Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
DELIGHTED to see this back in print!, July 18, 1999
If I had to pick just one book to explain my inner life as a Hasidic Jew, this would be it. In fact, now that is is back in print, I shall do exactly that in my FAQ on Hasidic Culture.Not just about Hasidism, this thin but profound volume, written in such beautifully poetic prose, covers the different types of Eastern European Jews in a way that informs and inspires at the same time. Rabbi Heschel explain so clearly how Jewish spirituality is expressd, not in visible cathedrals, art, or monuments, but in timeless words and values as they are expressed in community through both worship and daily life. Originally written in 1949, it appears that the author, himself a Holocaust survivor, intended this book to be a memorial to a lost world. Yet 50 years later, the book is as fresh and inspiring as the day it was written. The physical Jewish world he describes may no longer be there in Eastern Europe, but the inner world of religious Jews continues to grow and flourish so that I, as a Hasid in the 90's, can read this book and say, "Yes, this describes my inner life, too!" . Perhaps, as Heschel himself suggests, this Eastern European "golden age" of Jewish spirituality (his words) can now be fully appreciated by the world. An excellent, EXCELLENT, book! Double 5-stars!
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gem of a book, July 17, 2001
This small but brilliant volume condenses and crystallizes Jewish thought and Talmudic methods, but one can read it in three hours.Central to Judaism are Torah and Talmud--which offer democratic learning systems open to all willing to avail themselves. Heschel uses the great Yiddish writer Mendele Moher Sefarim's description of a typical Eastern European Jewish town--"where Torah was studied from time immemorial; where practically all the inhabitants are scholars, where the Synagogue or the House of Study is full of people of all classes busily engaged in studies, townfolk as well as young men from afar...where at dusk, between twilight and evening prayers, artisans and other simple folk gather around the tables to listen to a discourse on the great books of Torah, to interpretations of Scripture, to readings from theological, homiletical or ethical writings...., where on the Sabbath and the holidays, near the Holy Ark, at the reading stand, sermons are spoken that kindle the hearts of the Jewish people for the Divine Presence, sermons seasoned with parables and aphorisms of the sages, in a voice and a tone that heartens one's soul, that melts all limbs, that penetrates the whole being." Study included all: Indeed, a book preserved at New York's Yivo Institute bears the stamp of the Berditshev Society of Wood Choppers for the Study of Mishnah, the earliest part of Talmud. A Christian scholar who visited Warsaw during World War I saw many parked coaches with no drivers in sight. In his country, he wrote, "I would have known where to look for them. A young Jewish boy showed me the way: in a courtyard, on the second floor, was the shtible of Jewish drivers. It consisted of two rooms: one filled with Talmud volumes, the other a room for prayer. All the drivers were involved in fervent study and religious discussion.... It was then that I... became convinced that all the professions, the bakers, the shoemakers, etc., have their own shtible in the Jewish district; and every free moment which can be taken off from work is given to the study of Torah. And when they get together in intimate groups, one urges the other, 'Sog mir a shtickle Torah--Tell me a little Torah." European Jews studied in their own language--Yiddish--born of what Heschel calls "a will to make intelligible, to explain and simplify the tremendous complexities of the sacred literature. Thus there arose, as though spontaneously, a mother tongue, a direct expression of feeling, a mode of speech without ceremony or artifice, a language that speaks itself without taking devious paths, a tongue that has maternal intimacy and warmth. In this language, you say 'beauty' and mean 'spirituality;' you say 'kindness' and mean 'holiness.' Few languages can be spoken so simply and directly; there are but few languages which lend themselves with such difficulty to falseness. No wonder Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav would sometimes choose Yiddish to pour out his heart to God." Heschel's words could easily define the Jewish faith itself. The world he describes was lost in the Holocaust, but the faith was not. This book rekindles it. Alyssa A. Lappen
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Philosophical lesson on Judaism, January 3, 2000
A short book in size but a great book in content. It is a description of the spirit of the Jews of Eastern Europe, an exaltation of their culture, their way of life, and above all of the high spiritual development of this ethnic group. The author manifests a certain melancholy for days gone by, for a way of life which he believes no longer exists. Lets leave to the present day Hassids to confirm or deny this statement. Beautiful prose, a must for anyone interested in learning about the essence of Eastern Europe Judaism.
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