Understanding the sublime is one of the keys to understanding Judaism. The sublime infuses the writings of the Torah. The ancient writers wrote of the sublime and the sublime has colored the interpretations of the Holy Scriptures throughout history in Jewish thought. Heschel and other writers wrote of the sublime as a reason that Judaism has transformed generations of people and brought them into prominence as theologians, philosophers, and artists, transcending boundaries of time and space. It has brought the Jewish people through difficult times and through historic wars, displacements and changes, into other countries and continents, into a new age. The sublime has transcended time and space through the power of contemplation and inspiration of one God.
             Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Ph.D., a revered contemplative, who was born in Warsaw and educated in Poland and Germany, was Professor of Ethics and Mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America until 1972, when he died. Among his books are Man Is Not Alone, God in Search of Man, The Earth is the Lord's, and Israel: Echo of Eternity. He describes the sublime as a way of understanding God and the world. The Greeks, he says, learned in order to comprehend. The Hebrews learned in order to revere. Modern man learns in order to use.
             Modern man is obsessed with using knowledge to some practical end. Bacon gave us the formulation "Knowledge is power." People are urged to study because knowledge means success. Nothing is of any value except in terms of expediency. Man defines himself as "a seeker after the maximum degree of comfort for the minimum expenditure of energy." He act as if he believed the sole purpose of the universe was created to satisfy his needs. Modern man is calculating; reducing everything to a figure. He believes only in statistics and abhors the idea of a mysticism. Ignoring the fact that we are constantly surrounded by things which we ...