The Earth Is the Lord's: The Inner World of the Jew in Eastern Europe

by Abraham Joshua Heschel, Ilya Schor (Illustrator)

Powerfully and beautifully portrays a bygone Jewish culture. The story about the life of the Jews in Eastern Europe which has come to an end in our days is what I have tried to tell in this essay. I have not talked about their books, their art or institutions, but about their daily life, about their habits and customs, about their attitudes toward the basic things in life, about the scale of values which directed their aspirations…. "In this period our people attained the highest degree of inwardness…. It was the golden period in Jewish history, in the history of the Jewish soul."
―from The Earth Is the Lord's

Genres: Jewish, Judaism, Religion, Judaica, Spirituality, History, Nonfiction

116 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Heschel was a descendant of preeminent rabbinic families of Europe, both on his father's (Moshe Mordechai Heschel, who died of influenza in 1916) and mother's (Reizel Perlow Heschel) side, and a descendant of Rebbe Avrohom Yehoshua Heshl of Apt and other dynasties. He was the youngest of six children including his siblings: Sarah, Dvora Miriam, Esther Sima, Gittel, and Jacob. In his teens he received a traditional yeshiva education, and obtained traditional semicha, rabbinical ordination. He then studied at the University of Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate, and at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, where he earned a second liberal rabbinic ordination.

Reviews

[Olivia]

I liked this book, which was recommended to me by a retired rabbi I hang out with sometimes. I am a little sceptical about the romanticisation of the lifestyle and treatment of Jews in Eastern Europe that led to this. But on the other hand, it is a beautiful depiction of the rewards of intellectual and religious commitment, and the writing is as always lovely.

--- QUOTES I LIKED OR THOUGHT WERE INTERESTING ---

"What [the Ashkenazic moralist or Hasid] sought was boundless fervor, praying and learning without limit or end." (34)

"Kept spiritually alive by a sense of the immense rather than by a sense of balance, he would not yield to the admonitions of the few systematically minded scholars in his midst. The passion for the unlimited could not be conditioned by a regard for proportion and measure." (36)

"In the eyes of these people, knowledge was not a means for achieving power, but a way of clinging to the source of all reality." (49)

"Study was a technique of sublimating feeling into thought." (52)

"It is easy to belittle such an attitude of mind and to call it unpractical, unworldly. But what is nobler than the unpractical spirit? The soul is sustained by the regard for that which transcends all immediate purposes. The sense of the transcendent is the heart of culture, the very essence of humanity. A civilization that is devoted exclusively to the utilitarian is at bottom not different from barbarism. The world is sustained by unworldliness." (55)

"Man has not advanced very far from the coast of chaos. A frantic call to disorder shrieks in the world. Where is the power that can offset the effect of that alluring call? The world cannot remain a vacuum. We are all either ministers of the sacred or slaves of evil. The only safeguard against constant danger is constant vigilance, constant guidance." (63)

"There is a price to be paid by the Jew. He has to be exalted in order to be normal. In order to be a man, he has to be more than a man. To be a people, the Jews have to be more than a people." (64)

"The meaning of a man's life lies in his perfecting the universe. He has to distinguish, gather and redeem the sparks of holiness scattered throughout the darkness of the world." (72)

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, about 15-16 years ago, I was extremely interested in mysticism, including the kabbalah. A friend recommended a couple of books by Heschel: The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man , which I liked reasonably well, and this, which is self-congratulatory bullshit propaganda. I guess there's a chance I would have liked it OK if I'd gotten around to reading it when I bought it in 1998.... But I hope I would have known even then what's wrong with passages like this:

It was not by accident that the Jews of Eastern Europe thought little of worldly education. They resisted the stream of enlightenment which threatened to engulf the small province of Jewishness. They did not despise science. They believed, however, that a bit of spiritual nobility was a thousand times more valuable than all the secular sciences, that praying three times a day "My God, guard my tongue from evil" was more important than the study of physics, that meditating upon the Psalms filled man with more compassion than the study of Roman history.

In other words, they were every bit as anti-intellectual, insular, and parochial as redneck American Christians, and there ain't nothing admirable, worth emulating, or even interesting in that.

[Jeremy Gold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reads like a eulogy for the Old Country. Like a eulogy, it’s hagiographic, bad history, and somewhat dismissive of other stories, but none of those are real issues if you recognize the genre for what it is. Beautiful, and a deserved classic.

[Edward Janes · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Earth Is the Lord's" by Abraham Joshua Heschel (111 pages; 1949).
Deeply moving depiction of Jewish life and culture in Eastern Europe prior to the Shoah, while also calling to arms the need to act. Many passages stood out to this reader; two in particular just below;

(Page 92), "The little Jewish communities in Eastern Europe were like sacred texts opened before the eyes of God so close were their houses of worship to Mount Sinai. In the humble wooden synagogues, looking as if they wee deliberately closing themselves off from the world, the Jews purified the souls that God had given them and perfected their likeness to God. There arose in them an infinite world of inwardness, a "Torah within the Heart," besides the written and oral Torah. Even plain men were like artists who knew how to fill weekday hours with mystic beauty. They did not write songs, they themselves were songs..."

And on page 106-07, "In the elementary textbooks of Hebrew in use a quarter of a century ago, there was a story of a schoolboy who would be in great distress every morning, having forgotten where he put away his clothes and books before he went to bed. One evening he arrived at an answer to his problem. He wrote on a slip of paper: 'The suit is on the chair, the hat is in the closet, the books on the desk, the shoes under the chair, and I am in bed.' Next morning he began to collect his things together. They were all in their places. When he came to the last item on the list, he went to look for himself in the bed--but he search was in vain.

A world has vanished. All that remains is a sanctuary hidden in the realm of spirit. We of this generation are still holding the key. Unless we remember, unless we unlock it, the holiness of ages will remain a secret of God. We of this generation are still holding the key--the key of the sanctuary which is also the shelter of our deserted souls. If we mislay the key, we shall elude ourselves.

In this hour we, the living, are 'the people of Israel.' The tasks, begun by the patriarchs and prophets and continued by their descendants, are now entrusted to us. We are either the last Jews or those that will hand over the entire past to generations to come. We will either forfeit or enrich the legacy of ages."

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heschel presents a portrait of the thought and ways of life of Jews of Eastern Europe which he defines as:

…the descendants of Jews who came from Babylon and Palestine to the Balkans and Central and Eastern Europe, and who since the later Middle Ages have spoken German or Yiddish. They are called Ashkenazic Jews, from the Hebrew work Ashkenaz, which means Germany.”

Up to the nineteenth century, All Ashkenazic Jews who lived in the area bounded by the Rhine and the Dnieper and by the Baltic and Black Sea, and in some neighboring regions as well, presented a culturally uniform group.

The author’s emphasis is on the inner life of this community, particularly its spirituality, its way of seeing the divine in the mundane and everyday events of life. And particularly in the responsibility of acting as God has commanded them to act, because the salvation of the world depends on it.

As he puts it:

It is a continual process, taking place at every moment. Man’s good deeds are single acts in the long drama of redemption, and not only for the people of Israel, but the whole universe must be redeemed.

Heschel’s elegant English prose and Schor’s glorious woodcuts combine to elevate this short work to a beautiful gem of a book.

[Maurizio Manco · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Un mondo è scomparso. Tutto ciò che rimane è un santuario nascosto nel regno dello spirito. Noi di questa generazione ne possediamo ancora la chiave, [...] la chiave del santuario che è anche il rifugio delle nostre anime abbandonate. Se noi smarriremo la chiave, sfuggiremo a noi stessi. [...] Noi siamo gli ultimi ebrei oppure quelli che consegneranno l'intero passato alle generazioni future. O perderemo l'eredità secolare o l'arricchiremo." (p. 103)

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A calm, insightful introduction to the every-day-ness of Jewish (Ashkenazi) spiritual practice. I think this is primarily for non-Jews (like me). I'm not a mono-theist, which clearly places me outside the vision in some ways, but there was a great deal that resonates with Buddhism--the ongoing impact of actions (karma), the reverence for creation. An excellent introduction.

[Ben Breslow · Rating 5 out of 5]

He does not waste a single word. Some really really good writing in here. A very solid Shabbos read. A little harsh on the sefardim at times I fear. Bro really loves Rashi. I see why he is the leader of our movement

[Omri Flicker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very special tribute to a beautiful culture. Heschel's writing continues to be poetic and melodic with echoes of the prophets.

[Adam Glantz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of essays united by a common theme. Ashkenazic culture produced no architectural monuments, and its literature is difficult to comprehend by those from other backgrounds; but it grew at its own pace and according to its own norms, and was therefore authentic. Its values were egalitarian, emphasizing spiritual nourishment for all, rather than a grandeur only attainable by an elite few. Its mysticism colored all life's experiences and found many avenues of expression: the rationalism of pilpul and the ecstasy of the Polish Hasidim. Though impaired by the Holocaust, Heschel recommends Ashkenazic values as a fire-brake against the superficiality endemic to modern life. One question that remains is why those disaffected with Ashkenazic religion have sought secular paths in recent centuries, like socialism and Zionism. Perhaps in an earlier era, intellectual pioneers would branch out into other aspects of religion, like Talmudism, Kabbalah, Hasidism, etc, whereas their post-Enlightenment descendants leave the religious quest all together.

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

The overwhelming impression from this book is the passion with which Eastern European Jews experienced God. This was an every day matter for them, and involved every action of their lives. Their constant tension was to honor God, and not to slip by failing to observe with enthusiasm all of God's commandments. This was literally the purpose of their lives.

Heschel writes beautifully and clearly. His other books - in particular The Sabbath, Between God and Man, and God in Search of Man - are all moving, emotional statements of what the Jewish faith meant to him and many other Jews in Poland, Lithuania and Russia. Anyone who wants to understand Judaism should consider reading Heschel.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite possibly my favorite book to date, that being said books that put you in a mystical state such as this one are all on that level. I am literally shocked that the Hasidim would reverberate with me personally on such a deep level. The mystics of judaism and islam are very similar. I want all muslims to read this book, yes I dream.

[A.E. Reiff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always the tribes and folk peoples know the first priority is to survive, to live. If this is not a good time to mention this I apologize. In the first principle of survival, "...our people attained the highest degree of inwardness."

[Jasonlylescampbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A profound little book. The beauty of holiness, the idea of our lives being the song and our deeds singing to the world ... or creating havoc and chaos. I think there is much there for a Christian to face. Especially the meaninglessness that many feel about their lives in our times.

[Jean Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memorial really to the murdered Eastern European Jews and their way of life.

[Paul H. Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suberb

One his best works. A summary of his thoughts. From the everyday to the sublime mixed and matched. Please read.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning, poetic, and insightful tribute to Jewish societies lost during the Holocaust.