Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes

People look at my six days in the week to see what I mean on the seventh.

I don't work on my Sabbath. I write five-and-a-half or six days a week.

I don't work Sunday any more... The Sabbath is a very reasonable idea. Otherwise, you work yourself to death.

Sunday is a day of rest.

we admonish that men keep Sunday's festival with all their might, and observe it from Saturday's noon to Monday's dawning; and no man be so bold that he either go to market or seek any court on that holy day

Without getting too spiritual, God has done so much for me; the least I can do is drink Kiddush wine on a Friday night.

A world without a proper day of rest is like a landscape without hedgerows, trees, or landmarks: a howling, featureless wilderness in which we incessantly seek pleasure because we cannot find happiness.

Sabbath is the celebration of life beyond and outside productivity.

Faith in God engenders a love for the Sabbath; faith in the Sabbath engenders a love for God. A sacred Sabbath truly is a delight.

The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of Sabbath. It is not an interlude but the climax of living.

Sabbath is not simply the pause that refreshes. It is the pause that transforms.

On the Sabbath- we are reminded that we are not human doings, but human beings.

This is what the Sabbath should feel like. A pause. Not just a minor pause, but a major pause. Not just lowering the volume, but a muting. As the famous rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel put it, the Sabbath is a sanctuary in time.

Sunday is the core of our civilization, dedicated to thought and reverence.

I'm inspired by everything that goes on around me. I'm a sponge. I'm very analytical. I notice the things that most people don't notice.

When you say yes to life, you attract divine guidance. When you're inspired, you're collaborating with fate. Everything starts working for you.

They're not prosthetics. They're my bones. They come out when I’m inspired. They've always been inside of me, but I have been waiting for the right time to reveal to the universe who I truly am.

I'm so inspired and stimulated by the work that it doesn't ever feel like work.

Nothing really came, everything was like inspired by something.

It was one of those things where you admire and respect a person, and you watch them for almost your entire life - and Meryl Streep was definitely one of those people that inspired me throughout my career. Having a chance to have a scene with her was pretty unreal.

[M]yths are not invented as stories are. Myths are inspired-they really are. They come from the same realm that dream comes from.

Sabbath, in the first instance, is not about worship. It is about work stoppage. It is about withdrawal from the anxiety system of Pharaoh, the refusal to let one’s life be defined by production and consumption and the endless pursuit of private well-being.

When I'm inspired, I jot things down and put them in a pile.

I'm always inspired by actresses who are older than me. Because I know that person has lived so much more life than I have. There's a whole other toolbox.

I'm inspired by it all - the good and the not so good - because every experience is an opportunity for me to learn, grow, and become the best version of myself.