Radical Amazement

"Wonder or radical amazement...is a prerequisite for an authentic awareness of that which is."

I wrote last fall about the contrast between fault and responsibility; since then, I came across this quote by Rabbi Abraham Heschel: “We forfeit the right to pray if we are silent about the cruelties committed in our name by our government. In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” Diving more into Heschel’s life and work has delighted and awed me.

A staunch ally of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Heschel marched by his side in Selma and frequently spoke alongside King at various events. These spiritual leaders stood by each other’s causes, as they correctly recognized that human rights are indivisible; we cannot fight for one people’s rights while stomping on another’s. Heschel joined King in anti-Vietnam War actions; when asked why he was there, he replied, “I am here because I cannot pray... Whenever I open the prayer book, I see images of children burning from napalm.”

While we can clearly see the similarities between this and current Jewish organizing against Palestinian genocide, such as Rabbis for Ceasefire, what really captivates me about Heschel’s work is his philosophy on the “why” of it all. He insisted upon “radical amazement:” to never let our sense of wonder fade.

“As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind. Mankind will not perish for want of information; but only for want of appreciation. The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living. What we lack is not a will to believe but a will to wonder.”

I could easily fill the whole page just with his incredible words, but I will try to get a few of my own in edgewise. We have more information, available more quickly, than at any time in human history—more than Heschel could even have conceived. His prediction remains hauntingly true. I was raised in a secular, scientific household where hard facts reigned supreme and feelings were inferior information. For as long as I can remember, and certainly long before, there seems to have been an impermeable line between Facts and the less tangible: Miracles, Magic, Divinity, whatever you’d like to call it. You can only have one or the other—with the assumption that if it’s magic, it is bereft of facts and therefore not true. (Bonus: you are an idiot for believing).

Over a decade ago, I formed a carnival-style variety troupe. Naturally, magic, illusions, and other feats of apparent human defiance of the laws of nature became a part of this. As the shortest person in the troupe, I by default became the magician’s assistant: only I could fit into the various illusions. I learned how many of them are done (and had to wrestle with my claustrophobic tendencies), but possibly the best thing I learned was that knowing how a trick is done didn’t make it any less magical to me. Instead, my wonder simply shifted locations: I no longer speculated about the how, but marveled at it, understanding the hard work that made it look like the impossible had been performed.

Heschel agrees: “To find an approximate cause of a phenomenon is no answer to his ultimate wonder. He knows that there are laws that regulate the course of natural processes; he is aware of the regularity and pattern of things. However, such knowledge fails to mitigate his sense of perpetual surprise at the fact that there are facts at all.” Science has explained to us how a seed becomes a plant, how a bud becomes a flower—but does that make the process any less magical? We have mapped the human genome; is the fact that we were able to do this anything short of a miracle? Heschel warns: “Indifference to the sublime wonder of living is the root of sin.”

While we can learn how facts and magic need not be mutually exclusive, Heschel does place two elements at opposition: in decrying how today’s civilization is organized around self-interest, he says, “If everything is self-interest, there is no love. Can you imagine humanity without love? If love is only self-interest, then love is a fake pretense.” This is on display in stark relief today: self-interest is cannibalizing our planet, our resources, and basic respect for and provision of essential human rights. As I write, Los Angeles is engulfed in uncontainable wild fires. My city, Richmond, VA has been without water all week due to the combination of a mere 3” of snow and crumbling infrastructure. The bombs sent to and dropped on Gaza have resulted in a huge spike in greenhouse gas emissions. It’s pretty clear to anyone without their hand in the cookie jar that this is very much the opposite of love, and self-interest is killing us all for the short-lived benefit of very few.

It’s easy to drop into despair; it is braver to resist. Heschel remained an optimist. His parting words in the last interview before his death in 1972 (which I highly recommend watching—it is both profound and hilarious) were:

“I'd say to young people a number of things: Remember, there is a meaning beyond absurdity, let them be sure that every little deed counts, that every word has power, that we can do everyone our share to redeem the world in spite of all the absurdities and all the frustration and all disappointment, and above all, remember, that the meaning of life is to build life as if it were a work of art. You’re not a machine. When you are young, start working on this great work of art called your own existence.”

He also emphasized: “One of the most important things is to teach man how to celebrate life.” So, my loves, remember to celebrate the miracle of your life. The future is looking dark indeed; it will be full of challenges and grief. This we know. Without a sense of wonder and appreciation, these struggles will be too heavy to bear. Let us remind each other of the amazing, the miraculous, the awesome—leave a comment on what you have found wondrous this week. Our little sparks will form a bright flame to follow as we walk together through darkness.