The task

There is immense silent agony in the world,
and the task of man is to be a voice for the plundered poor,
to prevent the desecration of the soul
and the violation of our dream of honesty.
The more deeply immersed I became in the thinking of the prophets,
the more powerfully it became clear to me
what the lives of the Prophets sought to convey:
that morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern
one must feel for the suffering of human beings,
that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself,
that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.

            Abraham Joshua Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity