Parashat Balaq: Haftarah -- Micha 5,6: Religion or Creed?

In this week's podcast, we give an overview of the time period of the prophet Micha, noticing how similar that era was to our own. We explore various prophecies from that ancient epoch, culminating in a message that is vitally important to our contemporary times.

“It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion--its message becomes meaningless.” 
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism