Abraham Joshua Heschel: Mind, Heart, Soul

In this first one-volume English-language full biography of Abraham Joshua Heschel, Edward K. Kaplan tells the engrossing, behind-the-scenes story of the life, philosophy, struggles, yearnings, writings, and activism of one of the twentieth century’s most outstanding Jewish thinkers.

Kaplan takes readers on a soulful journey through the rollercoaster challenges and successes of Heschel’s emotional life. As a child he was enveloped in a Hasidic community of Warsaw, then he went on to explore secular Jewish Vilna and cosmopolitan Berlin. He improvised solutions to procure his doctorate in Nazi-dominated Berlin, escaped the Nazis, and secured a rare visa to the United States. He articulated strikingly original interpretations of Jewish ideas. His relationships spanned not only the Jewish denominational spectrum but also Catholic and Protestant faith communities. A militant voice for nonviolent social action, he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. (who became a close friend), expressed strong opposition to the Vietnam War (while the FBI compiled a file on him), and helped reverse long-standing antisemitic Catholic Church doctrine on Jews (participating in a secret meeting with Pope Paul VI during Vatican II).

From such prodigiously documented stories Heschel himself emerges—mind, heart, and soul. Kaplan elucidates how Heschel remained forever torn between faith and anguish; between love of God and abhorrence of human apathy, moral weakness, and deliberate evil; between the compassion of the Baal Shem Tov of Medzibozh and the Kotzker rebbe’s cruel demands for truth. “My heart,” Heschel acknowledged, is “in Medzibozh, my mind in Kotzk.”
1130575734
Abraham Joshua Heschel: Mind, Heart, Soul

In this first one-volume English-language full biography of Abraham Joshua Heschel, Edward K. Kaplan tells the engrossing, behind-the-scenes story of the life, philosophy, struggles, yearnings, writings, and activism of one of the twentieth century’s most outstanding Jewish thinkers.

Kaplan takes readers on a soulful journey through the rollercoaster challenges and successes of Heschel’s emotional life. As a child he was enveloped in a Hasidic community of Warsaw, then he went on to explore secular Jewish Vilna and cosmopolitan Berlin. He improvised solutions to procure his doctorate in Nazi-dominated Berlin, escaped the Nazis, and secured a rare visa to the United States. He articulated strikingly original interpretations of Jewish ideas. His relationships spanned not only the Jewish denominational spectrum but also Catholic and Protestant faith communities. A militant voice for nonviolent social action, he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. (who became a close friend), expressed strong opposition to the Vietnam War (while the FBI compiled a file on him), and helped reverse long-standing antisemitic Catholic Church doctrine on Jews (participating in a secret meeting with Pope Paul VI during Vatican II).

From such prodigiously documented stories Heschel himself emerges—mind, heart, and soul. Kaplan elucidates how Heschel remained forever torn between faith and anguish; between love of God and abhorrence of human apathy, moral weakness, and deliberate evil; between the compassion of the Baal Shem Tov of Medzibozh and the Kotzker rebbe’s cruel demands for truth. “My heart,” Heschel acknowledged, is “in Medzibozh, my mind in Kotzk.”
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Abraham Joshua Heschel: Mind, Heart, Soul

Abraham Joshua Heschel: Mind, Heart, Soul

by Edward K. Kaplan
Abraham Joshua Heschel: Mind, Heart, Soul

Abraham Joshua Heschel: Mind, Heart, Soul

by Edward K. Kaplan

Hardcover(Abridged, A One-Volume Biography)

$44.95 
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Overview


In this first one-volume English-language full biography of Abraham Joshua Heschel, Edward K. Kaplan tells the engrossing, behind-the-scenes story of the life, philosophy, struggles, yearnings, writings, and activism of one of the twentieth century’s most outstanding Jewish thinkers.

Kaplan takes readers on a soulful journey through the rollercoaster challenges and successes of Heschel’s emotional life. As a child he was enveloped in a Hasidic community of Warsaw, then he went on to explore secular Jewish Vilna and cosmopolitan Berlin. He improvised solutions to procure his doctorate in Nazi-dominated Berlin, escaped the Nazis, and secured a rare visa to the United States. He articulated strikingly original interpretations of Jewish ideas. His relationships spanned not only the Jewish denominational spectrum but also Catholic and Protestant faith communities. A militant voice for nonviolent social action, he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. (who became a close friend), expressed strong opposition to the Vietnam War (while the FBI compiled a file on him), and helped reverse long-standing antisemitic Catholic Church doctrine on Jews (participating in a secret meeting with Pope Paul VI during Vatican II).

From such prodigiously documented stories Heschel himself emerges—mind, heart, and soul. Kaplan elucidates how Heschel remained forever torn between faith and anguish; between love of God and abhorrence of human apathy, moral weakness, and deliberate evil; between the compassion of the Baal Shem Tov of Medzibozh and the Kotzker rebbe’s cruel demands for truth. “My heart,” Heschel acknowledged, is “in Medzibozh, my mind in Kotzk.”

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780827614741
Publisher: The Jewish Publication Society
Publication date: 11/01/2019
Edition description: Abridged, A One-Volume Biography
Pages: 488
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Edward K. Kaplan is Kevy and Hortense Kaiserman Professor in the Humanities Emeritus at Brandeis University. He is the author of numerous books, including Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America, 1940–1972; winner of the National Jewish Book Award; and coauthor, with Samuel H. Dresner, of Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness.
 

Table of Contents


List of Photographs
Preface
Acknowledgments
Notes on This Volume
Part I. From Hasidism to Modernity
1. Hasidic Warsaw, 1907–1925
2. Vilna and Berlin, 1925–1931
3. Prophetic Inspiration and Hitler’s Rise, 1929–1935
4. Symbolic or Sacred Religion, 1935–1939
5. Struggling to Escape, 1938–1940
Part II. Theological Foundations in America
6. Becoming an American, 1940–1945
7. Rescuing the American Soul, 1945–1951
8. Theological Revolution, 1952–1956
Part III. Spiritual Activism
9. Biblical Prophecy and Current Events, 1956–1963
10. A Sacred Humanism, 1963–1966
11. Apostle to the Gentiles, 1961–1966
12. Civil Rights, Vietnam, and Israel, 1965–1969
13. Summation of a Life, 1970–1972
Epilogue
Notes
Note on Sources
Selected Bibliography
Index of Names
 
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