We are either the last, the dying, Jews or else we are those who will give new life to our tradition.

A.J. Heschel, God in Search of Man, FSG, p 421

To be a Jew is to be committed to the experience of great ideas.

A.J.Heschel, God in Search of Man, FSG, p 422

The question may be asked:  Is it plausible to believe that the eternal should be concerned with the trivial ? Should we not rather assume that man is too insignificant to be an object for His concern ? The truth, however, is that nothing is trivial.

A.J.Heschel, God in Search of Man, FSG, p. 413

The Covenant is a holy dimension of existence. Faith is the consciousness of living in that dimension, rather than an assent to propositions. Important as is the intellectual crystallization of faith in terms of creed, what characterizes Judaism, I believe, is the primacy of faith over creed.

A.J.Heschel, The God of Israel and Christian Renewal, in Moral Grandeur & Spiritual Audacity, FSG, p. 270

The Bible, speaking in the name of a Being that combines justice with omnipotence, is the never-ceasing outcry of No to humanity.

A.J.Heschel , A Preface to an Understanding of Revelation, in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, FS&G, p. 189

God is the meaning beyond the mystery.

A.J.Heschel, The God of Israel and Christian Renewal, in Moral Grandeur & Spiritual Audacity, FSG, p. 270

Faith is both certainty and trial: certainty in spite of perplexities, a trial demanding sacrifice, strain, wrestling.

A.J.Heschel, The God of Israel and Christian Renewal, in Moral Grandeur & Spiritual Audacity, FSG, p. 270

Faith is a mode of being alive to the meaning beyond the mystery, commitment of total existence, and the dynamics of faith is the ongoing shaping and modification of one's existence.

A.J.Heschel, The God of Israel and Christian Renewal, in Moral Grandeur & Spiritual Audacity, FSG, p. 270

The overriding  issue of this hour in the world and Western civilization is the humanity of man.

A.J.Heschel, The God of Israel and Christian Renewal, in Moral Grandeur & Spiritual Audacity, FSG, p. 275

The renewal of man involves renewal of the sense of wonder and mystery of being alive, taking notice of the moment as a surprise.

A.J.Heschel, The God of Israel and Cristian Renewal, in Moral Grandeur & Spiritual Audacity, FSG, p. 275

The biblical message remains unacceptable unless seen in the context of essential attitudes and sensibilities. The tendency to rely completely, in our religious thinking, upon the so-called contemporary experience must be questioned. Contemporary experience is stunted experience, it is largely devoid of the higher qualities of experience.

A.J.Heschel, The God of Israel and Christian Renewal, in Moral Grandeur & Spiritual Audacity, FSG, p. 276

Prior to theology is depth theology; prior to faith are premises or prerequisites of faith, such as a sense of wonder, radical amazement, reverence, a sense of mystery of all being. Man must learn, for example, to question his false sense of sovereignty.

A.J.Heschel, The God of Israel and Christian Renewal, in Moral Grandeur & Spiritual Audacity, FSG, p. 276

There is no understanding the God of Israel without deep sensitivity to the holiness in words.

A.J.Heschel, The God of Israel and Cristian Renewal, in Moral Grandeur &Spiritual Audacity, FSG, p. 275

In a sense, there is no preoccupation with the "religious" in the Bible; in the Bible what counts is the secular.

A.J.Heschel, The God of Israel and Cristian Renewal, in Moral Grandeur &Spiritual Audacity, FSG, p. 277

To do the impossible is the beginning of faith.

A.J.Heschel , The Plight of Russian Jews, in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, FS&G, p. 214

The idea of revelation remains an absurdity as long as we are unable to comprehend the impact with which the reality of God is pursuing man. Yet at those moments in which the fate of mankind is in the balance, even those who have never sensed how God turns to man suddenly realize that man - who has the power to devise both culture and crime,  who is able to be a proxy for divine justice - is important enough to be the recipient of spiritual light at the rare dawn of his history.

A.J.Heschel , A Preface to an Understanding of Revelation, in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, FS&G, p. 190

A person cannot be religious and indifferent to other human beings' plight and suffering.

A.J.Heschel , The Plight of Russian Jews, in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, FS&G, p. 213

Is the discovery of some form of life on Mars or Venus or man's conquest of the moon really as important to humanity as the conquest of poverty, disease, prejudice and superstition ?

A.J.Heschel , The Moral Dilemma of the Space Age, in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, FS&G, p. 213

Judaism is the art of the impossible.

A.J.Heschel , The Plight of Russian Jews, in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, FS&G, p. 214

שורשי "הברית הישראלית" בהשל ?

...Jewish existence is not only the adherence to particular doctrines and observances but primarily the living in the Jews of the past and with the Jews of the present.

A.J.Heschel , God, Torah, and Israel, in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, FS&G, p. 205 

What is the Sabbath ? A reminder of every man's royalty; an abolition of the distinction of master and slave, rich and poor, success and failure. T0 celebrate the Sabbath is to experience one's ultimate independence of civilization and society, of achievement and anxiety. The Sabbath is an embodiment of the belief that all men are equal and that equality of men means the nobility of men. The greatest sin of man is to forget that he is a prince.

A.J. Heschel , God in Search of Man, FS&G, p. 417

The way to understand the meaning of torah min hashamayim ("the Bible is from heaven") is to understand the meaning of hashamayim min hatorah ("heaven is from the Bible"). Whatever taste of "heaven" we have on earth is in the Bible.

A.J. Heschel, God in Search of Man, FSG, p. 256

The words of the Bible are sources of spirit.

A.J. Heschel, God in Search of Man, FSG, p. 253

מילות המקרא הן מקורות של  רוח.

א.י. השל, אלוהים מבקש את האדם, הוצאת מאגנס, תרגום עזן מאיר-לוי, עמי 200 בתיקון שלי  - ג'ף 

Reverence for words - an awareness of the wonder of words, of the mystery of words - is an essential prerequisite for prayer.

A. J. Heschel.  Prayer as Discipline, in The Insecurity of Freedom, FS&G, p. 259