Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel - God Pursues Me Everywhere
Ivan M. Granger July 29th, 2009
God Pursues Me Everywhere
by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
English version by Rabbi Zalman M. Schacter-Shalomi
God pursues me everywhere,
Enmeshes me in glances,
And blinds my sightless back like flaming sun.
God, like a forest dense, pursues me.
My lips are ever tender, mute, so amazed,
So like a child lost in an ancient sacred grove.
God pursues me like a silent shudder.
I wish for tranquility and rest — He urges; come!
And see — how visions walk like the homeless on the streets.
My thoughts walk about like a vagrant mystery –
Walks through the world’s long corridor.
At times I see God’s featureless face hovering over me.
God pursues me in the streetcars and cafes
Every shining apple is my crystal sphere to see
How mysteries are born and vision came to be.
- from “Human, God’s Ineffable Name,” by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, freely rendered by Rabbi Zalman M. Schacter-Shalomi. Available from the Reb Zalman Legacy Project
/ Photo by lonelyhome /
God pursues me everywhere,
Enmeshes me in glances…
This evening begins the observance of Tish B’av, the day when the Jewish people remember the terrible tragedies they have survived. A good opportunity to share this poem by Rabbi Heschel (in a translation by the wonderful modern-day teacher, Rabbi Zalman M. Schacter-Shalomi).
And see — how visions walk like the homeless on the streets.
So often we want life to be easy, a series of triumphs, and that’s natural. But we can’t let our desire for that vision of life blind us to the terrible tragedies — personal and planetary — that also mark us. The human soul is an immense being, one that must be able to incorporate trauma as well as joy, and somehow make of those elements a great, complex work of art that is the evolving self.
Many blessings.
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Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel |
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