ABSTRACT
Rabbi Heschel, like his teacher Rabbi Baeck (see the chapter about him), was one of the main representatives of non-Orthodox streams of Judaism in the twentieth century. The basic characteristics of these streams and the differences between them are described above in Rabbi Baeck's chapter. Let us therefore focus directly on the personality of Rabbi Heschel. He came from an Orthodox Jewish environment and gained a traditional education in a yeshiva. He was a descendant of several famous rabbis. On his father's side was Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritch (c.1704–1772), who was also called ‘the Great Magid’ and was a direct student of the founder of Hasidism, Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760). Heschel's namesake, Rabbi Abraham Yehoshua Heschel of Apt (1748–1825), also known as Ohev Yisrael (‘Friend of Yisrael’), was also on the paternal side of his family and from the Hasidic dynasty of Apta. On his mother's side was Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev (c.1740–1809), the Great Magid's favourite student (Krajewsky and Lipszy, 2009: 11). Heschel's subsequent deflection from Orthodoxy was, above all, a consequence of a shift in his theological thinking.
