5 Quotes & Sayings By Leo Baeck

Leo Baeck (February 12, 1873 - June 15, 1951) was a German rabbi and leader of the World Union of Progressive Judaism. He was born in Breslau, the son of a rabbi and studied in Breslau and Berlin. In 1903 he was appointed Chief Rabbi of Berlin, a post he held until 1919. In 1919 he moved to London where he served as President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews for three years, and in 1925 became President of the World Union of Progressive Judaism Read more

From 1932 he served as President of the Central Committee of German Jews.

1
From all that urges and admonishes, the romantic turns away. He wants to dream, enjoy, immerse himself, instead of clearing his way by striving and wrestling. That which has been and rises out of what is past occupies him far more than what is to become and also more than what wants to become; for the word of the future would always be command. Experiences with their many echoes and their billows stand higher in his estimation than life with its tasks; for tasks always establish a bond with harsh reality. And from this he is in flight. He does not want to struggles against fate, but rather to receive it with an ardent and devout soul; he does not want to wrestle for the blessing, but to experience it, abandoning himself, devoid of will, to what spells salvation and bliss. Leo Baeck
2
Romantic enthusiasm lifts the good aloft and removes it into the dim distance of the incomparable and unattainable; at the same time it portrays the good in a human countenance out of which it looks at us and we can look back at it, face to face, in admiration and ecstasy, and stretch out our arms towards it. Thus the moral good is represented in human, and at the same time superhuman, form; it is of our own kind, and yet above our kind; it confronts us, but makes no demands. IT is not really a standard and lacks the power to issues commandments. Both are given at once: the ethical which one would like to love; and the passive, the romantic, in which one wants to live. As a substitute for constant activity demanded by the ethical commandment, we have adoration in which the romantic impression of the moment in vented, and yearning which need only admire and enjoy but not achieve anything. Leo Baeck
3
Faith is the capacity of the soul to perceive the abiding ... the invisible in the visible. Leo Baeck
4
The mark of a mature man is the ability to give love and receive it joyously and without guilt. Leo Baeck