The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Elegant, passionate, and filled with the love of God's creation, Abraham Joshua Heschel's The Sabbath has been hailed as a classic of Jewish spirituality ever since its original publication-and has been read by thousands of people seeking meaning in modern life.

In this brief yet profound meditation on the meaning of the Seventh Day, Heschel introduced the idea of an "architecture of holiness" that appears not in space but in time Judaism, he argues, is a religion of time: it finds meaning not in space and the material things that fill it but in time and the eternity that imbues it, so that "the Sabbaths are our great cathedrals."

Featuring black-and-white illustrations by Ilya Schor

Abraham Joshua Heschel was born in Poland in 1907 and obtained his early education at a yeshiva (a Talmudic or rabbinical study school) before earning his doctorate at the University of Berlin. He departed for London in 1939, six weeks before the Nazi invasion of Poland, and subsequently for the United States, where he taught from 1945 to 1972 at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. Heschel was deeply involved in social movements for peace, civil rights, and interfaith understanding as an activist, scholar, and teacher.