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אברהם יהושע השל

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972), Polish-born American rabbi descended from several renowned European rabbis on both his father's and his mother's side and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century.

After receiving a traditional yeshiva education and studying for Orthodox rabbinical ordination, he studied for a doctorate at the University of Berlin, Germany, and then was ordained as a liberal rabbi at the Berlin Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums. There he studied under Leo Baeck and others. Heschel later taught Talmud there. He joined a Yiddish poetry group and in 1933, published a volume of Yiddish poems, "Der Shem Hamefoyrosh: Mentsch". In late October 1938, while living in a rented room in Frankfurt am Main, he was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Poland. He then spent ten months lecturing on Jewish philosophy and Torah at Warsaw's Institute for Jewish Studies. Six weeks before the German invasion of Poland, Heschel left Warsaw for London, England, with the help of Julian Morgenstern, president of Hebrew Union College, who had been working to obtain visas for Jewish scholars in Europe. In London he establishd the Intitute for Jewish Learning.

Heschel arrived in the U.S. in March 1940. He was appointed assistant professor of philosophy and rabbinics at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati for five years. From 1945 until his death he taught Jewish ethics and Mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Heschel studied many facets of medieval Jewish philosophy, Kabbalah, and Hasidism. According to some scholars, he was more interested in spirituality than in critical text study. Heschel was influenced by his colleague Mordechai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism. Heschel saw the teachings of the Hebrew prophets as a clarion call for social action in the United States and worked for black civil rights and against the Vietnam War. He also specifically criticized what he called "pan-halakhism", or an exclusive focus upon religiously-compatible behavior to the neglect of the non-legalistic dimension of rabbinic tradition.

Heschel is among the few widely read Jewish theologians amongst non-Jews. His most influential works include "Man is Not Alone", "God in Search of Man", "The Sabbath", and "The Prophets". At the Vatican Council II, as a representative of American Jews, Heschel persuaded the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate or modify passages in its liturgy that demeaned the Jews, or expected their conversion to Christianity. His theological works argued that religious experience is a fundamentally human impulse, not just a Jewish one, and that no religious community could claim a monopoly on religious truth. In his “Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion”, Heschel set out his views on how people can comprehend God. Judaism views God as being radically different from humans, so Heschel explores the ways that Judaism teaches that a person may have an encounter with the ineffable. A recurring theme in this work is the radical amazement that people feel when experiencing the presence of the Divine. Heschel then goes on to explore the problems of doubts and faith; what Judaism means by teaching that God is one; the essence of humanity and the problem of human needs; the definition of religion in general and of Judaism in particular; and human yearning for spirituality. He offers his views as to Judaism being a pattern for life.

His work "Torah min HaShamayim BeAspaklariya shel HaDorot", ("Torah from Heaven in the Light of the Generations") is consisdered by many to be his masterwork. The three volumes of this work are a study of classical rabbinic theology and aggadah, as opposed to halakha (Jewish law.) It explores the views of the rabbis in the Mishnah, Talmud and Midrash about the nature of Torah, the revelation of God to mankind, prophecy, and the ways that Jews have used scriptural exegesis to expand and understand these core Jewish texts. In this work Heschel views the second century sages Rabbis Akiva ben Yosef and Ishmael ben Elisha as paradigms for the two dominant world-views in Jewish theology.

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אברהם יהושע השל

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972), Polish-born American rabbi descended from several renowned European rabbis on both his father's and his mother's side and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century.

After receiving a traditional yeshiva education and studying for Orthodox rabbinical ordination, he studied for a doctorate at the University of Berlin, Germany, and then was ordained as a liberal rabbi at the Berlin Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums. There he studied under Leo Baeck and others. Heschel later taught Talmud there. He joined a Yiddish poetry group and in 1933, published a volume of Yiddish poems, "Der Shem Hamefoyrosh: Mentsch". In late October 1938, while living in a rented room in Frankfurt am Main, he was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Poland. He then spent ten months lecturing on Jewish philosophy and Torah at Warsaw's Institute for Jewish Studies. Six weeks before the German invasion of Poland, Heschel left Warsaw for London, England, with the help of Julian Morgenstern, president of Hebrew Union College, who had been working to obtain visas for Jewish scholars in Europe. In London he establishd the Intitute for Jewish Learning.

Heschel arrived in the U.S. in March 1940. He was appointed assistant professor of philosophy and rabbinics at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati for five years. From 1945 until his death he taught Jewish ethics and Mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Heschel studied many facets of medieval Jewish philosophy, Kabbalah, and Hasidism. According to some scholars, he was more interested in spirituality than in critical text study. Heschel was influenced by his colleague Mordechai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism. Heschel saw the teachings of the Hebrew prophets as a clarion call for social action in the United States and worked for black civil rights and against the Vietnam War. He also specifically criticized what he called "pan-halakhism", or an exclusive focus upon religiously-compatible behavior to the neglect of the non-legalistic dimension of rabbinic tradition.

Heschel is among the few widely read Jewish theologians amongst non-Jews. His most influential works include "Man is Not Alone", "God in Search of Man", "The Sabbath", and "The Prophets". At the Vatican Council II, as a representative of American Jews, Heschel persuaded the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate or modify passages in its liturgy that demeaned the Jews, or expected their conversion to Christianity. His theological works argued that religious experience is a fundamentally human impulse, not just a Jewish one, and that no religious community could claim a monopoly on religious truth. In his “Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion”, Heschel set out his views on how people can comprehend God. Judaism views God as being radically different from humans, so Heschel explores the ways that Judaism teaches that a person may have an encounter with the ineffable. A recurring theme in this work is the radical amazement that people feel when experiencing the presence of the Divine. Heschel then goes on to explore the problems of doubts and faith; what Judaism means by teaching that God is one; the essence of humanity and the problem of human needs; the definition of religion in general and of Judaism in particular; and human yearning for spirituality. He offers his views as to Judaism being a pattern for life.

His work "Torah min HaShamayim BeAspaklariya shel HaDorot", ("Torah from Heaven in the Light of the Generations") is consisdered by many to be his masterwork. The three volumes of this work are a study of classical rabbinic theology and aggadah, as opposed to halakha (Jewish law.) It explores the views of the rabbis in the Mishnah, Talmud and Midrash about the nature of Torah, the revelation of God to mankind, prophecy, and the ways that Jews have used scriptural exegesis to expand and understand these core Jewish texts. In this work Heschel views the second century sages Rabbis Akiva ben Yosef and Ishmael ben Elisha as paradigms for the two dominant world-views in Jewish theology.

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