The Sabbath

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Macmillan, 1951 - Religion - 118 pages

Elegant, passionate, and filled with the love of God's creation, Abraham Joshua Heschel's The Sabbath has been hailed as a classic of Jewish spirituality ever since its original publication--and has been read by thousands of people seeking meaning in modern life. In this brief yet profound meditation on the meaning of the Seventh Day, Heschel, one of the most widely respected religious leaders of the twentieth century, introduced the influential idea of an 'architecture of holiness" that appears not in space but in time. Judaism, he argues, is a religion of time: it finds meaning not in space and the materials things that fill it but in time and the eternity that imbues it, so that 'the Sabbaths are our greatcatherdrals.'

Contents

• One: 11
• Two: 33
• Three: 63
• EPILOGUE To Sanctify Time: 93
• NOTES: 102

About the author

Heschel received his doctorate at the Hochschule fur die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin but was deported to Poland by the Nazis in 1938. He went to London in 1940 and after the war accepted a professorship in ethics and mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Heschel articulated a depth theology, arguing that the divine-human encounter takes place at a deeper level than is attainable by the rational mind. Reaching out to skeptical Jews and seeking to make Judaism accessible and meaningful in the modern world, Heschel stressed the interdependence of God and humanity, and maintained that God recognizes and supports ethical human action and that humans express their faith through their actions. Heschel lived according to his word and played an active role in social change, including the civil rights movement.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Sabbath
• Author: Abraham Joshua Heschel
• Photographs by: Ilya Schor
• Illustrated by: Ilya Schor
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Macmillan, 1951
• ISBN: 0374253218, 9780374253219
• Length: 118 pages
• Subjects: Religion / Judaism / Rituals & Practice; Religion / Judaism / Theology