"Build Your Life As If It Were a Work Of Art"

“I've learned from the prophets that we must be involved in the affairs of man. When I marched in Selma, my feet were praying."

By Michael S. Lewis, M.D.

“G-d will raise up for you prophets from amongst your own people.” Deuteronomy 18:15.

This poses several important questions: How does one become a prophet? What qualities must he -or she- possess?

Abraham Joshua Heschel in his classic two volume study on the prophets, tells us, “It wasn’t easy being a prophet. They spoke truth to the wicked as well as the pious, and the cynics as well as the believers. They were anointed by G-d to deliver a divine vision. They held G-d and man in one thought.” He further stated, “For the ancient prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, G-d was raging in their words.”

According to Maimonides, essential qualities prophets must possess include great wisdom, a strong moral character, and a fierce awareness that they are called to serve God.

The rabbis taught that after the destruction of the temple, prophecy ceased, but that the voice of the prophets was transferred to the ‘wise’ of each generation.

Who would be considered a prophet today? Abraham Joshua Heschel, who is thought of as one of the most important Jewish theologians of the twentieth century, would certainly be a candidate.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, Heschel was a descendant of an illustrious line of Hasidic rabbis. At the age of four or five he would be placed on a table and questioned by scholars for the surprising and amusing answers he would give. When he was ten years old, his father died, and some people wanted Heschel to succeed him almost at once. At that time, he had begun to write and had already mastered many of the classical religious texts.

Heschel was a theologian, poet, mystic, social reformer, and historian. He wrote works on the Bible, the Talmud, medieval thought, philosophy, theology, Hasidism, and contemporary moral problems.

In May 1983, my wife Valerie and I spent a weekend in St. Cloud, Minnesota, at the College of Saint Benedict. The occasion was a symposium honoring Abraham Joshua Heschel at the 10th anniversary of his death.

The College of Saint Benedict is a Catholic liberal arts college for women associated with a Benedictine convent operated by the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict. Their hospitality to the one thousand visitors who came from all over the country was extraordinary. No detail was overlooked, including “kashering” the convent kitchen (preparing cooking implements to be usable according to Jewish dietary law).

The keynote speaker was Rabbi Samuel Dresner, Alava Shalom, at that time the rabbi of Moriah Congregation, our synagogue located in the Chicago area. Rabbi Dresner was a long-time student and intimate personal friend of Heschel. The occasion marked the publication of I Asked for Wonder, Rabbi Dresner’s compilation of Heschel’s words of wisdom.

Heschel lived in a state of radical amazement. He said, “I have one talent: the capacity to be tremendously surprised at life and at ideas.” I love the following description of Heschel: “His joy was so uncontainable that he burst out in laughter when he met a good friend in the street.”

Two of my favorite quotations from Heschel are: “Being human is a surprise, not a foregone conclusion. No one will live my life for me, no one will think my thoughts for me or dream my dreams,” and “Build your life as if it were a work of art.”

Heschel famously stated, “The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals. The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate the holiness of time rather than space. For six days a week, we seek to dominate the world; on the seventh day, we try to dominate the self.”

Heschel had a strong sense of moral outrage. He noted that the prophets were activists. He stated, “I've learned from the prophets that we must be involved in the affairs of man.” He marched beside Martin Luther King, Jr., in Selma, Alabama, and stated, “When I marched in Selma, my feet were praying.”

Rabbi Dresner told us that despite failing health and books yet to be written, Heschel spent more and more time in his later years on social issues. He acted out his mandate, “Every deed counts; every word has power. The heart is revealed in deeds.”

Heschel was extraordinarily ecumenical. He was a great bridge builder. He believed that God is not limited to one nation or to one people. He stated, “For men of different religious traditions, the fear and trembling is the same.”

He acknowledged, “The challenge is to combine loyalty to one’s own tradition with reverence for different traditions.” He was the principal American Jewish delegate to Vatican Council II and successfully challenged the council to denounce anti-Semitism.

Perhaps the most prominent Protestant theologian of the 20^th century, Reinhold Neibuhr, considered Heschel to be his best friend. At the Heschel symposium at St. Benedict College, Neibuhr’s wife Ursula described how every Sunday for twelve years, her husband and Heschel would take walks together down Riverside Drive in New York City. Neibuhr was a tall man, and Heschel was short and stocky. During the last few years of Neibuhr’s life, he had had a stroke, so he leaned to one side. She said that the two of them looked like a triangle walking together.

Rabbi Samuel Dresner stated, “Reading Heschel is to peer into the heart of that rarest of human phenomena, the holy man.”

Is Abraham Joshua Heschel a modern-day prophet? An ultimate test is the impact on his followers. He has given us rare gifts. May we be worthy recipients. May we never lose our sense of awe and wonder. May we remember that every deed counts and to build our life as if it were a work of art.

MICHAEL S. LEWIS, M.D. is a former Orthopedic Consultant to the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Bulls, and the author of Getting Wiser.

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