A Passion for Truth

A Passion for Truth (1973)

This book was published posthumously and is significantly autobiographical. It compares and contrasts the life and thought of the enigmatic Hasidic Rebbe Menahem Mendl of Kotzk with that of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. A secondary contrast that is that between the Baal Shem Tov (considered the founder of Hasidism) and the Kotzker Rebbe, a duality that Heschel maps onto the mind and soul.

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He articulated my personal beliefs about Judaism and God. Matthew Bar Heschel's ideas about prophecy, radical amazement, and communal responsibility have inspired me for decades. Rabbi Dan Orenstein That book [The Prophets]—almost more than any other—set me on the course that eventually became my life.  Rabbi Martin Cohen, PhD