The Spiritual Audacity of Abraham Joshua Heschel
December 3, 2009Abraham Joshua Heschel insisted that the opposite of good is not evil, it is indifference. Born into an esteemed Hasidic family in Poland in 1907, he was a mystic who wrote transcendent, poetic words about God. At the same time, he marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and organized religious leadership against the war in Vietnam, embodying the social activism of the biblical prophets he studied. We explore Heschel's teachings and his prophetic legacy — his "spiritual audacity" — for people in our time.
About the Image
Rabbi Heschel speaks at an event protesting the Vietnam War on March 10, 1969. The group Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam (CALCAV) convened at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, a Christian institution across the street from Jewish Theological Seminary where Heschel taught.
