These 66 poems, here in English and Yiddish on facing pages, were collected in t
he first book Abraham Joshua Heschel ever published. They appeared in Warsaw in
1933 when Heschel was 26 years old and still a doctoral candidate in philosophy
at the University of Berlin. Written between 1927 and 1933 - and never published
in English before - this is the intimate spiritual diary of a devout European J
ew, loyal to the revelation at Sinai and afflicted with reverence for all human
beings. These poems sound themes that will resonate throughout Heschel's later p
opular writings: human holiness, a passion for truth, awe and wonder before natu
re, God's quest for righteousness, solidarity with the downtrodden, and unwaveri
ng commitment to tikkun olam. In these poems, we also discover a young man's acu
te loneliness, dismay at God's distance, and dreams of spiritual and sensual int
imacy with a woman.
