That is the title of a great book I got for Christmas from my in-laws. It is a spiritual anthology from the writings of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who is one my favorite spiritual writers. When I was in seminary one of my systematics professors would often begin his classes by reading a selection from this book, which is how I found out about Heschel.He is best described as a Jewish mystic. This particular book is a collection of sayings culled from his full length books on such topics as God, prayer, humanity, sabbath, bible, mystical awe, and more. Here are a few:
On God and Metaphors:
"Only words that would not be trite in the presence of a dying man, only ideas that would not pale in the face of the rising sun or in the midst of a violent earthquake: 'God is One' or: 'Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts...' may be used as metaphors in speaking of God."
Prayer:
"To pray is to know how to stand still and to dwell upon a word."
Sabbath:
"Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time, to be attached to sacred events, to learn how to consecrate sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year. The sabbaths are our great cathedrals; and our Holy of Holies is a shrine that neither the Romans nor the Germans were able to burn; a shrine that even apostasy cannot easily obliterate: the Day of Atonement."
Religion:
"Religion is not 'what man does with his solitariness.' Religion is what man does with the presence of God."
Man:
"Man is a messenger who forgot the message"
"Man's sin is in his failure to live what he is. being master of the earth, man forgets that he is servant of God."
The Bible:
"The Bible is primarily not man's vision of God, but God's vision of man. The bible is not man's theology, but God's anthropology."
There are many more more quotes, with some of them being quite long, but this gives you an idea of the way he thinks and writes. I would highly recommend his works, and especially this little book, for anyone interested in spirituality and mysticism.
