The show on Heschel was truly outstanding. I was very impressed. I emailed the link to that podcast to numerous people, and did so with excitment. It was a great story on a truly great mind and truly great, great man.

Thank you for this wonderful program. I listen regularly. It is so refreshing to hear faith discussed intelligently, and I always come away from the radio upl ifted.Today's show about Heschel has interested me in looking deeper into my own Jewish religious background.

Just hearing again about Rabbi Heschel and his inspiring thoughts brought joy to my heart this A.M. Ever since I was introduced to his writings at Manhattenville College in N.Y. he has been special. At Notre Dame when he was reflecting on the Vatican II documents about the sacred and the secular, he was distraught saying they were all one and we shouldn't separate what God has made. And then he added "I don't know if my father Abraham will recognise me when I get to meet him"

I have been waiting for this program for awhile now. Having only discovered Heschel a couple of years ago, I've read several of his books, and am convinced that he should be celebrated as one of the great religious heroes of the late 20th century. How strange and very sad for all of us that his name is not as well known as Dr. King's or Pope John XXIII's.

I can't help but wish I could have met him personally. I encountered his books at a time when I felt very much at sea about God. Who is God, and what does he have to do with me, I wondered. Then, one day when I was browsing the local bookstore, I came upon Heschel's God in Search of Man. What a wonderfully edifying, hardheaded, inspiring book that is! In it, Heschel describes a God that is both awesome and approachable —better, Heschel's God in Search of Man persuaded me that I am as necessary in God's eyes as God is to me. Audacious! Amazing! And oddly enough, it is humbling.

How wonderful to hear Chancellor Arnold Eisen, who I have great respect for, and his reflections on his meeting with Rabbi Heschel and his understanding of Heschel's thinking and world-view. The show was over too soon, and I must download the unedited interview to catch everything again, and hear what was cut!!

I didn't learn about Heschel until just a few years ago — I converted to Judaism, in the conservative movement, about 15 years ago, and my own level of observance has grown over that time. I have always been a relatively fervently religious person, with a deep-seated belief in God. I have sometimes found it perplexing that many Jews are agnostic or even antagonistic to the notion of God, despite regularly praying the Shema, a quintessential monotheistic statement of faith.

I first heard of Heschel and his perhaps most famous book, God in Search of Man, when my husband used it as a source text for a workshop that he led at our synagogue — I subsequently began reading it, and the reaction that I had was similar to what Chancellor Eisen describes his reaction was as a teenager — I just thought, "Wow — here's a Jew who really does believe in God!!" It was later that I came to learn of Heschel's involvement with MLK, Jr, and with civil rights and the anti-war movement. This brought things full-circle for me, because, as a child and young adult, I grew up in the radical activist left-wing movement, marching in rallies, demonstrating, and ferociously advocating for justice under the wings of my very politically active mother!