Called “a truly great prophet” by Martin Luther King Jr., Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was a professor of ethics and mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America from 1946 till he died in 1972. He had escaped from Warsaw and came to American in 1939, but had lost his mother and three sisters to the Nazis. He marched with Dr. King in the third Selma to Montgomery march. Among his many influential books were God in Search of Man, The Sabbath, and The Prophets. This is taken from “To Grow in Wisdom” in The Insecurity of Freedom: Essays on Human Existence.
By what standards do we measure culture? It is customary to evaluate a nation by the magnitude of its scientific contributions or the quality of its artistic achievements. However, the true standard by which to gauge a culture is the extent to which reverence, compassion, justice are to be found in the daily lives of a whole people, not only in the acts of isolated individuals. Culture is a style of living compatible with the grandeur of being human.
The test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture.
We maintain that all men are created equal, including the old. What is extraordinary is that we feel called upon to plead for such equality, in contrast to other civilizations in which the superiority of the old is maintained.
In our own days, a new type of fear has evolved in the hearts of men: the fear of medical bills. In the spirit of the principle that reverence for the old takes precedence over reverence for God, we are compelled to confess that a nation should be ready to sell, if necessary, the treasures from its art collection and the sacred objects from its houses of worship in order to help one sick man.
Is there anything as holy, as urgent, as noble, as the effort of the whole nation to provide medical care for the old?
This is one of the great biblical insights: the needs of suffering humanity are a matter of personal as well as public responsibility. The representatives of the community are held responsible for the neglect of human life if they have failed to provide properly for those in need. The ancient sages realized that it was not enough to rely upon individual benevolence, and that care for the sick was a responsibility of the community.
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“The test of a people is how it behaves toward the old.” Rabbi Heschel is the best.