In contrast, Yom Kippur asks us to take refuge in the silence of our inner selves. We are more than our appetites and belongings, our ambitions and achievements. We also bear within us a touch of transcendence that has the power to sustain and ennoble us. It is an early and exquisite distillation of his understanding of Judaism. The latter refers to the principle that in moments of mortal danger all the Sabbath's restrictions are to be set aside.
Human life is the supreme value.
Heschel's arresting parallel is meant to convey that the supreme purpose of Judaism is to cultivate the inner life. Without inwardness our lives are stripped of true nobility. A person possessing nobility is one whose hidden wealth surpasses his outward wealth, whose hidden treasures exceed his obvious treasures, whose inner depth surpasses by far that which he reveals. Refinement is found only where inwardness is greater than outward appearance. The hidden is greater than the obvious, depth greater than breadth.