HESCHEL, ABRAHAM JOSHUA (1907–1972), was a Jewish scholar and philosopher of religion. Born and raised in Warsaw, Heschel received his training in the methods of modern scientific research in Berlin, and wrote most of his mature works in the United States. Heschel was born into an intensely traditional Hasidic milieu: He was descended on his father's side from Dov Ber of Mezhirich, successor of the BeSHT (acronym of the Baʿal Shem Ṭov, Yisraʾel ben Eliʿezer), founder of the Hasidic movement that flourished among eastern European Jews in the eighteenth century; Avraham Yehoshuʿa Heschel, known as "the Apter rebe"; and Yisraʾel of Rizhyn. On his mother's side, he was descended from Levi Yitsḥaq of Berdichev and Pinḥas of Korets.

As a youth, Heschel received traditional training in Talmud and rabbinic lore, in which he excelled, and immersed himself in...