The grand premise of religion is that man is able to surpass himself; that man who is part of this world may - Abraham Joshua Heschel

There is a word that is seldom said, a word for an emotion almost too deep to be expressed: the love of the Sabbath.

I have one talent, and that is the capacity to be tremendously surprised, surprised at life, at ideas. This is to me the supreme Hasidic imperative: Don't be old. Don't be stale.

The greatest problem is not how to continue but how to exalt our existence. The call for a life beyond the grave is presumptuous, if there is no cry for eternal life prior to our descending to the grave. Eternity is not perpetual future but perpetual presence. He has planted in us the seed of eternal life. The world to come is not only a hereafter but also a here-now.