Coming back to Heschel after a short hiatus. The entire essay called "Faith" from 1944, found in the collection Moral Audacity and Spiritual Grandeur, is on par with the classics of Ralph Waldo Emerson. It's about the relationship between faith and reason. Here are a couple quotes (to subscribe to these weekly by e-mail send me a note):
The course in which human life moves is, like the orbit of heavenly bodies, an ellipse, not a circle. We are attached to two centers: to the focus of our self and to the focus on what is beyond the self. Even the intelligence is driven by two forces--by a force that comes as an instinct from within and by a force that comes with ideals from without.
Beliefs are hanging over our souls like stars, remote and guiding: the freedom of God is the spring of all things; the life of man can sometimes be a mirror that God holds before His face; the destiny of Israel is to remain clean amid the mud of splendor and madness...Heedfully we stare through the telescope of ancient rites lest we lose sight of the promise of God, the perpetual brightness at the edge of our soul. Our mind has still not kindled the flame, has not produced these principles. Still our thoughts glow with their light....the system of meanings that permeates the universe is like an endless flight of stairs. Even when the upper steps are beyond our sight, we constantly rise toward the distant goal.
The course in which human life moves is, like the orbit of heavenly bodies, an ellipse, not a circle. We are attached to two centers: to the focus of our self and to the focus on what is beyond the self. Even the intelligence is driven by two forces--by a force that comes as an instinct from within and by a force that comes with ideals from without.
Beliefs are hanging over our souls like stars, remote and guiding: the freedom of God is the spring of all things; the life of man can sometimes be a mirror that God holds before His face; the destiny of Israel is to remain clean amid the mud of splendor and madness...Heedfully we stare through the telescope of ancient rites lest we lose sight of the promise of God, the perpetual brightness at the edge of our soul. Our mind has still not kindled the flame, has not produced these principles. Still our thoughts glow with their light....the system of meanings that permeates the universe is like an endless flight of stairs. Even when the upper steps are beyond our sight, we constantly rise toward the distant goal.
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