A Model of Faith and Justice
Friday, July 25, 2025
Rabbi Or Rose tells of the prophetic witness and spiritual audacity of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972), one of the great religious leaders of the 20th century.
Heschel came to the United States in 1940 under great duress, narrowly escaping the brutal Nazi onslaught in Europe…. Tragically, many of Heschel’s family members—including his mother and three of his sisters—were murdered by the Nazis in the following months and years…. After acculturating to life in the United States and establishing himself as a respected academic and gifted religious writer, Heschel became increasingly involved in public affairs….
Heschel gave his first major address on civil rights in March 1963 at the National Conference on Religion and Race in Chicago. In his remarks, he compared the plight of African Americans in the United States to the ancient Israelite slaves in Egypt. In one particularly dramatic moment, he stated, “It was easier for the children of Israel to cross the Red Sea than for a Negro to cross certain university campuses.” [1] He went on to challenge listeners—including many Jewish audience members—to choose between the legacies of Pharoah or Moses.
Heschel embodied the wisdom of the Hebrew prophets at a critical time in history. His Jewish faith inspired his commitment to justice for those on the margins:
In fine prophetic fashion, Heschel rails against ritual observance divorced from social responsibility…. He wrote, “Prayer is no panacea, no substitute for action.” [2] While Heschel was an eloquent spokesperson for a life of disciplined religious praxis—including prayer and other traditional observances—he was steadfast in his call for a holistic approach to spirituality and ethics….
Heschel joined Dr. King and other civil rights leaders in the famous Selma to Montgomery March. Upon returning from that protest, he wrote the following words:
For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips, and marching is not kneeling, and yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying. [3]
For Heschel, marching for voting rights was a holy act, an embodied devotional response to God’s ongoing call for dignity and equality…. Rather than turn away in rage or despair from engagement with non-Jews, Heschel became a champion of racial justice and interreligious cooperation. He used his own experiences as a victim of bigotry and hatred to work to stamp out these destructive phenomena in his new homeland and throughout the world….
[Heschel] played a vital role in healing racial, religious, and political wounds in America and beyond…. Rather than retreating and insulating himself from the aches and pains of the world, he cultivated relationships with a diverse set of colleagues and organizations and set out to help transform it.
May Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s memory continue to serve as a source of inspiration and challenge to all those who seek to participate in the healing of our shared civilization.
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1.
“God is self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering love.”
– Brad Jersak, Theologian and Author
Brad is one of the most relatable theologians today. I get the sense from him that he is a well-rounded person who has navigated the deconstruction process well, emerged on the other side, and become one of the more grounded and self-aware educators on the Christian faith.
This definition of God from him is something I muse over occasionally when I am driving in my Jeep.
2.
“People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord.”
Now that is just funny.
I guess we all do it. We often want to find someone else to blame for our problems rather than taking responsibility ourselves.
Like any loving parent, God does not protect us from the consequences of our actions. Remember in Galatians? Where Paul says that we will “reap what we sow”? God is not some cosmic being who protects us from hitting rock bottom. If anything, it might be the best thing for us in the long run to hit that rock bottom.
(And, at that point, how interesting that some people thank God that they are finally able to take ownership of their actions and turn their life around!)
3.
“It is through our fulfilling of the commandments that the Lord makes us dispassionate; and it is through His divine teachings that He gives us the light of spiritual knowledge.”
– Maximus the Confessor, in Four Hundred Texts on Love (1.77)
The early Church had an understanding of “dispassion” as a virtue.
It is a word that we do not use much today, but it carries within it some profound wisdom. Dispassion is a certain detachment from our desires that bring us suffering. (Dis- meaning against, and Passio- meaning suffering). The early Church quickly came to understand that it is our disordered loves/passions that cause us suffering.
For this reason, we must practice this virtue or habit of dispassion, to learn to have the right kind of detachment from outcomes and to allow our ego the humiliation of not always getting its way.
The Ten Commandments, then, are simply the starting point for us to learn how to cultivate dispassion and to come to realize that it is in our best interests not always to get our way.
4.
“Those who would know much, and love little, will ever remain at but the beginning of a godly life.”
– Mechthilde of Magdeburg, Medieval Christian Mystic
I am slowly re-reading Søren Kierkegaard’s Works of Love. It is his treatment and analysis of Christian love, examining “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” from every possible angle.
When I first read Works of Love, it was a punch in the face. As a head-oriented person who loves to read and think deeply about things, it was a shock to realize that even reading a book about love does not necessarily translate to loving other people. It was a safe way to engage my brain without having to interact with others. It was in that moment that I realized my tendency to avoid feelings by going into academic thought.
I want to think that, over time, I have become a little less head-oriented as a person and have been able to grow a little bit past “beginner Christianity” and actually love people.
5.
“Everything is waiting to be hallowed by you.”
– Martin Buber, Jewish Philosopher
We heard this quote last week in Church.
Martin Buber’s work has been an influence on me for some time, ever since I discovered his book, I and Thou.
The dichotomy of Sacred and Profane is something that makes sense during one stage of faith, but not so much in another stage. We treat Sacred things as special and as things to be protected or revered, but then treat Profane things as things to be avoided, discarded, and the like. But at a later stage of faith, it’s more so that there are things that are Sacred and other things that need to be made Holy Again.
The possibility of making something Holy Again is exciting to me. It is not a passive sitting back, and it is not the flippant discarding of something “profane.” To make things Holy Again is a mission, it is a calling, it is to join God in the Christ Project of the Reconciliation of All Things.
May we each make things around us Holy Again.
