Responsibility for Creation

The world was not made by man.
The earth is the Lord’s,
Not a derelict.
What we own, we owe.
“How shall I ever repay to the Lord
All his bounties to me!” (Psalm 116:12)

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Living

Living is not a private affair of the individual.
Living is what man does with God’s time, what man does with God’s world.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Holiness

Just to be is a blessing.
Just to live is holy.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Trust

The great problem in the life of man is whether to trust, to have faith in God. The great problem in the life of God is whether to trust, to have faith in man.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Worship

Worship
Is a way of seeing the world
In the light of God.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Sin

Man’s sin is a failure to live what he is. Being the master of the earth, man forgets that he is servant of God.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

To pray
Is to know how to stand still
And to dwell upon a word.

Abraham Joshua Heschel 1907-1972

What do most of us know about the substance of words? Estranged from the soil of the soul, our words do not grow as fruits of insights, but are found as sapless clichés, refuse in the backyard of intelligence. To the man of our age nothing is as familiar and nothing as trite as words… We all live in them, feel in them, think in them, but failing to uphold their independent dignity, to respect their power and weight, they turn waif, elusive – a mouthful of dust…

Abraham Joshua Heschel 1907-1972