1 Cement Pad with Various Shadows (Poem below)
“Inherent to all traditional religion,” Heschel states, “is the peril of stagnation. What has become settled and established may easily turn foul. Insight is replaced by clichés, elasticity by obstinacy, spontaneity by habit.” In such circumstances, when religion grows “irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid,” when it is reduced to lifeless “customs and ceremonies,” what is needed are courageous people willing to think, feel, and act differently. “Acts of dissent,” Heschel writes, “prove to be acts of renewal.” The kind of “creative dissent” Heschel values, which “comes out of love and faith,” is exceedingly rare, since it requires an exquisite combination of “deep caring, concern, untrammeled radical thinking informed by rich learning, a degree of audacity and courage, and the power of the word.” In other words, creative dissenters need to be thoroughly immersed in tradition without, however, being slaves to it; they have to combine deep faithfulness with profound audacity. Such souls are scarce, Heschel realizes, and yet they are indispensable if religion is to remain vital and avoid decay."
-Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence by Shai Held
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Light and Shadows
When light shatters
Into unspeakable pieces
A brilliant shadow
Through an object appears
Who knew this secret?
Carried within these waves
For but a moment
A charcoal sketch is displayed
Waiting for a dawn
Becomes a thirst for one
With zeal an object is placed
Paint from light begins to work
Upon this concrete canvas
Someone’s creativity spills
Colors are added
And rainbow arches form
To share this image
A camera is introduced
Light hurdles through a lens
Snap- a picture is made
-rc
1 Cement Pad with Various Shadows (Poem below)
“Inherent to all traditional religion,” Heschel states, “is the peril of stagnation. What has become settled and established may easily turn foul. Insight is replaced by clichés, elasticity by obstinacy, spontaneity by habit.” In such circumstances, when religion grows “irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid,” when it is reduced to lifeless “customs and ceremonies,” what is needed are courageous people willing to think, feel, and act differently. “Acts of dissent,” Heschel writes, “prove to be acts of renewal.” The kind of “creative dissent” Heschel values, which “comes out of love and faith,” is exceedingly rare, since it requires an exquisite combination of “deep caring, concern, untrammeled radical thinking informed by rich learning, a degree of audacity and courage, and the power of the word.” In other words, creative dissenters need to be thoroughly immersed in tradition without, however, being slaves to it; they have to combine deep faithfulness with profound audacity. Such souls are scarce, Heschel realizes, and yet they are indispensable if religion is to remain vital and avoid decay."
-Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence by Shai Held
/******************************************
Light and Shadows
When light shatters
Into unspeakable pieces
A brilliant shadow
Through an object appears
Who knew this secret?
Carried within these waves
For but a moment
A charcoal sketch is displayed
Waiting for a dawn
Becomes a thirst for one
With zeal an object is placed
Paint from light begins to work
Upon this concrete canvas
Someone’s creativity spills
Colors are added
And rainbow arches form
To share this image
A camera is introduced
Light hurdles through a lens
Snap- a picture is made
-rc