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It’s long, but so us. http://congregationbethelohim.org/sites/default/files/images/Rabbi%20Timoner%20KOL%20NIDREI%205776%20%20COMING%20HOME.pdf ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://congregationbethelohim.org/sites/default/files/images/Rabbi%20Timoner%20KOL%20NIDREI%205776%20%20COMING%20HOME.pdf Quote:Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “It is customary to blame secular science and antireligious
philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society.
It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats.
Religion declined not because it was refuted,
but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid.”
Heschel continues, “When faith is completely replaced by creed,
worship [replaced] by discipline, love [replaced] by habit;
when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past;
when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain;
when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of
compassion—
its message becomes meaningless.”1
So many of my best friends in life have been Jewish. There is something about their religious and cultural philosophies that speaks to my heart. I find that when I have attended services with them, I always come away having gained something from reading the Torah or commentaries. And yet, their services are the longest, driest, and most miserable to sit through .. No wonder our local synagogue rolls the liquor cart down the center aisle half way through the service!! Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece.
Don’t have time to read the whole thing, but dang that quote is good. Thanks for sharing.
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