Abraham Joshua Heschel 
Thunder in the Soul 
To Be Known By God

Like the Hebrew prophets before him, the great American rabbi and civil rights leader reveals God’s concern for this world and each of us.


Abraham Joshua Heschel, descended from a long line of Orthodox rabbis, fled Europe to escape the Nazis. He made the insights of traditional Jewish spirituality come alive for American Jews while speaking out boldly against war and racial injustice.


Heschel brought the fervor of the Hebrew prophets to his role as a public intellectual. He challenged the sensibilities of the modern West, which views science and human reason as sufficient. Only by rediscovering wonder and awe before mysteries that transcend knowledge can we hope to find God again. This God, Heschel says, is not distant but passionately concerned about our lives and human affairs, and asks something of us in return.


This little book, which brings together Heschel’s key insights on a range of topics, will reinvigorate readers of any faith who hunger for wonder and thirst for justice.


Plough Spiritual Guides briefly introduce the writings of great spiritual voices of the past to new readers.

About the author

Susannah Heschel, The daughter of Abraham Joshua Heschel, Susannah Heschel is the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. Heschel's scholarship focuses on Jewish and Christian interactions in Germany during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is the author of Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus (1998), and other works. Susannah is one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century.