Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

HESCHEL'S SIGNIFICANCE
biblical heritage, the very survival of God's presence in the world.
Because the crisis is universal, Jews and Christians must work
together to save the world from destruction, to preserve those values
that make life human and worth living. We can hope to succeed only
through a joint effort; we need each other, because the task is too
overwhelming for each of us alone. Are we ready to face the
challenge? This is how Heschel describes our common task: "The
supreme issue is today not the halakah for the Jew or the Church for the
Christian. . ,; the supreme issue is whether we are alive or dead to the
challenge and the expectation of the living God. The crisis engulfs all
of us. The misery and fear of alienation from God make Jew and
Christian cry together." 20
We really have no choice. Either we work
together to keep God alive in the world, or we will both be engulfed by
nihilism, which Heschel sees as a worldwide counterforce to the
ecumenical movement. Because we confront the same dangers and
terrors, and stand together on the brink, "parochialism has become
untenable ... no religion is an island. We are all involved with one
another, . . . Today religious isolationism is a myth."
The current need for Jews and Christians to work together is,
however, more than a strategic necessity for Heschel; it is rooted in
history. We are linked historically, and the destiny of one impinges on
the destiny of the other. It has always been so. Even in the Middle Ages,
Jews lived in only relative isolation and acknowledged that Christianity's
spiritual impact on the world was important also to them. "If the
non-Jews of a certain town are moral, the Jews born there will be moral
as well." Heschel quotes Rabbi Joseph Yaabez, one of the victims of the
Inquisition, who blessed God for the faith of Christians, without which
"we might ourselves become infirm in our faith."
And yet, despite such moments of insight and recognition, our
history is full of prejudice and bigotry. "This is the agony of history:
bigotry, the failure to respect each other's commitment, each other? s
faith." 21
How can we be cured of our bigotry? How can we learn to
rejoice in one another's triumphs rather than each other's defeats? The
answer for Heschel lies in the awareness of our common humanity,
which for him is never mere humanity. Meeting another human being
offers me an opportunity to encounter the divine presence here on
earth. In the other's presence I stand on holy ground. Why should this
holiness disappear if the other holds religious beliefs that differ from
mine? "Does God cease to stand before me? Does the difference in
commitment destroy the kinship of being human?" 22
Heschel again looks to his own tradition for an answer. "The pious
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