Description:

The Hebrew language has no word for "thing," and the Jews say "good" for "beautiful." Do they lack aesthetic sense, are they incapable of counting, or, more simply, is their domain something else entirely? Civilization, Abraham Heschel replies, is not simply a technique dedicated to human power; it is not measured by the accumulation of objects, nor by the amassing of knowledge. It is a certain art of mastering time, of introducing the sacred into our work and our days. Such is the art of living that the Jews have developed and that the Sabbath continues to teach us.