Remembering Heschel, and Continuing the Fight Against Pharaoh
This Wednesday (the 18th of Tevet) marked the 50th yahrtzeit of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Heschel was truly one of the greats! Born in 1907 into a Polish Hasidic dynasty, he was plucked out of Warsaw and brought to safety in London in 1939, just weeks before the German invasion of Poland. Heschel arrived in the U.S. the next year, serving first on the faculty of Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati (the Reform seminary, which had helped arrange his visas) and then of the Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) in New York. There, for the remaining decades of his life, he taught Jewish ethics and mysticism, wrote books, and became a celebrated theologian and philosopher.
A few years ago, the elementary school students in Kavana's Moadon Yeladim (afterschool "Kids' Club") program studied Heschel's life and legacy. We learned about his teaching that "our goal should be to live life in radical amazement" -- that is, that spiritual life and especially a sense of awe and wonder are what make life worth living (God in Search of Man). We read excerpts from The Sabbath, where he argues that Judaism finds holiness primarily in time, and "the Sabbaths are our great cathedrals." And, of course, we examined a photo of Rabbi Heschel marching together with Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, and unpacked his now-famous statement that "I felt my feet were praying."
This Shabbat -- the same week as Heschel's yahrtzeit -- is also the week of Parashat Shemot. The opening chapters of the Book of Exodus begin with Jacob's descendants living in Egypt, and with a new Pharaoh arising who "knew not Joseph." Pharaoh oppresses the Israelites from a place of fear; Moses is born and saved and raised in the palace, then called by God to lead his people out of Egypt. The ensuing show-down between Pharaoh and Moses becomes the central Jewish narrative of all time.
This week, I read for the first time the speech that Heschel gave in January 1963 at the National Conference on Religion and Race in Chicago. (Incidentally, this conference -- a watershed moment in Civil Rights history -- is where he first met Martin Luther King Jr.) His speech is remarkable, and, if you have time and interest, I highly recommend reading the text in its entirety here, or watching this video to hear some of the words in Heschel's own (heavily accented) voice. Heschel opens like this:
"At the first conference on religion and race, the main participants were Pharaoh and Moses. [Audience laughs and applauds.] Moses' words were: 'Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me.' While Pharaoh retorted: 'Who is the Lord, that I should heed this voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover I will not let Israel go.'
The outcome of that summit meeting has not come to an end. [Audience laughs again.] Pharaoh is not ready to capitulate. The exodus began, but is far from having been completed. In fact, it was easier for the children of Israel to cross the Red Sea than for a Negro to cross certain university campuses..."
In this speech, Heschel goes on to tackle the racism of his day head-on; he doesn't shy away from talking about humiliation and hatred, murder and bloodshed. He also refuses to let his generation off the hook easily, arguing: "That equality is a good thing, a fine goal, may be generally accepted. What is lacking is a sense of the monstrosity of inequality. Seen from the perspective of prophetic faith, the predicament of justice is the predicament of God." This may be Heschel's most important legacy: viewing the political and social questions of his day as fundamentally moral and religious ones too.
Even fifty years after Heschel's death, these questions remain potent for us. After all, it is still true, even in 2023(!), that "the outcome of that summit meeting has not come to an end" and "Pharaoh is not ready to capitulate." The battle lines of American racism have shifted today: we've clearly moved past marching to desegregate universities, lunch counters, and buses, but we still face a whole array of challenges: police violence against Black and Brown people, racial disparities in health outcomes, economic stratification and generational wealth gaps, mass incarceration, and more.
Rabbi Heschel's daughter, Susannah Heschel (a professor at Dartmouth), now seeks to carry her father's legacy forward. In a piece from a few years ago entitled "The Challenge of the Selma Photograph," she writes:
"As the daughter of Rabbi Heschel, I have long felt that the photograph of the Selma march should not signal celebration but challenge: are we as Jews addressing racism, asks the photograph. Are we actively forging alliances with the African American community? When will African American and Asian American Jews feel fully at home in Jewish institutions? Can we put aside our pride in the efforts of Jewish civil rights workers of the 1960s and recognize how much work is left for us to do? Let us take responsibility for the entire Selma photograph: for the warm smiles on the faces of the front row of marchers wearing leis and full of optimism for the future, but also remembering the horrific violence, physical and verbal, that surrounded the marchers. The photograph can bring inspiration only when we understand it as a challenge."
With Heschel's yahrtzeit, Parashat Shemot, and MLK Day all swirling around us this weekend, we would do well to take up the mantle of her challenge. After all, Rabbi Heschel's words from 1963 are no less true today, that "the exodus began, but is far from having been completed." Let us honor the memory of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel on this yahrtzeit by continuing the fight against Pharaoh that was the apogee of his life's work.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum
