**1. Introduction**

Judaism and Hinduism have much in common. Studies on the relationship between both cultures have blossomed (Goodman 1994; Holdrege 1995; Goshen-Gottstein 2016; Theodor and Kornberg-Greenberg 2018; Brill 2019). Barbara Holdrege, a comparative historian of religion, has characterized the Hindu and Jewish communities as non-missionary "embodied communities," with modes of bodily practice such as purity codes, sexual disciplines, dietary laws, and scriptures (Veda and Torah) (Holdrege 2013). Judaism and Hinduism value people and land, language (Sanskrit and Hebrew), and rituals and laws (dharmic injunctions and halakha). They are both an orthopraxis, concerned with right actions and performances. Given these commonalities, it is not surprising that Gandhi's relational thinking and Jewish dialogical philosophies also display similarities.1

In previous publications, I dealt with the similarities between Gandhi (1869–1948) and Levinas (1906–1995) and pointed to Buber's nearness to Gandhi, despite his criticism of the Mahatma in the thirties of the preceding century (Meir 2021a, 2021b). Another Jewish dialogical thinker close to Gandhi is Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972). In the present article, I demonstrate how Gandhi's active non-violent attitude in view of a change in society runs parallel with Heschel's social and political activities. More specifically, they were engaged in the non-violent liberation of people. In a way, Heschel's multiple social and political activities throughout the sixties until his death in 1972 continue Gandhi's liberating work for the Indian indentured workers in South Africa and later for the decolonization and spiritual independence (*swaraj*) in India. The former's endeavor to change the negative Christian attitude toward Jews and his—at that time unusual—engagement in favor of the black citizens in America are in line with Gandhi's pacifist worldview, aiming at the transformation of society. Just as Gandhi interpreted *swaraj* as implying a transformation of society and of the self, Heschel envisioned a model society in Israel, according to a prophetic blueprint. Gandhi and Heschel opposed war. I argue that both spiritual icons developed a liberation theology that was rooted in their unconventional religious worldview, which implied a non-violent struggle for the rights of oppressed and humiliated human beings. Their theologies had political relevance and led to social action.

Uma Majmudar has explored Gandhi's inner world and his search for Truth/God, which expressed itself in his active non-violence and service to others (Majmudar 2005).

**Citation:** Meir, Ephraim. 2021. The Non-Violent Liberation Theologies of Abraham Joshua Heschel and Mahatma Gandhi. *Religions* 12: 855. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12100855

Academic Editor: Daniel H. Levine

Received: 20 September 2021 Accepted: 3 October 2021 Published: 11 October 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

She describes the evolution of Gandhi as a spiritual seeker and a man of vision and action. Heschel too combined religiosity and engagement in the world. Like Gandhi, he criticized a kind of religion that is severed from the world. Gandhi searched for the Truth in *samsara*, in the world. *Moksha* (liberation) was not outside, but inside, the world (Majmudar 2005, pp. 186–87). The two belonged to different worlds, but they underwent an amazing selftransformation, and their thoughts and acts had a global impact. They were profoundly religious men who were involved in a permanent struggle for equality and peace and who imagined a different society. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called Heschel a great prophet and was inspired by Gandhi. Reinhold Niebuhr, who taught at Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan, predicted that Heschel was "an authoritative voice not only in the Jewish community, but in the religious life of America" (New York Herald Tribune, 1 April 1951). For the pacifist clergyman John Haynes Holmes, Gandhi was "a great religious leader" and "the greatest man in the world" (Guha 2019, p. 184). Already in 1910 Pranjivan Mehta, before Rabindranath Tagore, called his friend Gandhi "Mahatma" "great soul" (Guha 2019, p. 164). The Trappist monk and later hermit Thomas Merton appreciated Gandhi and called him "one of the noblest men of our century" (Merton 1964, p. 32; 2007).2

Whereas Gandhi pled the cause of the Indians during his twenty-one-year stay in South Africa, Heschel supported equal opportunities for black people in the United States and defended the rights of three million Jews in the ex-Soviet Union (Kaplan 2007, pp. 214–34). They fasted and prayed as tactics of spiritual opposition (Kaplan 2007, pp. 305–13). Heschel opposed the American warfare in Vietnam and was the co-founder of the anti-war organization Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. In a more radical way, Gandhi disapproved of war as such.

A related salient characteristic of Heschel's and Gandhi's worldview is that they radically put themselves in the service of others. Echoing the prophetic empathy with the poor and with victims of oppression, Gandhi sided with his discriminated and unfairly treated Indian brothers and sisters. Much as Gandhi and his Jewish friend Hermann Kallenbach (1871–1945), Heschel heeded a prophetic call and became actively involved in social and political actions. He inspired Martin Luther King's vision, embodied in his speech "I have a Dream." In his own famous lecture "Religion and Race," held in Chicago in 1963, he stated: "The exodus began, but is far from having been completed. In fact, it was easier for the children of Israel to cross the Red Sea than for a Negro to cross certain university campuses" (Heschel 1967, p. 85).<sup>3</sup> All had to be liberated. Racial prejudice was "*an eye disease, a cancer of the soul*" (Heschel 1967, p. 87). Marching at the side of King from Selma to Alabama, Heschel felt his legs were praying. In a letter to King, dated 29 March 1965, he qualified their famous walk a few days before (on 21 March) as "a day of sanctification."4 Public humiliation was for him a form of oppression, worse than physical injury or economic privation (Heschel 1967, p. 88).5 An infringement of human rights was a spiritual danger to the Kingdom of God. Heschel lived his prophetic faith in sympathy with the divine care especially for the under-privileged. Gandhi, in turn, wanted to restore the dignity of the Indians in defiance of British imperialism. Both men bring to mind the prophet Amos, who called for the liberation of all (Amos 9:7). Throughout history, the Bible was interpreted in view of the justification of racism. With the Bible in one's hand, one defended racial oppression. In order to counter such a scriptural-underpinned racism, Heschel and King referred to Amos in their struggle for equality of all (Johnson 2020).

Gandhi's permanent and fierce struggle for the equality of all parallels Heschel's opposition to racism as incompatible with religion: "Religion and race. How can the two be uttered together? To act in the spirit of religion is to unite what lies apart, to remember that humanity as a whole is God's beloved child. To act in the spirit of race is to sunder, to slash, to dismember the flesh of living humanity. Is this the way to honor a father: to torture his child? How can we hear the word 'race' and feel no self-reproach? [ ... ] racism is worse than idolatry. *Racism is satanic*, unmitigated evil" (Heschel 1967, pp. 85–86).

With all their differences, Gandhi and Heschel imagined an alternative reality. Their religious thoughts inspired them to formulate a liberation theology, in which the unselfish service to others was focal. Before expounding my main argument, I pay attention in a short section to what separates these exceptional human beings, who lived and worked in different situations. In a second move, I explore what unites them. In the last part, I explore how, in very different life settings, both spiritual leaders endeavored to formulate a kind of non-violent liberation theology that aims at the liberation of all.

#### **2. Different Worlds**

Gandhi's religiosity differed greatly from that of Heschel. Although Christian interpreters of Gandhi have superimposed their belief onto Gandhi,6 he has to be understood firstly from his Hindu religiosity, which was already shaped in his childhood and youth (Majmudar 2005, pp. 42–44). He was raised in Vaishnavism, with its belief in Lord Vishnu and its avatars Rama and Krishna. He was influenced by the *Krishna-bhakti* that teaches that God is accessible to all and by the *Rama-bhakti*, which breached narrow caste, class, and gender divisions. In the latter tradition, the saint-poet Tulsidas occupied a central place. His Hindu epic *Tulasi-Ramayana* was read in Gandhi's household. Gandhi's mother adhered to the Pranami faith, in which the *Bhagavata Purana* of Vaishnavism and the *Qur'an* were closely linked. Vaishnavism and Islam peacefully coexisted. His mother also inserted Jain practices in her religious life, such as hard vows, palate control, and *ahimsa* (active non-violence), which was a means to the Truth. She practiced the Jain self-purification and self-perfection through *asteya* (non-stealing), *sunrita* (non-greed), *brahmacharya* (abstinence), and *aparigraha* (non-possession). She lived the Jain principle of *anekantvada* (many-sidedness of reality), which involved the validity-claim of all judgments. Gandhi's parents practiced the Vaishnava, Pranami, and Jain traditions (Majmudar 2005, p. 62).

Gandhi was a *bhakta*, who had God permanently in mind. Majmudar rightly remarks: "Although Gandhi believed in *Advaita Vedanta* (non-dualistic) philosophy of Hinduism, he was still a *bhakta* at heart—a man of prayer and inner contemplation, whose every breath, thought, and action was rooted in and dedicated to God" (Majmudar 2005, p. 186). By his experiments, he desired to realize the Truth/God. His optimism stemmed from his profound belief that God was present everywhere: all had the potential for goodness and forgiveness (Majmudar 2005, pp. 228–29). In the *Isha Upanishad* he found the kernel of his religiosity: all is filled by Isha (God) and belongs to God alone. One may enjoy what is given by God, but in detachment (Majmudar 2005, pp. 235–36).

Heschel belonged to an entirely different world. He was raised as a Hasid and he lived and transmitted a profound Hasidic tradition. Through his parents, Heschel was steeped in Hasidism. On his father's side, he descended from Dov Baer (the Maggid) of Mezeritch and Abraham Joshua Heschel of Apt; on his mother's side, he descended from Levi Isaac of Berdichev. The Ba'al Shem Tov { XE "Baal Shem Tov" } (Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer) and the Kotzker { XE "Kotzker" } rebbe (Menachem Mendel Morgensztern of Kotzk) lived in his soul: the Ba'al Shem Tov represented love and compassion, but the force that called out to change the world was the prophetic voice of the Kotzker, with whom Heschel profoundly identified. Heschel's heart was with the Ba'al Shem Tov and his mind with the Kotzker (Heschel 1996b, p. xiv). While the former brought God near to the human beings, the latter challenged the view of the Ba'al Shem Tov. The Kotzker did not rest upon a glorious past but searched uncompromisingly and restlessly for the truth. He protested against mediocrity. Edward Kaplan, Heschel's biographer, { XE "Kaplan" } succinctly depicts Heschel's personality by writing how the two divergent teachers shaped Heschel's spiritual life: the optimistic Ba'al Shem Tov and the abrasive, judgmental rebbe of Kotzk { XE "Kotzk" }. Heschel was alert to the pervasiveness of evil and self-deception and awed by God's concern for humankind (Kaplan 2007, p. xi). The Ba'al Shem Tov and the Kotzker rebbe { XE "Kotzker rebbe" } were present in his personality as two figures, who generated a creative tension in his soul.

As a result of their different religious background, Heschel and Gandhi were almost opposites. Gandhi believed that human nature is intrinsically good. Brahman was present in all and had to be uncovered in reality through active non-violence. Heschel also saw God mainly in the poor and oppressed, whose battles he fought. Yet, he sided with the Kotzker rebbe, who emphasized humans' problematic nature.

Dissimilar to Heschel, who emphasized the differences between religions, especially Judaism and Christianity, Gandhi was less interested in differences. The religion of nonviolence was the only true religion, the ocean to which all religions flow. Human beings are not really separate. On the individual as well as on the collective level, separation and differences are an illusion (*Maya*). Gandhi largely overlooked differences.

At first sight, the worlds of Gandhi and Heschel greatly differ.7

Gandhi and Heschel travelled through completely different worlds: Heschel from Poland to Germany, to England, and to the USA and Gandhi from India to London and South Africa. Heschel went his own way by deciding to study in Vilna and Berlin and by adding social activities to his professorship. Gandhi stood alone against his caste elders, who disapproved of his plan to study in London, and returned as a barrister. Although they ostracized him and his family, Gandhi was resolute in shaping his own identity and becoming a lawyer and a perfect English gentleman (Majmudar 2005, pp. 75–76, 81). He became a bargainer, making many compromises, in his attempt to realize God through his non-violent way of living.

Differences manifest themselves on several other levels. Gandhi and his *satyagrahis* cheerfully went to jail. Pledging vows, they gladly took upon themselves self-suffering and self-purification as a transforming power, aiming at convincing the opponent of his wrong way. Self-punishment for justice characterized Gandhi's *satyagrahis*, who presented their vulnerable bodies to the violent oppressor, showing his inequity and the violence of his laws. With his self-penance and even self-sacrifice until death, if necessary, Gandhi aimed at persuading the adversary and transforming him. Heschel did not share Gandhi's radical self-suffering and self-purification. He lacked the self-austerity that characterized Gandhi, who lived a simple, self-sufficient life in his ashrams. Although he was self-disciplined and with self-restraint, he did not adopt Gandhi's renunciation and austere way of life. He did not take upon himself suffering in order to melt the heart of the opponent. Gandhi loved to be arrested and felt privileged to be removed forcibly as a result of his civil disobedience. He pled for the severest punishment and praised God to be worthy of his prison experience (Sarid and Bartolf 1997, pp. 50–51, 60). His ascetic, anti-hedonist tendencies and selfpunishment, including even fasting to death, were a means of self-purification. Whereas an ascetic Gandhi took upon himself voluntary suffering and other austerities, Heschel used different strategies in his fight against violence and injustice.

Gandhi interpreted the Gita allegorically: it was a battle between positive and negative elements in the human being. He also read the Hebrew Bible allegorically. He followed the Christian traditional way of reading Paul, who wrote that the letter kills, whereas the spirit frees (2 Cor. 3:6). Heschel too wanted a spiritual reading of the Hebrew Bible, but unlike the traditional Christian reading of Paul, he remained with the letter that contained the spirit.8

Gandhi loved the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says that one has to pray for the enemies and love the ones who hate you. Heschel did not go so far as to love those who hate you. However, both found in their foundational religious texts the motivation for their social and political struggle against humiliation and discrimination.

#### **3. Affinities**

Although Gandhi's and Heschel's worlds differ greatly, they also meet. As I will explain in detail in the next section, religion as implying action and empathy with suffering people was central in their worldviews. To be human implied to suffer with and for others.<sup>9</sup> Heschel wrote much about rituals and prayer (Heschel 1939, 1954). Yet, he emphasized that they had to lead to action. Religion was not a sanctimonious bubble above reality and far removed from everyday life. Like Heschel, Gandhi distanced himself from the humbug of his religion (CWMG 1999, 11: 64–65). Gandhi was not a temple-goer and did not build temples in his ashrams. Heschel did regularly attend synagogue services.10 Yet, both knew that God was not to be found in temples but rather in the face of the oppressed, whose suffering had to be alleviated. Religion had to be brought into contact with economic, social, and political life. It pervaded the entire existence and was relevant also and foremost for politics. One was in contact with God not in seclusion but by working in a concrete, messy world. Gandhi opposed the discrimination of the *Dalit*. In his view, untouchability was irreligion. He could not conceive of politics as divorced from religion (Harijan, 10 February 1940).

Gandhi and Heschel did not fear the authorities when they protested and breached existing norms. In Butlers' terminology: they imagined an alternative social society in which all lives are grievable and equal (Butler 2020). Judith Brown pointedly remarked that Gandhi "was profoundly God-centered and man-oriented" (Brown 1989, p. 90). God was to be found in the face of the downtrodden and outcast. All had "sparks of the divine"; all were rooted in God and therefore interconnected (Majmudar 2005, p. 139). Similar to Heschel, Gandhi served God by caring for the poor and the afflicted. He was ready to die for the sake of the untouchables. "I would far rather that Hinduism died than that untouchability lived" (CWMG 1999, 51: 62). He loved the poorest of the poor, the *Dalit*, calling them *Harijans* (Hari = God; jana = people). Gandhi and Heschel revitalized and regenerated their tradition. Just as Gandhi saw Brahman in all, Heschel perceived God in every human being.

#### *3.1. The Insufficiency of Human Language*

Gandhi was aware that human words are inadequate to express the Divine. In Heschel's depth-theology, the Ineffable cannot be reduced to human concepts. Scriptures are a mixture between the Divine and the human. Following the Jewish tradition, Heschel emphasizes that the divine name is ineffable. "Our creed is, like music, a translation of the unutterable into a form of expression. The original is known to God alone" (Heschel 1951a, p. 167). Our words are allusive and hinting (Heschel 1951a, p. 16). Religious language is not denotative and unequivocal but connotative and polyvalent: "[ ... ] poetry is to religion what analysis is to science, and it is certainly no accident that the Bible was not written *more geometrico* but in the language of poetry" (Heschel 1951a, p. 37).

Gandhi and Heschel developed similar ideas on God and human concepts. In Gandhi's view, God appears in the form in which one worships, which implied that one must allow that He appears in other forms to others too (Chatterjee 1983, p. 23). The Truth or God was experienced in multiple ways; it was above words. The concept of God was not God. Similarly, Heschel refused to reduce God to a human concept of God. He wrote: "to equate religion and God is idolatry" (Heschel 1996a, p. 243). He could not stand the idea that one's God is not the God of others.
