"Philosophy may be defined as the art of asking the right questions...Awareness of the problem outlives all solutions. The answers are questions in disguise, every new answer giving rise to new questions." This example of Rabbi Heschel's thought and manner of expression, familiar to the readers of his many books, serves as an epigraph to The Wisdom of Heschel.

As Ruth Goodhill says in her foreword, "These selections from the works of the prophetic giant of the twentieth century, Abraham Joshua Heschel, represent my personal response to his writings. This book, conceived during his...