ABRAHAM HESCHEL: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters)

As a Quaker (Chrisitian) I have longed for an accessible book of writings about the Jewish faith that I can use to deepen my own understanding and draw inspiration from. I learned about this book from Rabbi Michael Lerner of the progressive Jewish magazine, Tikkun. I have huge admiration for those Jews who can use their faith to mount a balanced and dignified prophetic critique of the plight of the Palestinians. Lerner does that, but he counts Heschel as his mentor, and being now half way thorugh this book, relishing it like a fine malt whisky, I can see why Heschel is so highly acclaimed.What this book does for me is that it brings up to date the prophetic tradition of such likes as Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Amos. It shows that the message of those crusty old bearded characters in their sandals are still acutely relevant to us today. Heschel places God at the heart of his activism (which included standing side by side with Martin Luther King). I find this powerful, because there is a lot of talk these days about "Godless spirituality", and I don't find that satisfying because it misses out on the very flesh and blood human nature of the love that we are talking about, and to which the activist may be pushed to rest back into, and experience.Another thing I am finding in Heschel is his depth of reflection on Jewish community. I was raised on the Scottish Isle of Lewis, and the same as Heschel says for the Jews could be said for our Presbyterian people. For example, p. 110, "Being a Jew makes anonymity impossible. A Jew represents, stands for, proclaims - even in spite of himself. The world never sees the Jew as an individual but rather as a representative of a whole tradition, of a whole people. A Jew is never alone." And what I like about that is the depth to which it surpasses individualistic spirituality. As that great Jewish mystical teacher, Jesus said, "When two or three are gathered together, I am there." This is not just about me, or you: it is about us, about the community. That is something that the Jewish tradition(s) can teach us so profoundly from their heart. And in saying that, I speak as one who believes we need to go beyond interfaith "dialogue" (in the head), and onwards, as Heschel demonstrates, to what I call interfaith APPRECIATION (in the heart), recognising that we should be wary of criticising one another's traditions from the outside until we find ourselves able to love what is truly spiritual in them from within.One last point: this book is compiled with a commentary by Heschel's daughter, Susannah Heschel. She clearly has a similar depth as the old man. I find reading of the love with which she speaks of "my father" as she expounds his life and ideas deeply touching as an example of what father-daughter relationship can aspire to. There is no sense in her commentary of slavishly trotting out the old man's ideas. Rather, there is a sense of her having reached a stage in life where she can stand in her father's lineage as an equal, and speak of him as a profound friend.This book is a modern spiritual classic. In an era where many of us, myself very much included, are critical of what the state of Israel does to the Palestinians, I would urge that this book is read and used to reveal that state politics and prophetic spirituality are far from being the same thing. As Heschel says in the passage I quote above, "A Jew represents, stands for, proclaims - even in spite of himself." This is a hallmark of authentic spirituality.

Excellent introduction to his important contribution to religious literature .