, but then cautions against rabbis he sees as adding too many restrictions to Jewish law. He discusses the need to correlate ritual observance with spirituality and love, the importance of Kavvanah (intention) when performing mitzvot. He engages in a discussion of religious behaviorism — when people strive for external compliance with the law, yet disregard the importance of inner devotion.

//Prophetic Inspiration After the Prophets//
Heschel wrote a series of articles, originally in Hebrew, on the existence of prophecy in Judaism after the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. These essays were translated into English and published as //Prophetic Inspiration After the Prophets: Maimonides and Others// by the American Judaica publisher Ktav. The publisher of this book states, "The standard Jewish view is that prophecy ended with the ancient prophets, somewhere early in the Second Temple era. Heschel demonstrated that this view is not altogether accurate. Belief in the possibility of continued prophetic inspiration, and in its actual occurrence appear throughout much of the medieval period, and even in modern times. Heschel's work on prophetic inspiration in the Middle Ages originally appeared in two Hebrew long articles. In them he concentrated on the idea that prophetic inspiration was possible even in post-Talmudic times, and, indeed, had taken place at various times and in various schools, from the Geonim to Maimonides and beyond."

//Torah min HaShamayim// (Heavenly Torah)
Many consider Heschel's //Torah min HaShamayim BeAsafklariah shel HaDorot//, (//Torah from Heaven in the light of the generations//) to be his masterwork. The three volumes of this work are a study of classical rabbinic theology and aggadah, as opposed to halakha (Jewish law.) It explores the views of the rabbis in the Mishnah, Talmud and Midrash about the nature of Torah, the revelation of God to mankind, prophecy, and the ways that Jews have used scriptural exegesis to expand and understand these core Jewish texts. In this work Heschel views the second century sages Rabbis Akiva and Ishmael as paradigms for the two dominant worldviews in Jewish theology. Two Hebrew volumes were published during his lifetime by Soncino Press, and the third Hebrew volume was published post-homously by JTS Press in the 1990s. An English translation of all three volumes, with notes, essays and appendices, was translated and edited by Rabbi Gordon Tucker, entitled //Heavenly Torah: As Refracted Through the Generations//.

Quotes

 * "All it takes is one person… and another… and another… and another… to start a movement"
 * "Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge."
 * "A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers no harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair."
 * "God is of no importance unless He is of //utmost// importance."
 * "Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy."
 * "Self-respect is the fruit of discipline, the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself."
 * "Life without commitment is not worth living."
 * "In regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty, while all are responsible."
 * "Remember that there is a meaning beyond absurdity. Be sure that every little deed counts, that every word has power. Never forget that you can still do your share to redeem the world in spite of all absurdities and frustrations and disappointments."
 * "When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people."