This quote from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the leading Jewish theologians and philosophers of the 20th century, offers provocative and powerful words about the responsibility we must bear for ending the suffering of all people.
There is immense silent agony in the world, and the task of man is to be a voice for the plundered poor, to prevent the desecration of the soul and the violation of our dream of honesty.
The more deeply immersed I became in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the Prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.
“The Reasons for My Involvement in the Peace Movement” (1972); later included in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity (1996)
