What the World Comes To
I think this statement from Abraham Heschel, written sixty-one years ago, is perhaps the most accurate assessment of the state of our world today.
The conscience of the world was destroyed by those who were wont to blame others rather than themselves. Let us remember. We revered the instincts but distrusted the prophets. We labored to perfect engines and let our inner life go to wreck. We ridiculed superstition until we lost the ability to believe. We have helped to extinguish the light our fathers had kindled. We have bartered holiness for convenience, loyalty for success, love for power, wisdom for information, tradition for fashion. . . There can be no nature without spirit, no world without the Torah, no brotherhood without a father, no humanity without attachment to God.
God will return to us when we shall be willing to let Him in—into our banks and factories, into our Congress and clubs, into our courts and investigating committees, into our homes and theaters. For God is everywhere and nowhere, the Father of all men or no man, concerned with everything or nothing. Only in His presence shall we learn that the glory of man is not in his will to power, but in his power of compassion. Man reflects either the image of His presence or that of a beast.
Man’s Quest for God, pp. 150-151
Skip can I post this on my fb?
Sure. I have already been excommunicated. 🙂
“…no brotherhood without a father …” astute!
I would like to add: no family / marriage without a father.
And … if your mother is Isis (Ishtar / Astarte) your father is probably HaSatan.
Man reflects either the image of His presence of that of a beast.
Skip is this a typo? Should it read Man reflects either the image of His presence of that OR a beast?
Sorry my typo, Shesh! I meant “Man reflects either the image of His presence OR that of a beast.”
I can’t believe you are posting this. I just did a class on this last Shabbat.
My time with our Father has been seriously disturbing.
I just spent an hour with Him in the book of Micah.
There’s an urgency to put this out there right now.
Thank you for this confirmation. I have never read this before.
yes, thanks. I fixed it.
Very appropriate. I am routinely saddened by the posts on social media sites that demand we all “let God back in” to whatever venue the public thinks He needs our permission to enter. It always brings me back to my post of 2008.
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This morning, I received an email much like a hundred others I have gotten over the past ten years. It was a petition to the President to reinstate prayer in the public school system. I would like to share my perspective on this very widespread concern among Christians.
Let me begin by relating a conversation I had a few years ago with my friend, Anne.
ANNE: . . . Well, we wouldn’t have all these kinds of problems if we just had prayer in school.
ME: So, you think we should have prayer in school?
ANNE: Sure, don’t you?
ME: Let me ask you this: When your son was young, did you pray with him before he left for school in the mornings?
ANNE: No.
ME: Do you think God will be pleased if we don’t do what He says, but instead, pay someone else to do it for us? Is that what He says He will bless?
Anne’s silence indicated that she got my point. God gives very clear instructions to His people. When we live in a nation that has the basic precept of religious freedom written into its laws, and we do not incorporate that into our family life, we are without excuse.
And how would we justify our appeal to Caesar? The Creator of the Universe needs no assistance from any man (or President) on earth. He gives clear assurance to those who obey His words.
Do we truly love God enough to obey Him? The opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference. Proof of love is in actions – not words.
If we, who claim to believe in Almighty God, fail to access the blessings and power so readily available to us, we should not be deluding ourselves that our difficulties are caused by atheists or terrorists or anyone else. We need only look in the mirror.
Thanks for your post. While prayer in school would be good, it is our responsibility to pray with our children.
Gayle, I am looking in that mirror with you right now!
I woke up this morning remembering the inauguration of the first temple, and the promises as well as the curses on the nation. The promise and the curse was that the scourge from without would only come because of rot from within, and not because there wasn’t the right immigration policies or enough guns under the bed, but the only way to get the scourge back off was the return of the hearts. The hearts corrupt when we start to look to anything other than YHVH for ANYTHING, but does it not seem odd that at the first sign of the scourge we start to look to Egypt for horses and chariots? Has anything changed?
“When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” – Proverbs 16:7
Caveat: I realize that this is an observation by a wise man. I am not trying to imply that it is an ironclad rule that the Creator has imposed on all others. But notable, nevertheless.
In the blink of an eye we are attending my 19 yr old dauguters , boy friend of 5 years , funeral today ,he died suddley last sunday a freak un expected loss, from one friends wedding to a hospital to sit with my daughter and here the news “he didn’t make it he passed”
Consloations by R. M Lamm, he writes” Death is a night that lies between two days–the day of life on earth and the day of eternal life in the world to come. That night may come suddenly, in the blink of an eye, or it may come gradually, with a slowly receding sun.” I pray today for those whom mourn for your loss and all Israel in Zion, May his life be for a blessig and meaing as all those we mourn and grieve. May ther love live in our hearts and show others how and what they loved, in acts lof love and heartfelt care to those in mouring..
My prayer
Adonai blessed are those that mourn, May you Adonai be near the broken hearted and surround the crused in spirit , be our strength for today ,be our refudge , courage get up, to love and hope , be our hope and consolation,
“You keep count of my wanderings and put my tears in your bottle and into your book” (56:9). God help us dry others tears and love and be your arms to care and hold them..
Lord have mercy on you and yours, cw.
Amen
Maybe God is simply waiting for us to seek truth, no matter where it leads us……
“There can be no nature without spirit, no world without the Torah, no brotherhood without a father, no humanity without attachment to God.”
In other words, no nature without His Spirit, no world without His truth, no brotherhood without a Father, no attachment to God YHWH, no true humanity, but false compassion, and a beast, self-focused on individualism (narrow perspective, short-sighted), personal interest/s, non-conformed to His ways/instructions. Grievous.
Well put.