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E. K. sTEFAN GEORGE
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MARTIN BU:BER"
. . . . . . ' . . . -.. .
BY
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BOWES & BOWES
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First published in 1957 in the Series ..
Studies in Modern European Literature and Thought
Bowes & Bowes Publishers Limited, London
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Introduction
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CONTENTS

. r. The Bones
II. First Principles: I and Thou
III . Bibie Hasidism .
Man's Way in the World
Biogra:phical Notes
Bibliography
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Introduction
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in the year o the death of King Uzziah, Isaiah
the prophet beheld the ihrone of .. God, and the
host of seraphim ranged about it. Each called to
the other t,he Holy. Itis then, atnid
the experience of having seen God with his own
eyes, that Isaiah observes his own corruption artd
up.worthiness. . . . .
. . ' .
In The Idea of the Ho[y, Rudolf Otto argues
convincingly. that. the -development. of man's
.. response to God is .made in terms of the holy.
. The constellationofterror, infinite distance,
. dangerous proximity,. and P<>'Yer. constitutes the
primary phase of .awareness. Moses .casts . the
foreskin into the face of the arigel of heavep.;
. Moses andJoshua rell16vetheir shoes on sacred
ground; Uriah dies when he touches the ark.
Tl1ese attest to the activity of the holy-direct,
pre-rational,. terrifyin.g. God is manifest in the
terror ofhis presence. Heiscommandirtg power:
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he of man and he .takes from man. It is
. only at that moti1,ent in religious history when it
beC;onies apparent that God not only requires but
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needs as well, that his holiness is
by his glory. The display of God in his glory
is; by contrast to the of sheer powerf a
mitigation of that a complementing of
that power by art asking a11d a state-
ment of glory. Isaiah says,
"
Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts;
The. whole earth is full of his glory.
. . (: C;
Notwith5tanding his .distance _and inaccessibility,
>the holiness of God breaks through to human
. peh:eption ... The affirmation: ofglory is a judg- _.
ment upon the holy, an. isserdon o( man's en- .
counter with holiness. In the fact ofthe.simple
worshipper B'eholding this holiness th earth is
filled with glory. It is at this moment in the de-
velopment of the religious sense thafmanhecomes
aware that God may be approached and praised.
Not distance and circumspection, hut the awe of
. .
recognition and-participation become manifest.
The power of the Holy and the glory of the Holy
are joined, for the distance and nearness of God are
disclosed at the same meeting,focusedthroughthe
heart of man, spoken forth as the supernal sub(;
ject of mari's. subject .. Isaiah speaks these W.t;3tds .
-at such- a moment, for God is, as the Hebrew
word for. sacrifice signifies, being approached.
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He is distant and remote, yet accessible. and near.
The reality of his holiness lies in the fact that it
is visibly'.testified, that the heavens -open 'and a
man beholds. At this moment one. speaks holi-
ness i!l a&d am,azement.
The history of the holy is circuitous in the
West. There have bee'n retreats into sheer
terror. There have been equally profound ex-
pressions f the Unity of power and glory, as in _.
the titne ofSt Augustine, St Fiancis,.,and the
Hasidim. At such . times the nature and activity .. _._ ,_ ._
ofGod were manifest. God was :p1:ese11t and. - -' ' ..
could make his presence significantly lelL :.- :: .. -- , ;-_,;(;:;:. .
The our'"tirrte is that God is
The presiding view <Jf our age has- ; -;:,:rf .
been- tP,a.f he i$- dead. statement - ; :,> ..
conclusion peculiarly
pr1ate. It should be noted_ that Nietzsche does
not affirm an atheism. His statement is that God . .-
is dead. .This is to say that God is now .
though _once, presumably, he lived. _Nietzsche
believes the. death of. God is the price both . .
Judaism and must pay for. their .
freezing of the human spirit, fortheir
efforts to endose God withiri moral, ..
dogmatic, ip;d. ritual formu1re.
Martin B-t1ber is one who sees the H()lY as the
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centre of the human situation, whose view of the
Holy is essentially_ Hebraic, but whose concern
is for the achievement of that human community
in which the Holy, beyond creed and catechism,
may be realized. I do n<Jit t!iink he object
to being called,. with considerable qualification, a
holy fool; indeed, the holy fool 'in Western
tradition is one nustaken for a.fool, because .the.
presence of God is so profmi'ndly i.nternalized .
. .. ..... as to betome one with the life of the body, the
. . .. . intellect, and the spirit. The P hitokalia, the
.. . explicit mystic doctrine of the holy fool, is con;.
cerned with precisely this- .. the restructuring . of
<: ... .the total personality through the inner presence of
; .. , the Holy Spirtt, that thtough'it man's relation to
the; world is redefined. . ..,. . .
I should like in this briefsfildy ofthe
:life and .contribution of Martin Buber is to con- .
.. . .. upon his pursuit of the holy. It a
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. . pursuit, hotJ.:l reasonable and intuitive, eschewing
. mysticism;: structured out of a complete
.. awareness of history and thought. It .
seems to me that underlying his doctrine of the
I-Thou is again the of the holy, tqe
attempt to illumine its scope, 'rfS reality<;t its
\/"efficacy in shaping rtian's search for true
......... ............. . .,--.
munity and

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. Writing . recently with specific reference to
illicit metaphysical extrusions in the empirical
studies of C. G .. Jurig, Buber comments:
a doctritle which dea1s with mysteries without
knowing the attitude of faith toward mystery is
the modern manifestation of gnosis .. Gnosis is
.. nbt to be understood as only a historical cate-
gory, hut as universal one. It-and not
atheism, which annihilates God bJcause it
must reject hitherto existing images of God-.
is the real antagonist of faith.
1
Gnosis is not merely a specific method of appre-
hending . G6d. It 'is not a simpl0 Manichreism,
though the divine duality of. good and evil has
surely recurred. It is morethan any religious or
. cultit formulation. It is a descriptive category
by which the attitude of manbefore the universe
niay be indicated, for Gnosis is a view both of
knowledge andofaction .. It carrieswith it more
than philosophic consequences, for 'European
culture is, at present, . tacitly gnostic. God can,
so the modern intellect would have it, he. taken
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priwp.er by the mind, rendered helpless by the
.
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Eclipse of God, Harper & Brothers, New 1952,
pp. 175 andseq.
II
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thoroughness of man's despair and at the pro-
pitious moment slain without appeal.
. One of Dostoevsky's profoundly
creations is Kirillov of. The Possessed. H is
Kirillov who one direc!ion which
man's repudiation of God has taken in modern
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history. Man .... stands constantly before the
borders of death. Kirillov's conviction is that
only man's fear of death has tufued hien to God.
The sole-function of God is therefore to mitigate
man's terror ofdeath .. Yet,qy some inscrutable
logic, the present age no lor1ger r(!sts content
with a divine vindicaclonofdeath, forit has been
nm:nbed to insensitivity:"by death's pervasiveness.
Death.has beoome for many an alter-
native as appealing and liberating as life itself.
Death has. transcended life and seemingly over-
whelmed it. There is nothing to fear, for God's
hold on history has been broken. . The great
threat of destruction and damnation has been
overworked. God . has . 'wrought' too much
violence. Man can then destroy God by devising
. some means of . overcoming his own fear of.
death. K.irillov decides therefore that the .
act of self-destruction; the freely willed and. eon-
... summated suicide, will break Jhe grip of. God.
Each man can become God if he possesses the
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courage to will hls own death ... J:n place of God, .
whose role rests on his. of death,
will a:rise the manifold divinities of men who
achieved God's role through suicide. The ulti-
. ... 1!late i!l,eanthg . of life, 'is. k>cated in its .
The Absoll.lte is only a protective fl.lSe, which .
each man ca!l drcurrrvent by orie act. ..
Kirillov commits suicide. He.has:, sphe believes; ..
.. . D . . .
becoine G.IDd. . .
God was fashioned, it appears;
. horror ofa
clan. of God is a protest against the app#ept\- :
failure. of .his . What .
.r87o, percdved.through his Kir11lol7,a .
long 'line of thinkers .. has. subsequently inter-.
Iectualized., and . grounded m:ore deeply. The
succession froni Nietzsche and Ot:o
Heidegger, . and Jung, is.. an
tradition of various but concentrated efforts to
the death of God and the bequest of his . .... ,
. to enthroned. and apotheosized . ..
. In contrast to. the modetn mood,
was still a'Qle to encounter the deepest
11}ystery with reverence. Its techniques, though
to the 'Objectifying detachment of
science, were turned to. ultimate reality. . Plato
. sought the . eternal harmony without which the
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transiency of the phenomenal world would be
unmitigated in its. meaninglessness and frag-
mentation. Aristotle, although 'purifying' Plato.
ofhis unchanging forms, nevertheless acknow-:-.
ledges the necessity first druse'! unmoyed,
yet ordering the sequence of motion, the highe.st
. good by' virtue of his unceasing contemplation
. of his own. harmonizing .. Ho\vever
. . much _lucidity the universe . dfsdos.e<i, man still.
his world with wonder. In the
Metaphysics of Aristotle a passage Occurs which ..
. .. . . . provokes Thomas Aquinas to remark: 'The
philosopher is related to the poet in that both
are concerned with mirandf!m.' .
The Absol-e:te, by the veil of exist-
.. _erite, .was still sought as something eluding the .
, f.irial grasp of intellect. Intellect was the faculty
. of.putsuit, but not the justification ofpursuit .
. :: .. ' . : the humen, God, both hidden and' ..
:disC.losed; compelled man to search. Faith was ..
. :never in ere . acceptance devoid of search. This

fact.Buber notes in quoting Franz Rosenzweig's
conviction . that . divine 6:uth wishes . to be im-
plored with the two hands of 'philosophy aqd
.theology' .
1
The . tragedy of modern Is
i Bclip!e of God, Harper & New York."1952,
p. 6z .
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that wonder has ceased; and with it the passion
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to. pursue the ultimate has passed. The mind is
not, unfitted by nature to the pursuit. lt must
achieve, however, an order of perception in
which not proof, buc life, is its motivating
. tion .. By contrasting him with the God of the
philosophers, Pascal did hot intend. that the God
of Abraham, Isaac; and Jacob . should be un-
intelligible': He e6uld as easily have meant that
God could not on(y be intelligible, .or yet that he
could neve.r be wholly unintelligible. As has
. been pointed out in Emil Fackenheim's recent
study of Schelling's philosophy of religion/
religious truth cannot be tbtally beyond the scope
of philosophy, for ultimate catego1ies must be at
least rationally lucid, however C>bscui:e their con-
tent. If theological formulations are unsusceptible
of rational statement, then . all interpretation
becomes impossible. . . . . . ..
Buher's attack is never a direct of
philosophy as such. It is rather. a searching ex-
of its pretensions artd . Buber
has never actually . examined philosophic doc-
for its own
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sake. Philosophy has always
bee11, for him of culture. Even in his
t Fackenheim, E. L., 'Schelling's Philosophy of
Religion', Universi!J of Toronto Quarterly, XXII; pp. 1-17.
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study, 'What is Man?' his . critical. distinction
between philosophies . that .leave mari a,t home
in the world and philosophies which cast Jum
adrift, is a cultural, not a philosophic distinction.
It does not allow one to i:scertain
1
.. he truth of
doctrine. Such truth, being contingent upon the
acceptance of philosophy's objective, that is, the
achievement of a systematic, consistent, and
. . adequate statement of imint.s ()f
reality, tis insufficient to Buber's task. The con-
. .
. cern of Buber's religious philosophy is to in--
diCate where such philosophic investiga--
tion fails of the niatk. . Kant .requites God for
the moral law, allows him l;mt the most
tenuous existence, contingent as he is to the
.necessities of moral psychology;. Hegel sees
history swept into .the current of an onrushing
Absolute, carrying with it the reality and spon-
taneity of man's concreteness. Heidegger, accept.:.
ingthe 'death ofGoci',formulates ontology
which provides for the introduction of novel
gods; yet such gods, drawnas they are into the
. flux of historical time, appear as adjuncts of in-
dividual consciousness, having no enduriJ?.g
status beyond t4e flux of time. Kant,
Heidegger are philosophers who variously trans-
gress the precincts of the divine. They have
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.. absoh.1tized a fragment of the Absolute, having
:made' of. c;:onsciousness, or mind; or being, the,
groltnd of knowledge. They have obscured, so\
. Buber arguc;s, the Holy which is beyond cate:.. \
gories, which exists -only in meeting, never iri i .
pure thought. : . .
The pecqliarity of modern philosophy which
.. Buber indicates with admirable is the
to which ;:
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Where once trum'sfacebeftJreGcjd .. / .. .,':
could be described by Rudolf Otto as. that (W
awe before the mimen,. it. has. ;.become.: < _,
anxiety (angst) the :::.: ..... ,_
has employed a revexse ' .
. argument .. HaVing ascertained tha:: there no: . .
avenue by which God n:uiy be known, , : ..
eluded that . does .. not Previously,: . .. _.
philosophy had arg,l;led, until Kant's refutation
gained currency, that God's existeilcecould be .
p.ro'Ved from the character of knowledge. This .
faded. away, however Jrequent the
: attei{ipts to revive it. In its place has . been
e$tablished the. utter negation of proof, . the. ....
irrationality of the very conception .of God, th:' ..
fruiths.sness of all etfort to achieve clarity of .
understanding. In substance, however, the:teisa
deeper sotirce to the repudiation of God. Wheri
J3 17.
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orice man ascribed the natural order .of life, -the
flow of the seasons; the events of history; and
. the consequences of moral a,ction. to the
. dence ofGod,.:his'imrriecllate efficacy as a.being
. .. was accepted; \Vith . Mie 'developthent of ..
natural sciences and the increasingly technical
. character of modernsociety the activity of God is
.. less and less ttrtderstood in its As
more more of human life fu withdrawn from .
. . . . . . ... :.-,:.:-:
the ptd'virtce of God's effective concern there :i$' \
less grouncl on which to base the knowledge o( /
Medieval Hebrew and Christian traditiori .
. . .can readily adduce the existence of God from th.e
.: . . . unexplruned marvels o"f the world .. Knowledge of .
. .. .. -was . d7nionstrable p.roof o' God's .
.. extstence and prov1dence. God 1s today, how-
ever; the. truly . Unseen and Unrecognized:
.. Ptesence; -his created wonders have been ...
drawn by science. and the bureaucratization of
.. t:he social order from his providential purview ..
.. . ... . ... . . God no exists for modern philosophy,
\ <. f6.r no longer acts. That God is not
merely concealed or eclipsed, is the key to
the modern rejection of God. For
. means the cessation of' activity. It is Gtrod's
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activity, is no longer perceived. 'Buber,
on the contrary, having affirmed that' God is
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never available to logical or empirical proof,
can maintain the continued, eternal. activity . of
God. God has merely been shrouded by man .
He has been: covered over. . It is for man to
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remove the veil. .
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The Bare Bones
. It is extremely difficult to imagine the figure of a
. prophet in our society. It is probably true to add
that the difficulty of imaginailon d.i:dallows the
possibil'lty of his real presence. Indeed, . the
prophetic figure is as much made by the attentive
of the .human community as by
forceful constructions of the prophetic
tion i.tself. occasionally, sophisticated
parties, . playf:/ at imagining how Jeremiah ot
Jesus would be received in twentj.eth-cenn:try
New York or London. The reaction is usually
dismal and the prospects of their survival dim.
As. might be expected, Jeremiah is stoned .and
Jesus crucified. . . ..
Martin Buber is among those rare human
beings who are both conscious of their prophetic
role and aware of precisely those conditions in
the modern world which contrive to
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prophecy. Leon Bloy . was . another; Slrtione
Weil, whatever tlJ.e . contortions of her per-
. sonality, was another .. Where Leon Bloy sounds
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alternately like Amos and Hosea and Sinione W eil
a considerably mote strident Book ofLamentations,
. Buber contains within his work and
writing many :tnore and balanced dimen.sions.
Buber is .lcons.ciout treat he bccupies a unique
.. position iri: our time, in the West.
He is called by Reinhold' Niebuhr 'perhaps the
greatest living- Jewish philosopher'. This .. .
mentis booh riglft and wrong. Martin B1.1ber is
profoundly Jewish, but he is riot, would . . ..
traditionally understand an: obser:Vant :
is: he a philosopher, .. if one: '
philosophy to be the use of reason as a suffiCient ,
.tnean:s ofarticulating.an .ordered,. coherent, 'and. .
. dear conception of the universe.. He is n9tf :in
: my opinion, the greatest ..
though. :he is assuredly, to the
Christian world:, the greatest Jewish thinke:r.
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He
is, in the spirit of prophetic Judaism, beyond .
. yet judge i:n her midst; beyond
. :<;:,hristertdotil, . yet . a question to .her . <;:om-
: He is riot angry, though he is occa-.
indignant (see his speech on ac<;:epti!lg .
}:i: wouldcountFranz Rosenzweig (x886-19i;) as the,
most, profound and authentic Jewish philosopher and
, . theologian of mo<:lern times. Cf. N. N. Glatzer, Fri:m:<,
. Rosenzweig: His Lifi and Thought, Schocken: Bo<)ks. New
. Yotk, 1953.
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the Goethe prize). . He is a Jewish prophet. to
the Gentiles and a. witness of the holy to the
vagrancy of Israel ..
Had we been left with but Baruch's scribal
recollectior1'.6fthe events and persohalities. that
filled the life we should have but
.little. We be to sense, rio d.oubt; the
lineaments of the spirit as. tpey left their impress ..
' . upon history, but little or'the
. have It is extremely. diffictrlt to
imagine the figure of a prophet. in our
We may hold, as with Jewish folk tradition,tll.at
.. creation is sustained by thirty-six secret saints- ... .
unknown, unpraised; unwitp,essed except by
Gocl; howevtr, iti the of prophecy and
the pt()phetic attitude, it is the attentive
. . of the human community that. transtmites . .
. man ofinsight and grasp into the man of histq_ry,.
. . . . who. by hls insight and transforms by the
. : . :firmness of his grasp. We possess considerably
.more ofBuber than; alas, of Jeremiah :to sustain
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.. our historical memory. He hasworked\vith con-
siderably. more discipline. and consequent pro-
lixity than Jeretriiah. It is, however, no judgmep.t .
. . f . . . . .
upon him that the holy spirit worked, . i11t; the
. days of Josiah,. wjth greater sucCinctness . and
clarity. We, centuries after the holy
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spirit from Israel, must -explain more
fully for we address to a heart that
hea,rs hut poorly.
. ' . . : . . . .
The life. of Buber is unusual in the
record of twentieth-century Jewry .. His child-
hood was spent in an age' in whichJewryunder-
went three, rather developments:.
. .. ,.(a) the of s&ular enlightenment, (b) the re-.
. . . . . .
trenchment of orthodoxy, and (c) the "develop-
ment of the Zionist movement. These move_.
. . .
ments should: not be seen as separate, disjunct.
strands of Jewish history; So fat Central and
Eastern Europea1,1 Jewry was concerned; they
were profoundly interrelated. . ,, .
. . The fundamental challenge, to which the years
of Buber's youth were subject, ceritred upon the .
rationalization of secular knowledge. From the.
early part of the century onward, the .
tradition of emancipation, formally inaugurated
by Napoleon and atterwards confirmed through-
out Europe by the impact of the liberal revolts of
. 1848, matured. TheJew for the first time was
a. modicum of economic, political, and
social, padty. . The languages of Europe were
learned. A movement arose to confine Yiddish
and Hebrew to the home artd synagogue and
2.3
....
''*
.
,..
: ....
6->
adopt national tqngues as. the language of public
affairs. A Yiddish literature developed which
. no longer dwelt exclusively on divine themes, l)ut
involved statement orthe histo.dcal and political .
destiny of the Jew. A J e11vish: historiography and
exegesis, prompted by the discoveries of
. testant exegetes, unfolded a world ofarchreologi-
cal and philological reconstruction of sacred
text which shattered the classic insbJiation of .
Jewish spirituality. In the face of this profound. ,
em.otionala:nd intellectual emancipation;
dox reaction was severe. All shades of orthodox ..
religious opini<m to f'orrii cipposition.to
the threat of intellecttral' secularism, but their
I .
task was made formidable by the fact that they
now opposed, not foreign . influence rumoured
by report and. distant testimony, but active and
militant spokesmen within the Jewish com-
munity for scientific knowledge, n.on-religious
studies, and extra-Jewish political activity. .
It was, as well, the era in which the first tenta""
. . .
tive statement of Zionist aspiration was formti-
Ia.ted; when sonie few socialist and communi-
tarian factions actually. immigrated to Palestine.;
. . ' . . .
when theorists and pamphleteers be gap c to
propagandize the J homeland as a necessary
response to the repressive measures thatfollowed
2.4
l. . . Czar Alexander the _First's frlght at the .liberal
.1; ... > . . . and rev.o1u. tiot1aty currerits the emancipation
0
. f
. r. . 1 8 5 J had encou,raged. . .
1
J . . . .. 'It was, int<:> this Jewish milieu that . Martin.
' .Buber W'as 1.878 . ,- .. When he
.. f
fr .
j,
II'
I
i
i
I
I.
j,.
'
L: _,,.
was but three his. parents were divorced, and
young Btiberwent to live"at GaUia
. with his distinguished, Salomon .
Buber. SalJ>nionBtiber was an exemplary
duct of the. emancipation. . He. ma!ntatlled. the .
intensity and dedication of Jewish in
spite of the increasing alienation of Jewish youth, .
. . .
the attenuated piety of liberated adults, and the
nafruwing. of a threatened orthodoxy. ..
ac:ldition to, being 3: wealthy and a
leader.in'the Jewish Salomon Buber
,wa8' one of the most and perceptive of .
m.odern. editors.of classic .tabbink texts. In his
hoine Bl1ber absorbed the world of Biblical and
': Rabbinic and learned the refinements of
. which his grandfather wro.te. and
, . spoke: with doql}ence. Presumably in the home.
: of grandfather Buber enjoyed his. all:-too-brief
. and tretnbling years of piety .. In his
. . . .
shortly after his corifirmatio:ti 4lto
theJewish religious community, notes in a
letter . later, he ceased to observe the
. 2.5
"
..
; ...
..
... ,
Ill'
wrapping of the. tejillin.l. He remarks, in the
same letter, that his grandfather, although an en-
. lightened Jew, would pray nevertheless ip . a
intimate Hasidic Klaus, using a prayer book >
filled with mys_tic The irAplication of >
this letter to Rosenzweig, confirmed many times .
by his own utterance, 'is that in these early years..
of adolescence .he ceased a1lformal ,
observances. His reasons for tHis, as for 6th! of
his det'artures from normative Judaism; .
profoundly based, as will be seen later. It is
. somewhat questionable to inflate, as he does in his
.. . correspondence with Rosenzweig on
the implicit wisdom a'hd of the child.
. The of though frtll,
rich,. and intense, do not possess the and
... textured . subtleties -of mature rationalizatidn; .
. It is enough that Buber records that he ceased, _in
. -.this period his formal obedience to Jewish law.
It was in these years, under the guidance ofhi,s .
. . gdndfather, that Buber made 'the discovery of .
._ the Hasidim, a pietist movement characterized
by concent:ratibn upon directness of
relation with man, nature, and God. Tpe
f.
' . . . . .
1
Lettet of Octobet r, 1922, to.F. Rosenzweig,'quoted
in Franz Rosenzweig, On jewish Learning, ed., by N. N.
Glatzer, Schocken Books. New York,
26
'\c
_;.\.
.,
. .Hasidim, some . of whose communities . were
. . . . .
. locatedin Sadagor and Czortkow hi Galicia, were
of the great Rabbi Israel of It
was in their midst that the Bubers spent many
' ' . .
summer months; and ptoesumably. in their syna-
gogues t_hat Martin Buber prayed as a boy.
. Shortly after his fourteenth birthday he returned
to the home of his father in Lemberg; entering a
Polish Gy!jlnashiin, and in: the sumrner of 1896
he enrolled in the philosophic faculty at.the
University of Vienna.
. These were the years when the resthetic
renaissance evoked the last passion of the
. romantic traditiot'-, wheil Schopen:hauer and
. Nietzsche fixed the tone of state- . .
n:ient, when . Stefan George and Hoffmansthal
. were inauguratitig their careet:s, when Rilke was
shbrtly -to establish the rhythm of a beauty in
. tension witJ:l the divine. It was the era of the .
.. . . drowned in a sea of images and
.. _.meanings, . subtleties . and. radiations, . whose
source nobody knew, whose direction few
. The dream was characterized by
and longing, the concrete life was one of
the alienated, the distressed.
This was particularly .true of the Jewish com.:.
munity of Vienna, few of whose members knew.
27
,,
'It

or cared anything for their so recently discarded
Jewish past. Buber, in ,these years, was not
unlike his fellow Jews .. Not the Hasiclim of. his
youth but the past formed of saints
"'. .
and spiritual heroes ot:cupied . his .
Jacob Boehme, Meister Eckhart (Buber some-
times worked with C-ustav Landauer on the
latter's modern rendering of the works of Meister
Eckhart), Nicholas ofCusa; '-! . . t.t .
The ehoice of spirittial influences is never
. casual. Influences .of this kind are selected (one
:1 .
i
I
.\ .

'
l
I
.
. I .
. l - ..
wonders how). by a kind of pre-rational inclina- .. . i
. . . , . . ' . '. . . . ... . .[
tion; .. Certain kinds pf speculation attract ... and> . l
form one subtiy, presumablY.: one' has. . .. \.' .
implicitly 'aslted' t_o be. so formed. It is note-
worthy that Buber was : attracted . by those
mystics who sought. to explore the internality,
the implicativeness of relations between man and
God-. who, like Boehme, were co'nsdous of
.1 ..
. .
.. divine passion . and concern, of the . divine fire '
and the creative of evil arid, like Cusa;
struggled for a greater whole, for a binding
. community in. which God fornis and encom-
. passes man,. while sustaining. man as an accurate
image of divine . . . .
What emerges in .the. record of Buber's
: academic years is a. revolt against the complacent
2.8
.:'.:
I
f
.!
I . ,
. ; ...
:i.

. .
satisfaction of the sciences, against the .. triumph
of in 'the social scientific and human:..
istic disciplines. The decisiv(! step in the. direc:.
. tiort of. concrete his vague, although
intense, ""oith Western mystics. and
speculative is his gradual:enttan2e.
. , . . .. . . . - ... . . .
into the Zionist mov<;ment. ... . . . . . .
.. As Buber noted 01any years later,
1
'the. desire ..
f6r a Jew1sh st:ife and the idea of Zion were,
perhaps vastly antithetic ... it lS
. awarenessof their antithesis its. in1plications.
. which to. both the intensity his :
.in the movement and the limits.
. which he set to his affiliation. The dedicated .. ..
. passion. of Tb:eodbr Herzl, of Jewish .
S:t@'e and the primary p()liticalJheorist of
and his experience ofthe First Zionist
gress of 1897, J:enewed the vitality of Buber's
concern for the Jewish commupity. and its
destiny. Although for many Zionism became the
. cloak of pride, the. instrument of masking their
.. . and lack . of roots in European soil, .
. #= was for Huber tpe .means of .:renewing roots,
. the: .: ultimate device of. re-establishing, not .
,{1 . ' . .
sumiering contact, with the European tradition.
and. Palestine, East and West Library. London,
195-i, p. 142.
. .'.
2.9
"
&
.
.

. As he has many times noted, the tragedy of
. Zionist theory 1ies less in its having broken with
Western. tradition than in its. having broken
without fully having comprehende'\ it. Bqber .
came to Zionism a but a Westerner..
to whom everything conveyed an ancient echo.
. .
of spontaneity and directness that 'W::ts, at .
Biblical and Hebraic. The sense. of nature, .
. . ..
place, the meaning of a shared centre, struggle
for con,munity and identity-which underlie.s, .
although abbreviated and obscured, much of
Western European national aspiration- is given
. station in the Biblical view of the created order.
. . . . ... : . . . . .
It was not with misgiving pr reluctance, but
. with an entl\usiasm. tha1: did. not yet:. reveal
..difference, that Bube:r joined the staff of the
Zionist periodical Die Wdt in 1901. It became
... clear, slJ:ortiyafterwards, that his concerns catrkd
. hint farther than the limited political vistas qf the
would, He left shortly there-:
::tfter. In .19o4, .Buber and Chaim
. later to become the fust President ofthe State of
.. Israel,. proj-ected iri. Berlin a Zionist monthly,
De;Jude.
1
.. What they sought was a journal
. . . . .. .. . . . .
1
The. manifesto of Buber ahd Weizmanri is teprQdCJ.ced
.. iil . an et'lorrtiously. 'Valuable source. HailS .K6hn;
. Martin 13uber: iein rPerkundseine Zeit,. Verlag von Jacob
Hegner; Hellerau, 1930, p. ..
30
"'
. . .
. . .:would. :not the. circwnscribed:
... 6 the Zionist but the of the
. .
Jew- his situation, his inwardness and manifest
f
. actuality, . his. past_, and. his. direction. ,Though
. the monthly did. 1Wt its manifesto, 1
which lw had. helped to compose, became for
him a crucial formulation: It seemed to define
the motive to accomplish for. himself what he
. .. was then t:but . exhorting others . to . achieve-a
relocation of Jewish meaning and, by
tion, a reassessment of himself as a: W ester.tier
and as aJew.
Buber attests, in his untrat.J.slated book .1\4Y .
W try .to Hczsidism, that in. his tWenty-sixth year,
. . . ,, . . - . .
1904, he happened to read a; statement of Rabbi:
.Israel ben Eliezer (r7oo..:.6o), the so'-'named Baal
Shem Tov, of the Hasidic movement, in
which the Baal.Shern describes. the intensity arid
depth of. the . daily expected of each ...
Hasid. In this description Buber recognized
withih himselfpreeisely this quality of intensity
and teturn. A.sa. result of this experience its
consequences,, Bl,iber retired from his journalistic
and Zionist activities and engaged for a period of
'\ . . . .
y,ears in dose study of Hasidic texts. The
fruit of these years was. a series of works, which
1
0p. cit ..
3I
.
.
f.)
:.

I
tl .... .'
constitute a history of the .literature of
the Hasidic movement. With painstaking atten.:.
cion and devotion he .hi recoristruc!ing
and publishing versions . of the traditions and
.teachings of many. of the -greatest 'mystic$ the ,
world has ever
The impression made upon him by Hasidic
. writings we shall cqnsider later; but his return
to the public community after his of isola-
tion fm;,nd him with renewed grasp and concen-
tration. In 1916 he reasse.rted his interest in
Zionism, although a 2;ionism now hued with a
more profoundly stated concern with the com.,.
munity and the sanctification of the community.
Der Jude, whifh he foundedand edited from 1916
to I 92.4, bears the impress of this redefinition.
From 192.6 to 1930 he published jointly with.
. .
Joseph Wittig, the Catholic . theologian, and
Viktor von W eizsaecker, the Protestant physiCian .
and psychotherapist, the journal Die Kreatur,
which concerned itself primarily with the
application of shared religious insights to social
. and. pedagogital problems.
In . the interim of .these public activitit:s,
Buber's and'- religious views,,
sumed form and redefinition. Daniel, which was
published in exhibits a view
32.
:"b
.
.. ..though it approaches his later concern with the
dialogue, is stiU held ptis<:>ner by the traditional
sub}echobject It is, however, :re-
. miniscent of the principles of ext'stettz-
. t_hat the 1celation of man to the.
. !
.'world is. seeri.as 'that of an interactionof man's ....
. to his . environment and man's .
I .
i
l
i
. "
. !
"j.
'
. 'reaJization'; thro1.1gh a deepening. of experience
. and a fullri.tss ofparticipation, of the undisclosed .
meaning. of his . environment ... Tti a ser1se . this ..
view is more a consequence of the stage ..
o his :rediscovery of his . Jewishriess tiian .
.might be .Much earlier Buber had
men ted that the task of Zionism was not. to
restore, life to Jew, for the \1 Jew, if
C()mpi:ehending, .. was .. life,: .was in effect the
. affi.rmatipn e.O.virontnent and the enriching
>< . of both self and environment by the intensity of
his expe:dence. By 192.3, . when I and. Thou
appeared; the existential emphasis had passed
:
ti\.
.. . into the dialogic, . never to return except as a
.... stage of the dialogic.
. . .. Outing the twenties Bube:r became acquainted
.. with. perhaps the :most remarkable Jewish
. and, in my one of the ..
most remarkable figures of our tinie, Franz
. Rosenzweig. Together. they sha1:ed in. forming
c 33
'J
.
'
. ..
:;:
. . ,' .
(Y
at Frankfurt atn Main a of cultural
and educational activities which, perhaps more .
than any other, came close to realizing the 0nly
urban religious community the West has known
in modern times. Adlong the fruits of their
collaboration were a translation into Getman of
. c .. . . . . . ..
most of the books of the Hebre)Y Bible, a trartsla-
tion whichhas been hailed as piobably the great- .
est since the Luther Bible. :As \f'ell;. . Buber
joined 'Rosenzweig in the work of the Freies
]iidisches Lehrhaus (Free Jewish Academy),
. . , .
founded in 192.0 under Rosenzweig's

..
The Lehrhaus was a unique institution of open:
seminars on Jewish religious" history, theology,
. Bible, Hebre\v language : and literature. . At its
height it had an enrolment of I,too st1.1dents; or
..approximately 4 per cent of the entire Jewish
population of Frankfurt- a. remarkable figure if
.one. considers the nature and seriousness of its
. programme; For a decade after I 92.3 Briber was .
professor. of Jewish theology and later history of
reli:gions.at the University of Frankfurt am Main.
. With the access of Nazi Buber re-
mained in . Germany' tO. supply spiritual
. . . . . .. .
1
See N. .Glatzer, .. The flrankfort Lehrhaiu, Year.
Book I of The Le6 Baeck Institute, East and West Library.
London, .1956, pp.
34
\
;t
:
. :;
'J:
\
.. .J ...
.... ! .
< t .. ..
... 1. ;
\ :'.h :,
. . . t ... . ..
. :iL
ship and utrlty to the German-Jewish
, munity; however, in 19;8, at the age of sixty, he -
dep,arted for Israel, there to become of
social . phil?,sophy at the . Hebrew University.
During the strife that the . prelude
and consummation of the State of Israel, Huber-
assumed a position (the natural consequence of
his spiritual Zionism) which. vast ele-:-
. . . .
ments of the Israeli community. Arguing with
Judah agnes, Ernst Simon, and othl-!t:S, that
the only solution to the Jewish problem was a bi-:-
national state in which the Arabs and Jews .
should jointly participate share, he aroused
great bitterness and resentment. It a posi-
.,
noble and Olympian, to say 11:heleast, but
not designed to realize w:hat appeared to be a
motivation earliei: in his .. career-namely, the
possibility of actualization. The realities were
not on his side, and the realities., whatever the
force . of spirit, di4 not contain sufficien,t possi-
bilities for achieving concord. . ....
At present, honoured on two continents,
having visited the United States in 1951 lecturit1g .
tq, wide audiences, .. and having received the
Pewte Prize of the German :Book Tradein 3,
Buber is now in semi-retirement in Jerusalem.
He is at work completing the translation of the ,
35 ,.,;
"l
()>)
Rosenzweig; I.ri 1958, MartinBuber, it is hoped,
will celebrate his eightieth birthday;
These are the elements, the bare bones. Tlie
. . . G
events do not mask the liriea>ments of continuity.
There is a thread that unites .each stage in the
progression-from being a. child in the home of
the Jewish to concern with
Zionism, to the rediscovery of t't1e centre,
to puri:lication of that centre from all admixture
of esotericism and distance, . to . to
. renewed participation in the <:ommunity . and
pursuit the tQ.le comiriUnltyand the holy deed
which would be worthy of a w,orld is seen as
a divine gift a human offering.
...
Q

36
"
,"
:,_ .....
i
<A

II
': 'Pirst Prir.ciple.; J and Thou
. It is not accidental that Martin Huber should
. J
choose Sren Kierkegaard to . underscore_. the
tragic misplacement . of the Holy in the modern
world; A't . the moment in German
scholarship when the Kierkegaard remUssance . . .. . . .
was at its height
1
Buber published The Question. '. .
to .the Single

The year 1936 was marked as.
well by the entrenchment of Nazi power .. in
Germany. As Buber himself noted: 'The book
appeared in Germany .in 1936- ..
. sl.nce it attacks the life .. basis of totalitarianism.:
3
.
When one sets out to disturb the complacencies ..
. of the :race, .it is useless. to choose its meanest
. for such. do not height(!n the percep .. . ., >
tion ofits f6lly. Rather, as does Buber, choose an
1
Studies and evaluations by such distinguished German
theologians and critics as Przywara; Guardini, .
Dempf, Brunner, Lowith, as well as numerous French
thinkers, .had appeared during the period from:. I 924. to
See Jean Wahl, f3.tudet Kierkegaardiennet;
Vrir..t: Paris, 1949. ' . . . . . . .
2
In Between Man and Man. London-New York, 1948,
pp. 40-8.2,
3
Foreword, idem; P. :vit.,
.....
37
!1>,
..
.; ..
idol of the race, one who wisdom and
penetration, a:nd depose him-disclose the error
. and describe the. consequence it yields.
It is well known that Kierkegaard
6
met Regina
Olsen in iS 37 and shortly thereafter
affianced. It is equally well known :that some
four years later the was 'termin-ated
and. Kierkegaard . determined to remain un-
.. married and celibate. Were tits tht sufficient .
. content> of th.e it would be retained as a
rn.inor incident,. and somewJ:iat sus-
. in an otherwise exemplary career ... ..
Kierkegaard . chose, .however, to make his
(}ecision of renunciation the emotional- centre of
. his llfe and the touchstone of his way t.o Chris- .
. tianity . In defining the content of his solitude
.. Kkrkegaard is at pains to emphasize that to be
'. 'a Single ()ne, a solitary man whose contact :with
. tf1e. wbrld is .. su11.deted, .is paradoXically 'the
instrument whereby to embrace the world in its
"'
truth; its fullness; and lts divinity. . . .
The category of the. single one is,. as
gaard observes, that 'through from the
religious standpoint, tiine and history and tjle
. . . .
race must pass'. The. elaborated choice that !bn- :
fronts, man is whetherto become a single one,.
. or be assimilated to the faceless The
.;8
1

:,"\.
I.
.
choice is insularity and isolation 'or .anonymity.
It is clear that the Christian paradox lies for ..
. lqerkegaard precisely in the acknowledgment ..
thoug\1 one must become a single one to
achieve 'God, one can never
become a single one-there are always
unfulfilled stages of .. depth and growth which
define the ineradicable conditions of his finitude
before Goa. Tcf become a single one therefore
is to direct oneself solely to God. The'"'way of
affirmation is pursued by the bramble path of
denial. 'In . order to come to love,' writes
Kierkegaard about his renunciatioti' of Regina:, .
'I had to remove the object;'.
Buber begins his constructive reply to Kierke.:..
gaard by ndting what Kierkegaard. had failed to
recall: it is. precisely. the Jesus to whom Kierke-
. gaard makes himself tontempo'raneous who is the
spokesman of that double cdmmandment of the
Hebrew Bible-to love God with aU one's might
and to love . one's neighbour as oneself. . Pre-
sumably the .. enrichment of the single one .does ..
not lie in the path of divestment and simplifica- ...
tion but in the embrace of manifold relation.
. . :1 . ...
Tht single man is bidden to become pivot between ,
the love of God and the love of man, turning
the one in.to the. enrichment of the other and
39

l

'

realizing the :t"ullness of the other as witness to
the creative affection of the . One. . 'We are
created along with one another and directed.to a
life with one another. Creatures are placed in
my way so that I, their fellow creature, by means
of them and with. them find the way to God. A
. . .
God reached by their exclusion would not be the
. God of all lives in whom all life is fulfilled.'
1
It .is not. diffi,ult for
from tl)is source of convittion, that a reassess-
ment ofman's role in the commufl.ity and society .
. . . . . . .
must follow. If it is true that man's life with
others is not a delusion a diabolic temptation,
it must then share in what is c;,onsidered essential
to life. If cfue grants that the Single One is
related essentially to God, but o;n.e acknowledges
God as existing in relation to the created mani-
fold, then,. in some sense, every man is bound by
the nature . of God to share with others. Where
Kierkegaard wills to polarize the individual and
. the mob, Buber chooses to view . them both
l1nder the regis of a transformlng redefinition. It
is . true, Buber will admit, that both. the single
man and the mob. ought to kept apa.rt,
t . .
but only to the_ extent that single man is
1 Between Man and Man. London-New York, 11948,
p.
40
;,:
I .
. I
deceiving and the crowd is, in fact, a mob with-
. out humanity. When the individual and the
mo.l? take their centre in God- and oneaclillow-
ledges God, through the other and inakes his way .
to God through :the other, then both the single
orie resumes his nexus with others and :others<
. ' ;J
become transformed through him. :
The position which Buber ip The
'Question Jt.J.the :1ingle One was one developed in .
th,e midst of crisis when the e.>n.es of .
Europe wrapped in despair the ,
indeed ruled .. It is perhaps oneofthe: fe'Y ..
of the spirit, . composed in our
written with. prop,hetic direction to the
crisis. The attitude he .
one which had come tO maturity .many y
before and one ori it wasinfactbased. . ..
. In Dialogue (1.92.9),
1
an tecol-
. lection. intended to, explore hi.s phil- ,
osophy of I and Thou, Buber recqunts an inci-
dent which presumably took place .some time
. .. . towards the- end of what might l?e termed 'his .
of silence'.
2
As will be in 1904
;1 Diaiogue
1
York, 1948, pp. 1.:_39 . . >
p; I 3. Bubel; gives no actual date the e'f:peri- . . . .
ence he describes, but one gathers from his reference th;Lt . .. .
it must have taken place during the period from , .. . .
the end of theFirst World War.. . .
.:',

41
s
,
. ' ;Buber. retired from public his
. studies of Hasidic Withlli a. period of .
.. years he published a nl1mber of works. ort.th.e
Hasidic literature as well as on :&:astern and
._, . _- Ch.ristiarJ. mysticism. The \mystic way, as he
. rightly understood it, involved two alternative
. . . . .
.. . paths : that of absorption' of the I . into . the
.. . . absolute at the sacrifice of selfhood or the draw-
.. ing of the absolute into the seit and the conse-
< . quent e\pansion of selfhood. Mysticism, what-_ ..
ever 'its forms, is consummated by the
'tion of relation-either the world disappears' into
"-.. the One or the One is drawn into the welter of
,the world to transfigure it. The consequence of
... either . alternative is; from the . view of the initi-
.. .... ate;' a m..oment of ultimate preoccupatio11.
!:.,. -the; Self and the sacrifice of the wodd others.
.duririg such a period that the :following
:3: occurred: .
. ,. ,. . . . . :
. .
fl)
.. One after a of 'religious
ertthusiasm', I had .a visit from an. unknown
young man, without being there in spirit. I
certainly did not fail to let the nieeting 'be
. . . . . .
friendly, I did not treat him any more .
than aU his contemporaries who were in the.
habit of seek.irig me out about this time. of day
42.
.,.
. . .
as an oracle that is ready to Jisten to reason. l
con, versed attentively and openly with him- ...
o;tly I omitted to guess the questions which
he did not put. Later, not long after, I learned
from one of his Ji:iends-. he himself was no
longer alive-.. the. essential content of . these
questions; !.learned that he had come to me
not casually, but borne by destiny, not for a .
chat bub for decision. He had come to me,.
he had come in this .hour. What do
when we are in despair and yet go to a man? ..
Surely a by means of which we are .
told that nevertheless there is

'
. This experience, recounted but with
passion, was apparently :decisive for Buber. It
moreover contains a personal,. but thoroughly
. explicit, statement of the elements which only
later appear as principles in the view of dialogue.
Discounting for the moment the orily slightly
ironic note ofvanity with 'which this recollection .
commences .. (for Huber is honest .enough to
acknowledge the. vanity of the oracle), what
em,erges is crucial. A human being is brought
(hd'.v, .. one does noe know, nor does it matter
particularly) into one's way or, as. in this case,
. .
1
London::...New York, 1948, pp. 13 f.
43
I
I
..
.,
seeks one out ... Presumably a man. a dis-
closure whether trivial or momentous-. and,
quite frequently, which is at the heart of. the
tragedy, is so beset that he cannot .flsk directly
what his heart knows to ask. He is met by one
(whom indeed he has sought) who is possessed
. by the consciousness 9 truth, indeed wrapped in
truth, who yet, in his cannot
. . 1ook out upon his .. Q;..... .
(if,.
. has told us .that it .. was a morning of
enthusiasm' an:d presumably, on such
mornings, though one inwardly . communicates
with truth one has dosed the ear to the echoes
of truth that assail it from thf world. Meeting
does not occdr. Courtesy and attentiveness per-
butthe opening of oneself, wrapped as one
is in 'religious enthusiasm', does not occur.
Each meeting, moreover, asks a question which
only the meetitig can The young man did
not ask other thari by his presence, and he cpuld
not be answered other than by a presence given
to him .. The dialogue need not be .marked by
words or speech, for the address of being, of
being present in the moment of meeting, wouJd
have sufficed to disclose meahlng and breach'the
:wall of despair, .
The young man apparently- co1Ilmitted suicide.
. 44-
. '
..::.!
. i
.f
He had come to ask that meaning be
not by argument arid demonstration, but by' the
. pres;nce of anothet who, having taken his centre
in. communicated its activity, power, .
and reality .. thls mo1nent (though, irideed,
not . from this momeri.t alone) the change -in
Bubet's-. views may be datea .
. There are th,ose_ critics who see the progression -
. :ftqm the m.fStiC ttl the dialogic as a . . .
gression, a gradual corning to fruition a11<i'state
7
; -
ment. What is disclosed in the uiddeni ot
. . . . . . . . . . ' . ,. ,,,
:a=.
most mysterious warning that a break - :;f . ..
. ). . ': . . . .';::"
with the past. Granting, with Bergson, 'tl:ie:::.<;'
decisive character of primary intuitions :which:.
define and the theses. >
creative life, what Buber describes he
ledges to be an. aCt of grace .which was paid for.
. with a life and atoned for by an urir.elenting:
..search for the authenticity of ........ .
. .It is as well that in this inddent 6ne : .
rnay date what l discern_ to be the pr.oph.ti.c '
concentration of Bubei:'s career. The . .
... satls.lie<;l with the anguish. of a lonely purst.Ut.;. . ' .
. the world, though sometimes in love,
sometimes in is always, in its Christian
. . . . . . 45- . .
,..
"",_,
. !
.statement,. a thing sanctified- by the_ union to
which one may return or to one may pro-.
ceed. The Hasidic we shall discuss
later), on, w.hich is. conside;ably
.. . . . . . . . . . . '.... .. 6'.
. . different. The :World, creat\lres, nature, ari.d the
of man are embraced precisely: because
' . in them and with them alone. is God disclosed.
. and God are not polarized ... The
,: is no simple mirror oftlib diviite nor God
... .-. ': .Its the wodd,
\ . ._ //-for the fact that it is seen as created world, is the
. : enduring presence- of God. __,One
.. ,:\.i_QI!.es. Witl1 God ocly through the world and its ..
and only in commitment to creation
wotk of redeemed. What
in the moment of his
versic:m, is 'the tnystic way in which the _
. moment of
. _ . the. unio mystica or the achievement of
@- .... '''. _ ... ' .' . . .. . . . . . . .
. :Nirvari:a is sought as a self-sufficient goat
. _ f;. affirmed- is that man ought to seek the
-_-moment-which clin always be repeated. Such a.
..
moment is _achieved only by immersion in the
stream of life. . . .
.. of I and !'hou in 192 3 is _
by articulation of the intuitioti of-meeting.
It. is a _great book; perhaps one of the rate. and
46
sustained works of universal meaning. written in
. . .
. 6ur time. Unlike the works of other religious
iP I and Thou is not tied to arr established
. c1ogmatics (l-lnless indeed the obviously Hebrew
and Jewish cast o( his insights constitutes a
_theological dogmatics). .. the writing of
. <. . Guardini or Maritain, Barth or Brunner, or even
;' '

f.


.. -.' ..
.- ': .
. r :_:- .. .
. I . .
i . .
!
. 1
l
.
!
! .
. i
I
. !
t
[
t
. f
-.-that. of Franz Rosenz:wdg arid the . late Chief
Rabbi Kook, Bhber's religious position pre-
supposes no dogmatics. This is not t() that
I and Thou is without presuppositions, premises
one grants or declines. There are""sine qua non
without which one can read little and
stand less of this work.
. _The opening paragraph establishds.a ioneand
a mode of access; It is this tone and of
. access which one must grant .. kis a
_ tc>ne not easily Where. -it is .
resisted with finality the views Buber .develops
are successfully resisted .. Where it is successfuily .
encountered_ a11d._assumed, an initial premise is
granted, from which all follows.
, To man the world is twofold, in accordance
his twofold attitude .
The attitude of man is twofold; in accord-
ance with the twofold nature of the primary
47
p

I
I
,_
"

words which he speaks. The : preliminary
words are not isolated words, but combined
The one primary word is the coml,>ina-
tion I-Thou. The other primary
1
word is the .
combination l-It; without a change
in the primary word, one of the . words He
and She can replace It. Hence the I of mart is
also twofold. For the I of the primary word
1-: Thou is a different I from tl:iat primary .
word l-It.],
- .
Many senses a11.d values are contained by this
self-consciously ambiguous language; yet the
. . . . . . .
ambiguity neither obscures thought nor distorts
fundamentaf darity. One may casually discard .
Buber's mode of expression as annoyingly
metaphoric or even mystic, but such would be
to miss the point. If we assume that what Buber
seeks is a manner of expression which cuts
beneath the separateness of the world-. the
crimination_ of. subject-knowers. and objects-
known which are presumably required by the
empirical sciences- his language is eminently
precise. The. world is .not an o!(jectum to .. be
seized and reduced to . manipulable form'tllre.
. Su,ch may be necessary in disciplines where utility
1
I. cmdThou/f. & T. Clark. London, 1937, p. 3
48
an.d application are central or, in speculative
inquiries; where the knowledge derived will be
conv;erted by engineers or technicians into
. applicable fprmulre .. (pure mathematics, astro-
. physics, or biochemistry); What Buber concerns
himself with is the human consequence of
ledge- what does knowledge do to man? How
does .man's way ofknowing the world (whet_ller
.. know:ipg be pufsued through' .science,. or .. art,
. through speculation, or . the passions) affe'ct; . . . : :
fundamental attitude towards . world.? . .
.. .. w:;
. which we should 1;lote; What is really implied : > '
' .. b!' it is the manner in which a man_. ': : '"::;,
. himself before the world, how. he stands; fixes . ::-.
) ..
somewhat inaccurate, for what .is ()f moment is ' . /.';,1
not how reflecting upon hhnself,. dete.r:-<<
inines vie; of the world; but.how man,. in the\ .
wholeness of his being, piaces ...
Similarly, the world is not specified. or'
-linV.ted-' it is rhe whole world in its panoply and' ... - .. '.
the world that is usually-' perceived, :_,
experienced, manipulated, and destroyed. . .
Buber, in this statement an wishes to.
D 49.. . .. .. , ,_
, .
"
...
find man and.reurtite hlm:to the world. He seeks
to Ii:>cate man !is he:is Jii ,his. wholeness, prior to
the oriient'when each ,11.1ari. puts on his
mask and way.rin the pro-
cess tlear that Buber must
pass al()ng via:'-#egatipa. of the
.. ..mystic) .of conscious-
.. ... ness)' of
.. _activity, e*perience, knowing. slfth .
tfv'e only to the constari.t .
.,; : -conversion. of the world into the. realm of
. ,, < pervasive It. What .the wodd of It,
';;f':\_:\vb.et]1efJ.1rimanized transiently as He or She,
. .. a fundamental usitig of the world, a
. .. .. .:.. .-- .P. . . . . . . . :
\:' i)ifa,iriing of the world, a manipulation . of the .
.The. .surrenders itself :as -a slave
: master. The irony which Bubet
to.emphasize is that the.
.ffettthe nl.ister and the master the ultimate slave
: _nian whO seizes the world, experiences
. ft, acts upon it, turns it fo his uses, wirts from it
onlyits si:q:>erfidal.secrets-. its .lnner meaning is
<!"
never disclosed nor revealed. The world will not
surrender its truth to violence, but only to the
. . . .. . . . . e ..
asking. in which Thou is spoken. . . ..... .
The world is formedout of myriad lines t>f
relation, objects are surrounded, human beings .
50.
' .
,.,
;
(:
.. are enmeshed in multiple dependencies and
t!ons. When one wishes to single out an object,
give,it special love and affection, draw it forth.
. ... from the wr.tlter of its involvement, one cannot .
command it forth .. . One must address it differ-
ently(whethef it be the which one shows an
. animal, so bea11;tifully., clescribed in Huber's
Dialogue, or an inanimate object, say a precwus
. . .
porcelain . Eskimo whale-bone mask, with
. . which one stands in intiinate relation). The 'Thou
. is spoken only in meeting. The Thou, let us be ..
dear, is not. a -state .(which can be frozen and
preserved); it is not a synonym for Love (the.
Provens:al troubad0urs and romantic poets have
no place here, for the Thou is not a: grammatical
device for expressing love, though itis true that
the Thou cannot be. spoken where there is . no .
love); the Thou is hot a word {in the .
sense in which words are uttered and exchanged . . .,
in normal discoursei for, althol1gh the Thou is . .
spoken, it may be spoken without sound and, if .
. ;spoken only with sound, a true Thou ha.s not
been spoken, for only with the whole being can
a 111an address his Thou). The Thou is spoken
. . . . . - .
being and, as such, serves to draw being
together. It arises only in As the _I of
. man is formed through taking a stand in the.
51

:
.(
:
Thou of another, the world oflt wanes and the
Thou emergesever mo.re dearly.
Buber makes quite clear the of lllOVe-
ment in the speaking_ of Thou to activity of .
grace. Grace, a term constricted and frayed
theological . usage, describes spontaneity and
Q,
undetermined choice. The I not only encounters
its :fhou but is discovered hy it. Recall the
ma!lner in which Buber has his con-
version-'He had come to me, he had come in
. . . . . .
this hour'-. and n,ote that the Thou is not fore'-
ordained or It. comes and passes,
addresses and is gone, discovers and vanishes.
. Each nlari,. each single 'I, before the
. . . . \)' . . . . .. . .
moment 111 which the Thou ts present and en-
counters it in. a . t;ofold. manner: .he either
. .
the challenge of grace and the Thou dis-
solves into an object of time and space, or the I .
is. filled arid transformed, relation is. achieved, and
the !-Thou, the nexus !-Thou, is realized. As
Huber comments;/'all real living is meeting', so
. the Thou both forms the. I and enables it to
address the world (as grace) and .the I speaks to
the Tliou (as meedng). It is not .difficult to
i
l'
the consequenGCs which Buber will derive frbm . , .. : .
this fundamental insight-the W:otld of freedom, . , ;:
destiny, gtace . are affirmed_. Freedom, for no
52. ..
..
Thou is spoken in coercion; destiny,for freedom_
faces an open future in which time and space
-vanish before the Thou.
. .
Buber is-y:1ofantast, nor is I and ThQu a useless
. . .. . . ' .
It is. a useJess mystique if one chooses
tO view the world under the continuing hege- .
. mony. of tired distinction:s. As Buber
tll(! sitUation of man (and it not
. gotten th.ltt Huber is ail acute historian. of
Western culture); what defeats hiin repeatedly. is_ ..
...
his refusal to trust the world -and to tpi .

of hu111:an life are devised to . effect
rather than union. . .. .. ... . .- .
The iffithediate consequence .ofBubet's . ; "
. version
1
is a revised understanding .6,. ': -. > .
religious life. !fit is true that love is , i
bility of an I for a Thou',
2
that the young
who came to him by 'destiny in the forenoon .. ..
to be met and the Thou was to .be spoken, then .
injleed which- withdraws from the
stteam of life falsifies" the truth.of life. If the end.
of religion is to teach mari. the right way to
1 Op. Cit., pp. I 3 et
53
-
z Idem, p;)5.

conduct himsif God,then surely the right
way is. one \vhith iestores man to the flow of life,
.rather than removing him:.(rom it.
. of I and Thou is, if anything, anti-myst4k. Though
. . :. I .
the popular mind often confuses the difficult
and. slightly lyrical w!th the mystic it is
. . 'the .. impatience of the popular mind that is at
Unfortunately life does not speak easily,
however simple its mat be .. What
':' .. . Buberderives from his conversion is explored
...: . 1-irther. in the final section of I and Thou. If all
: ultimately that of an I to its Thou;
> )nd the lhnita:tion of tiine and insight and human
.. the recalcitrance oHfinitude consbtntly
/' (Qtce. the r .. Thdu to beconie, in turn, l-It, then,
:" ::,--: . : indeed; the perfect Thou would be that being
. which, dejinens, could. not become It; Bubel:
-t;(i is tiot . .satisfi,ed \vith a merely formal, a posterior.i,.
.e-. : oE'God's 11ature; God is not; by extra-
. . :p6latiort, the. ThoU. who become it (it is
. .. I fear, inthe.ffiethod of I and Thou
< God last and pot first).
1
1f it is true

i I am in this c:ritidsm because ,I am awat:e of_
the ohservatio_n 6f the greatest.ofpU:re methodologiSts,
Aristotle (P hJ'Sics, Book I, p. 1 : We iriU:st
that which is clearer and more accessible to us. to is
clearer in nature; nevertheless, by admitting this, it. is no
less true that what is clearer in nature may be prior :in the
J4
that tbe eternaL Thou is He who can never be.:.
. L . . . . It; out understanding of attributes
. :/ considerablv cleater. God is the un-
. , . . billy to say that God is self- .
.... ,.:.
.. _,.:
I.
identical. Since' (Jod cannot become It, no thing
limits Ifru.1y !nan c?uld persevere forever
. iri the speaking of Thou, such a man ,would be
. . (Jod; but such cannot be, for man cannot :.y;oid
. the limitations . of his situation.
Man cannot banish the It; he can seek only to
. transform it. This isthe religious passion, 'not
to disregard everything but to see everything in
the Thou, not to . renounce the world but to
. establish it on its true basis'.
' . .
The Thou is the Holy and is . by
Buber.predsely in the terms of the Holy. 'God
is the "wholly Other"; but He is the wholly
Same, the wholly Present. Of course He is the
. Tremendum that and over-
throws; but H:e is also the mystery of the self- .
vident,. nearer to me than my I.' The Hoiy, .
as Rudolf Otto interpreted its consists .
of the contrasting . elements of Tremendum and
,, .
ot!@er of being to what we immediately comprehend. Al-.
though God, the eternal 'Thou, pre-exists the Thou spoken
in finitude, only through the discovery of the Thou of
finitude may one discover the never-ending eternal Thou.
. 55

-

..
..
0.'
. . .
Fascinosans, the .awesome and terrifying set, .off
. . . . ,: ..
by the magnificence and appeal of God.. (}od
repels and draws close. This is the Holy
the eternal Thou which, by the fact He does
not succumb to our efforts at''manipti.lation in the
days of our falling aw.ay, both terrifies us and
" .. .
draws us near. Both moments_ the
of the Holy; and the Thotds described by
. accurately if not- by theHolyf fo:r Holy
is the one term which will not sub111it tcdimiting.
construction. The Holy; as the Thou, surpasses
. the effort to cottciin it;. and ,yet,
' though it eludes. us, is paradoxically, at every
moment, close at hand. u . . .
It is the binding up of man. and:the eternal
Thou 'which makes possible the. re<;:onstruction
of the world. Man .cannot bind God to the
ploughshare of history nor can God force to
be his Thou-. both must be companions and
helpers. Gog: .is as near . his creatures as his .
creatures will allow, but he withdraws at pre-
cisely the moent whe11 man, in his thirst to
hold fast to God, seeks to tie him to liturgical
continuity. Buber submits the cultic de:finitio.Q.,
the location .of God in p:r
worship, to severe . criticism. Such criticism of
institutional. religion is inevitable, given his
s6

':.-,
. !
fqr any attempt to force man's cliscovery of the
. .Jh<>il into a fitted and .unyielding mould distorts
t"he }:hou.' The Jioly will. not be contained. It
. 'will Qach dayl but each day it .must be
sought . It. will present itself in every .
. nwrnent but ili.e givenness of the hour and
' . , . . . . : . .0
the novelty'of each moment are introduced hlto
man seeks the of
God's . :continuity, and abiding
uruformity' ' it is precise1y nat)Jre &t the .
etetnal Thou to be ever In stat@g the '
formula 6 the l}uber .cC>in7f, ,
niehts 'there is a becoming of the. Gocl .
. is meant by God's. answer ....
. \. . . .. . ' ' . . ' . . .... . . . " .
...
.. fot his name: . Eljyeh asher ehyeh-P . ?'(,;>:, .
. . 'thonrlst'formulation
2
is patently a :
tion of the Biblical text and a falsification of the ... .: ..
Hebrew spirit-not I Am Who Am, but 'He t:;::::
Who Is Here' or 'He Who Will De

.
' . . . ; ' . . . . . . . .... ..
. This is to that the eternal Thou is He Who
. Will Be Present at each moment that His presence
is sought .. God unfolds according to his nature_,
and this unfolding is what confirms meatl,ing in
J, I and Thou, p. 82. . . .
4111Gilson, E., God and Philosophy, Yale U.versity Press.
New Haven, 1941, .
3
Cf. Moses, p. H Also Israel and the World, 'The Faith
of Judaism', p. 53; Prophetic F(lith, pp. 28...:9
51

"
..


''f;.
...
life. It is which sanctifies the 'speaking of
. Thou, which conyerts it from. an state-
ment ofperson.il into a speaking which
is for all of F,r
The woild of It is augmented in each age,.the
techniques of mariipulation and perversion are
and perfected, violence becomes subtler,

of distortion ate fashiohed more


brillhmtly ... The Holy is screent:d oflj and what
light h sheds is filtered endlessly until but the
. . 111erest stream i1himiiiates the In those .
4)
ages, however, where the greatest distortion
occurs there emerges the greatest re.;.
discovery .of . the Thou. Alt those
. moments. the. world of It accumulates and
. the WordofGod seems most remote: and in:..
effective; halts: and regains its breath.
, The world_ is constarttlyca.rriedforward t().;an .. .
abyss a,11d in the hou:r when it would
itselt 11: cbnfrorits itsdfanew and thereby reper-
Ceives the Thou; Jrt such moments there is ..
.renewal and a . reversal of mart's way. 'But the
event that from the' side. of'the world is called
reversal is called frotn God's side .salvation.'
1
' .. . . . ..:. .. : ': .. . . ..
1
Buber's use of the idea.of man's 'reversal' or
'is an adaptation and redefirtition cl the Hebrew .word for '
'repentance' .(t'shu\Tah) which means, quite both'
a turning away from evil and a turning. to God.
5.8

..
,,:
,Q III .
' '
. .. The Bible and Hasidism
Buber addressed ..a of . some: twenty
students, at whiCh I wa$ preserit, in the spring of .
. . . . ..
I952. He,,was asked by one if he considered
himself 'a Jewish theologian'. His response was .
that he did not consider himself a theologian, but
. a religious thinker. He did not, moreover, regard
himself . as a Jewish religious thinker,. if one
meant by such thatihis position as a Jew required
his support of normative Judaism add his opposi-
. tion. to what traditionally worild be deemed non-
J . He considered himself; if I
remember his answercorrettly, to .be a Hebrew
thinker. By this presumably he meant one whose
fundamental sources of insight were more closely
' '
akin to that of Hebrew Scripture than to any
. other, but that, by virtue of the implicit uni"-
versality and breadth of Hebrew insight, he felt
close to all others who manifest its essential
f '
tilt!Pth;_,...whate:Ver the 'limitations which they im- .
pose upon its authentic and total disclosure.
Buber is an exegete, not a critic of the Bible,
59
.. '
"
.:_' .
..
: ..
.,
;1
..
>:: ..
':
II
...
His task is not that of .imposing upon the Bible
the superior enlighteriment of a detached and
uncommitted intellect,. hut of exposing the ipner.
spirit of the Bible. . The exegete;w unlike the
. . .. .
crjtic, is essentially one wh.o . acknowledges that
God. communicates hill).self in the Bible and
. believes that, by pl;cing himself open to his
one may enter into the unending dialogue
of God and nian. The. critic, o!i. the 6ther hand,.
is frequently . one. who, by. default . of faith, em':" .
ploys the. Bible fls: art extension of _bis own
. scepticism.
. If one considers carefully the translation of the
Hebrew Bible made by St J e:ome, or the com-
mentaries of:. Rashi or Ibn Ezra, the great .
. medieval Jewish exegetes; one becomes aware
that the text of the Bible. is first and foremost
holy. The holiness of the Bible is not .confused
by the e:regete with the illusion. of self-evidence
or lit(!ral clarity. . Theological. presupposition
car.ries with it the awareness that God js not
limited by his that each phrase of
Scripture conceals more than it discloses. The
function. of the exegete is to draw out of Scrip- '
ture the reality whis:h its "words only. parti>y
. expose. The. critic faces, however, a different
task. . His fungamental assumption is that the
6o
: f"
. text ot ;he Bible is reliable, that
lang'Uage is ; frequently opaque and uirin':"
(as itis), that it does not conform in
salint tl:ir observations of philology;
hist6ry;. and arhreological finding. The task qf
the critic is, therefore, to the authentic .
froin the to distinguish between the
. viable, and . unacceptable, and. in .
:ord6:i: ultiliiate1)1 to. save the. text,. to . emerid its
language so as . to achieve conformance? with
caP:pils ofdarky and logical order. The critic; .
. .the character of his personalieligious: ..
.. .. comes to . the .Biblical text . as a ..
.. natpr.alistic He elevates natural. in-... .
. < cfe.tJ11lity into a principle of . The .
. does :not challenge him . or . address -him..;> ..
. it' rather a Such. procedure is. '.im- .
.. possible . for . the exegete. The begiJ:l::s .
. by asking for nieaniilg and, in the search for . ., '
meaning, inevitably raises. the same . questions
those . of scholarship. The fundamental .
. difference between the exegete and the critic .is
.. the attitude of being with which the question is .
as1red.
..,The e:x:egete presupposes . that meaning is of
prior importance to that of textual authenticity.
Questions of fact succeed of faith.
6x
l ..
..

\
This does not: bf the
.. exegete. scientifically tt!lsound-. one has only to
. recogri.ize that Ibn and Kimhi were
. .. ... . . ... : . :. < J , . . -..
' rather: fundamental g_uestioni about the
.. ,- .. . . . .. .
. language and structure of the Bible at a time in
history . when the practice of 'Higher . Criticism'.
_: would. have brought "charges _of heresy (indeed,.
i.ti case ofSpinoza, some timeJater, similar .
.. .... ' . . . . .
. . . . questions carried much furthef' in ex- .
. comnl.unication);. The. : difference is that : Ibn
Ezra and Klmhi begiri. with the conviction . .that . .,
. . / . .Gqd' :addresses them. Their task is not to say >
<:_:.. the authentiCity of the address, but merely to
its . _ . -.- t . . .. _ . __ .. __ .
... ;; Martin Buoer is an exegete in the. sense under.:
:. -... , stood. T)lere can be little question that iri
_. period .when he arid Franz <;om-
.. mericed their monumental of the
. . . -Bible .irtto . German . issues of Biblical . .
. . . ' . . . . . ' . . . . . . .
... wte. focused; . . _ . - - .
-. '13ubet .- conceived the Bible the. meeting- :
. .,;.
.
. ,_!'.
. place of God and GOd is the eternall in . . .. r
. _._ quest of a Thou to whom he can speak, and man .. _ . l
. is the T who cait.return to God the address of . . <
. Thou. The creation out ofloV:e, a ,_
_ of classic theblogy, is here differently defined; . t
Love is not rendered perfect by the acknow- . J
',62
.. '!.:.-'
.
. .
;-.
1edgment of need-. it is rather that being is _
inadequately expressed unless it is capable of .
saying Thou. it might -be asked why such a
. requirement.t is him who -is capable of
all things-whose 'l' may, as in the theological '
3
mechanics of Aristotle, itself Thou without
necessity of creation. Essential to Buber's view
of Biblical reality is . the .conviction that God is
. . .. .,
.fulfilled in'othet:hess, irithe irreducible, ---F""''"
arid underivative personof man. God entersthe.
-world through man. Ask further if you will, and
, Buber ri:mst, as one among those trapped in the
.-magiC circleof faith, acknowledge that no proof
, can be spoken further. This is the uriderived
mystery to which the Bible amply testifies ..
;Jewish history (and it is Jewish history, Bubet
. believes, which manifests_ most. perfeCtly the
. entrance of God into the historicalorder) is a
. . record of creation, revelation, and redemption .
: J : p
.. ever-presaged, always . and interniin--.
ably repeated. . .
The distinction . which. Buber draws between:
the history of Israel and the emergence of Chris-
.. tiapity is the core of what is perhaps his most pro-
. f.nd . work of Biblical study: Two Types of
Faith. Here Buber explores the theological
-. difference of Judaism and Christianity. Judaism
63
..
).
""
,,_.,_.:
.
v
is formed .out of a faith (emunab) art ap!earing: .
and concealing God,. who enters history at
critical junctures and : withdraws; . leaving the
consequences of His .en tty 1;.0 man's It
is faith which binds Israel to the moment of
revelation, and only through the binding or its
person to that moment (the covenant) is there-
de111ptioil antidpated and the created order raised
up to God. It is. the task of lsrael to sanctify
creation. Buber believes, as Abraham Heschel
has brilliantly noted, . that 'sirt; though . not
: that nfan is Thou by God (revelaup.rl) ;-
. and the enclq.rillg trust that when all creation
forth Thoil_the age will dawn
( . . .. i . . .
. ]3,uber's: for the person
and teaching -of J has been a source of .con- .
\ . . . . . to the)e\llish commW).ity and delight
. . . to: Christians who see in Bu er's appreciation of ..
. (
' . . . c . J .
.a o{class .. Jewish .
Both con$ternatio11: and delig are unwarranted
beside the point. :. Both w ess less to any
. clear \W.der&tanding of the po ition involved . original, is universal', that creation falls through
man and is raised up by man. The metaphysical .
split . in the final rapture from God
(which only an apocalyptic redemption can
:restore) is denied. Since the relation of God and
: . . . to the hardened pride of bot . communities. .
' c . Jewish. theology Buber: and
!
. ... i.
man in Biblical' language is a constant dialogue of
love and judgment, praise and blame, joy and
sorrow- at each moment creation is broken and .
healed. It is man who has the task of rendering . .
to God the sanctification of creation. In .the '- '
moment of sanctification there is bound up the
. initial speaking of .God to the Thou of man
(creation); the continual historical reaffirmatipn
"->r.>
1
See the essays 'TheFaithof Judaism' and 'The Two
Fqci of the Jewish Soul', Kampf um Israel, Schocken; I 9 3 3,
I.rraeland the World; Schocken, 1948.
,, 64
.; .
.
I. .. ..
. i
. Franz: Rosenzweig in particulat . . re 110 .less < . ::<

affirmation that 'from my youth onwa.t I.have . .
. ., . . . . . . .. :. ... -. . J
. found in Jesus my great brother'
1
at ts . only "
. to the co11:sistency of.J;3uber's position d his
. unquaijiied honesty. 'The Jesus, Jn.who Buber ....
finds companionship,. is he whom .Bube
siders the .inheritor of tfe prophetic tradi n of
suffermg servanty. '
In The, Prophetic. Faith Buber fiotes that
E.
1
Two Types of Faith, p. 38;
6
5
.. ,.
,
l' . . . . . . .
.. qqalities are 'manifest in tie. figure
. ing servant' elaborated in. first,
. . { ' ' . . .
futile of . prophet, he who ...
1n secret; who 1s bu the arrow rhat remains
. . . . . .... ... a .. :
secreted in :the .. quiv r of God, readied for the .
momenf of withdra\valand use; second, the .
. f': . '
active bea#ng of affliction, the transformation of
. the win to suffer for the sake ofGod into actual
.,.,.rr-c . . . r. .... . : ... . . . .
/ . and, . thiid, .. 'the work h6rn out of
. afflittion', the. a
.. . new hetweeri. the peoples of the earth
aP:d 'God; .1/hese three stages are not necessarily_ .
<achieved the life of a single' person nor
: .. _ ,. ... . '. '" : . . ; . ..
a brief period of . The stages,
:::: :::::
: . >the suffering servant who is. in one the inter-
-.... .. . . : acting /person of the corporate cominunlty,. the
: individual prophet, and .the. anointed Messiah.!
p . .. . .
. . ': Jesus in the. line of the suffering ser.:.
. . ' . ( . . .
.. varits; an arrow, amongjothers, concealed in the
of. Although Jesus addresses: in.., .
' diVlduals directly, bey nd their :telations to the .
... nation .. cotnmuni he wilL rieverthe\ess .
speak of them as 'los .. _slieep of
:
1
'The God of the.Stiffer f:>, The ProphPtlc pp. 15 5- .
Z35 Cf. particularlyp. 22 .. . '
-66
('!
. i
(
. t

.
r.. . ......... ......
. . . . \f;\ J,t:;/(527 .. ..
. :.'! .fJ.f./. .:.;.. '
\.,.., \ ..
. "
,
i ...
.,; ..
. :.(
. ,
. . .... \ . .
Israel'l! Buber. <xmsiders Jesus as seen the
:task of prophetic dialogue in the redefinition and .
vitalization of the relation of individual and
community,,and the, community and God. The
. . unsanctified is not abandoned, past history is
. riot cut off from the future, . the evil is. not shut
away from the transforming moment of redemp-
. tion. Jesus :sees himself, if one can trust the
primary the Gospels, as yet an6ther,_ '"'
it1 the line of Deutero-Jsaiah, who are
. trusted with the task of recalling Israel to its
truth, and, through Israel, confronting the
nations of the world with their authentic source ..
in divine sustenance and love;
The emergence of Paul, a rigid and crystalline
and the contact of Pauline theology with
modes of Greek speculation produce a theo-
. . logical statement of. the life of Jesus which cuts
off Jesus from the life of Israel. Jesus may well
be the brother of Buber, hut the Christ of
. the . apocalyptic : Christ, is permanently anti-
. pathetic to his view.
At no moment in the. life of ) ewish faith
.. does Israel catalogue its beliefs al.ild order them
.Wi!th the logic. of prt>position .. Even the efforts
. of medieval . Jewish theology to articulate a
1
Matthew 24. Cf. Two Types ojFaiih, p. 172.
67
'I
.,


G
. . ..:. .
dogmatics possess a rather peculiar . . .
inconsistency and incoherence .. Maimonides'
articles of faith are yield to .
no rational formulation. Each article lJ; known to
' ..
be true, not through the assent and submission
of the mind, but through the witness .of history.
Emunah. (faith) is an acknowledgment of
conduct of God in the historical life of the com-.
,. . .
:rp._u:niiy. Maimonidean principh;s at best
verba-l extrapolations of the- lived experience of
history: the superiority of Mosaic prophecy, the
redemptive power of God, the coming of the
Messiah are all Biblical,. formed out of the con-
tinuing encounter of God and Israel within the
historical order. Paul turns the living witness of
the community to the life death of J esllls,
however irrational, into an object of proposi-
tional statement. In his address to the citizens of
Athens, whatever his conviction of the 'folly' of
Christian faith, Paulmo9uhtes its irrationality
.into an argument .that .may . be described as
essentially 'logical dr noetic'.
1
Nolonger faith, : ..
.. but assent to propositional sta'tement (pis tis)
emerges as characteristic of Christian professiop..
Unlike Jesus, Paul will speak Of. J ew.s
. Greeks, but never irt connection with the specific
1 Two Type$ of Faith, p. 172 ..
. - . :
68
l..
.. ;
:.";!'"
.. : .
. )
. Of which they are The
old perishes and clisappears and the
is all that demands
. str\cf senSe the mobilizing con-
ception 'the kingdom of priests'
(that,is; kqhanim; those who serve God direcdy)
and 'a holy (that is, a nation consecrated .
. ' .. :to9pd its ruler arid''Lord)
1
disappears .
. . emerges ia the . dream of
unity which is nevertheless. .
penoently .of the national and civil life of
. fe$.shtg Christians. Individuals) not indhddtia!s ..
. larger corporate ';
bblt the community as such does< > .
any longer to divine . . . ' ';
.Th.,:fi ,.d 1 b h f J. d ... - : . .;,,;..y,.a-'.,, ...... ,.i,
... un amenta reac o u
christiap.ity; . however dlversifiet;l, the- : .
.... tions Of the way of cmunah and p{rti.r,, .been: .
defuled in an address whlth ....
. . ... . .. . . . .. . .. . . ...... ..
. StUttgart; m. 1930, before a gathering offour
missi<:>ns to In this .
address, Two o the.J ewish Soul? .he ..
' co.ntended thatthe Jewish position. con:-
sists of two. circles : the belief that,
J . .. . . . . . .
, .
... '
1
Two Types of Faith, p. I7I
2
Israel and tho World, Schocken.
.28:-'40
..
69
1.'
).
NewYork, 1945, pp.
'
: ...
t . . . . : ;'.. . ..
though God' is who.lly
. reach, he is yet rela..,
tion with him ana'the beliefthat, though God's
,, .'.:.:.; (J
redeeming'pbwet.,is at work fttalltims and with-
.. .' 0\lt StitceaSe, fulfliled redemption eXists. nowhere:
:; .The apocalyptic .of Pauline Chris-
......... :tiariity, 'Which ... standsin: contrast to. prophetic
eschatology, hqlds a view of time essentially
e . . . .. . . .
in origin. Whereas. propltetic
.... ,.. .'. . . .
promises the end oftime as a of
creation, the envis:ages its abroga- ...
. . tion; suppression, . and supplantment; by a new .
.:; . ... v.rorld, different from it in nature. 'fohe prophetic
........ :) abiding evil of creati0n borneup.to the
..
. th.e final sanctification.. The apQcalyptic the
..... workof.the end of days.as the
. . .. of the metal of creaiiort, the dispatth of its
.... . . ,. . .. . . .. . . . ... .
. of evil and the preservation ofits adrn.jxed Kbod.
: <.In the apocalyPtiC yiew, eVil urtredeenlable;
. whereas, itt the prophetiC, the evil is always tb be
...... Insuin, whereas the
view allows toGoifthe consurnmat.ipn
. .. of his . created order ah.d the reafuation.. ..
hldden the .sees . the:.
created order as cut off from world arid.
70.
*'
...
(;
:
j
. j .
I
.... , .
I .
:li . ...
. .
f
.,
\
\
,,
J ..
abandbtied by God. In the context of the Chris.:. .. .
tian experience history moves in. l.iriear pro- ..
gression to 'an unalterable immovable future
even:t' (then Christological .. reading of Hebrew
. scripture) through cycles of time iach of which
does its work and yields to the next .. The Jewish,
on the contrary, anticipates redemption 'fot the
sake of those who turn'.
1
As Buber observes in
. . . . . .
. his discus3ion Bf the Book of Jonah: .
Jonah would have Nineveh damned because. of
her unrelenting evil, repents and God
grants that her destiny be reopened. 'Those who
, turn co-operate in the redemption of the world.'
. It has been objected to Buber by some Christian
. l ..
. theologians that his view is arrant activism, in
which grace no longer functions or obtains.
Butis grace the o11lylileans that.man possesses of
authenticating the mystery of Gbd? Is the de.:.
pendence upon unme1::ited grace the sole instru-
1Ilent by whichtnan.testifies to his insufficiency?
As was remarked earlier, it is not that God needs
man, through some incompleteness in ]?.is nature, .
but rather that God desires that the redemption
to, be wrought be achieved with man's com-
God wills to have need of man, for
the sake ofman and for the sake 6f God's
1
Buber quotes Talmud Berakhot, 34b ..
71



. . ,... ..
logue with The. role of manin ptiparing ..
the redemption of creation is carried on througp.
concealment-each man assesses his own heart
and readies it for the moment whe:U @Qncealment
. . .
shall give way to open historical statement. The
moment of preparation lies in man's relation-
.. ship to God and in power of atonement in
an unatoned world. The former involves the .
. of God's presence ih direY'.:t relation .
flesh of creation, without the
ofan incarnate form, and the latter the unbroken
work of history which turns GOnstantly towards
fulfilment and decision.
1
The primary . concern. of . Judaism is the
fashioning of a way for the Holy amicl the con-
. crete. The two in which Judaism
defines itself, that of history and Torah, form a.
dialectic which has never been interrupted.
History presented the. challenge of immediacy,;
to which Judaism responds wit\1 the spon-
taneous answer preserved in both the Bible and
. .
the homiletic literature of rabbinic Judaism. It
also responds with the way. of 'Law'.
2

..
<!>:'
1
Buber quotes Talmud Berakhot, p. 38.
2
One of the misfortunes, to which the Rabbinic litera-
tur.e testifies abundantly, was the traruilation of the Bible
}2. ..

. l
L
II __. .
II' ..
l ..
. ' ll .
... !!
. .!\.
"\
.:-._.
,
':',
l
homil(J is theJanguage of whereby the
person. ofQ-qdis intimately addressed; the Law,
the record of dialogue, by means of which God's
path is. concrete. Wherever
Law. is conc6ived. as an immediate acknowledg:-
ment of God, Law lives andpartici-:-
pates in Wherever Law is eternalized,
as if thew ord of God is formed abstractly, apart
. frotrt the -'Situation which evokes it, the is , ...
seen defence . against the Holy rather than ..
as ap,opening to it. . . . . . . . .
}4aitin Buber has, throughout hiS. life, sought
. . . . . . . . . .
within the concrete. . The hi$to!y of .
. religio11 has been the: record of . , .
t() pt(!SerVe .the concrete against the'incursions of .
..: . < .; .: ';- ... : . . . : ', ; : :.:

. These terms are translated as .
Law., a rendering of the Greek 'nomos' and the Latin .
. .. . ' . . .
. 'Halakhah', however, means 'the way' or, better
sti11,, 'th,e path which man follows'. 'Torah' includes
siderably more than 'Halakhal:i'. 'Torah' hot <;mly charts.
man's through creation.(halakhah) but contains the
by which. that way is to be followed. .As
'Torah, means 'teaching' !n all'its facets.: The legalism
which hasbeen unfortunately imputedto Jewish doctrine.
Jroiir the harmld>s inadequacy of the Greek Ian- ..
guage, the apologetic passion of the Gospels, and the
. wanton over:.:simplification of . twenty centuries of
Christian conu:n.entators. .
. j
.:v
73 .


t

fixity and of} social
.. up]leaval and catasfrdphe . to insulate . and
:: the community . against .the threat of
.. : . concrete. .:By .. the hite .
... spontaneity had well-nigh disappeared.
. . < The fotmalizatibn of the Jewish way. and the
. . victory of Jewish . . had been
achieved. The course of events .which began in
.. .. . . . . . . .
Ages had bfithe st!venteenth ..
century, the point of Stagnation. What had been
.. .. a search for the reason of divine revelation in the

... ...
of speculation. : frani the. study of
c':"c;y .... --:, t .
;;<; <r.Orah. Whereas the . great Mishneh Torah of
was produced in an to
.:;;;:::_: .cty$tallize the principles of Law through the
. ;:: .Y .. of rational procedure
. . . logicaL system, the studies of the Talrnl.ldic
. e . .. . . .
.centres .of. seventeenth- and eighteenth;;;ceniury
Poland had the .. concrete and
. 'cerated. of the speculative
.. prdblerns which its.: method . .
What remained was a highly aristocratic? casp-
isti.c, and arcane study of 'legal precedent .
. implication. Legislation was defined for a world
. which no longer existed and it was
74

..
l
I
I
.Ji
. I
J
\
realize4, might exist again only in the: Days of
Messiah. There is a touching innocence, both
admirable in piety and self-delusive, in . the
passion with whiclt scholars concerned. them-
. selves with the study of the methods and laws of
sacrifice to be restored in the Messianic age .
This is the theology of the concrete. (even where
Judaism is most incomprehensible it is always
the worlduof .that concerns it)
. on its . head-for the concrete that Jewish
. scholasticism pursued was one cut off from the
grandeur and misery of the human situation that
surrounded it.
Meaningfui life .within the concrete is always
. hard to sustain. It occurs infrequerlHy in human
history and perishes rapidly. Man .pushes too
quickly beyond what is given to him in search of
nalities and ultimate resolutions. He returns
with his precious parcel of. abstraction to dis- .
. cover that the for which he has prepared.
his thought has vahished. Living within the
. .
... concrete is rarely achieved through the trans-
. mission of communicable teaching or doctrine.
It is learned, to the extent that it can be learned,.
other human beings who, by the gesture
and form of their relation to immediacy, . com-
municate directly.
75
..
.)
.,
tJ.

""
The commUnity of Hasidim, 'those wrwkeep
faith . with the covenant',
1
. was founded in the .
early. eighteenth century by Rabbi Israel. ben
Eliezer of Mezbizh (called tpe Baal .. "l'ov, .
170o-6o). The Baal. Shem Tov, Master of the
Good Name, was not a ;teacher in any ordinary
sense. Unlike St Francis; theintimacies of whose
"life and teaching are organized and preserved by
. . . .. . ..
..._St Bonaventura, Baal Shem has 0!1ly legend
.. upon legend to recall his life. Although numer-
ous pamphlets and voh1mes purporting to retell
the authentic words that the Baal Shem spoke are
preserved, each is. shot through with the inaccuracy
of imaginative enthusiasm. 'r.his, too, is char-
acteristic. -o{"Hasidim- a tradition which has
little use for the recorded wor<:l or the artfully
recollected story .
2
it
1
'The Early Masters', Tales of the Hasidim, Vol. I, p. 2;
Schocken Books, I 94 7.
2
A fault which obtains in most of Buber's reconstruc-
tion of the Hasidic tradition. One is troubled by Buber's
consCious effort to make the stories he preserves
<;ally appealing and coherent; whereas itis preCisely the
ejaculatory directness of hasidic teaching which carries
much of its power .. This fault is partially acknowledged
and corrected in the T aids of the Hasidim, which he plt.e-
. pared sonie forty years after most of his earlier writing Ol'lll
Hasidism had been completed. See also the forthcoming
study of Hasidism by Gershom Schoeleni, in which the
historical perspective proru.ises to exceed the theological.
76
"
. ' II
::, .
;
' )
\
f

l'
/'
l
!
I
[
r
. I .
('
'
. '
j .
I

..
Ha,siq.ism is not a teaching, but manner of
community .. U.hlike most religious teaching, that
of St or. the Buddha, which press for- .
ward: to cbm.mtr!uty life, Hasidisin proceeds
by the path. Theology and teaching
follow upqp. life, follow it, moreover, in its
hour of In its moment of asser- .
tiort, Hasidism proceeds by the way of oral in-
exil!mple, rathe:r.than by
of wtitten and argued doc:tri11e. .
The 'J3aal Shem, for upon him alone .. .
room concentrate, is the founder,. :Bober
.. ' ' . . ' . . ,. .
affirr.ri$,..of. the greatest religious movementin:
'the history ofthe .spirit'.
1
It is _particularly .just.
should have emergedjin the tnost .
hour of trial which . Judaism. had._... .
known-sirice the days of the 'dispersion. . ...
. .is an eschatological faith. ..
the :efforts of:modern-"day Jewish. schblarstc.i. ':,'
cohyert into a practical, adjustab.l*; ... I)
and fundamentally . boring ' affair of the ' .
1
'!n a centuq was, apart from this, not very pro:..
religiously.. obscure Polish and Ukrainian Jewry
prO,c!riced the phenomenon we know in the his-
torY, qf the. spirit; something which is grea,ter than any.
;.-,Htary geruusin art or iri:'the world of thought, a society
which lives by its faith'. 'The Beginnings of Hasidism',
Hasidism, Philosophical Library, 1948; Mamre, Melbourne
, University Press; 1946, p. 4;
'
l.:
j
77'
. .. :'
', ..
...
{;#
;'.
..
,.'
. /.i
a ..
Judaism is most profoundly hedelf whep: she is
. turned, through.histoty, to, the future. Eschat-
ology is. ilways. dangerotis, .. however; . When
. history stl:ffers' its <:tuellest ,eschatology
risks becoming apocalyp#c, and the yawning.
. abyss of apocalypse releases inevitably the
;,:::: . demons of gnostic temptation.
:;i .. :, . . :The century witnessed 6ne ofthe
/,:,;. . , m,ost., extreme and violent of Je"o/ry .
. :':::: ; . which the West had kn6wri; In I 648 the Cossack:
Bogdan led a peasant

another target the Jewisl1.
. townsfolk, were frequently employed . as
stew::trds for the landed It has b.een
. ...... . es#inated that_ 1oo,ooo Jews perished bet.ween .
... I64s arid 1658.
1
The Jewish commuriity )YilS
\ .rent and Such disaster could not but
._ the
.. of the Messiah.: . ... . . . .. . .. . - .
.. A people passionate for salvation are rarely :
patient; The wise prepare their S()uls and consult
. . . .
. . . . . . : .
. .. . . . .. . . . . . .. . : . . . .. : .
f
1
Consult the magnificent f.tovd of Isaac J?ashevi-
. Singer, Satan in Gorayj
haps the most. profo:und _recreation
atmosphere that formed in the. wake 6( this disaster.
78.
. . 'I

,_
i
the to. still their anguish, but the activists
are willing at such junctures to take profound and
dangerous risks .
Sahbatai Zevi (tp2.5-76)
1
was apparently a ..
. quite tindistingl,lished person-neither a scholar
nor a mystic of particular stature. Through the.
accident of association (his fame is to be credited.
rather to his considerably more bf'Uliantdisciple,
Nathan ol? Gaz<), Sabbatai Zevi
the psychotic obscurity to which he would have
been fated to the self-proclamation of his
Messiahship in 1666 and his subsequent apostasy
to Islam. in 1667.
2
The catastrophe of Sab-
batianism follows the wake not of Sabbatai's
enunciation of his messianic mission, bt1.t of his
. conversion,. with thousands: of followers, -,.to
Islam. The problem of Sefardic
3
.arid Galidan
.
1
Gershom Schoelem, Major Trends in]ewish Mysticism,
Schocken Books,. New York, 1946; Thames and Hudson,
London, 19.55, for his exhaustive treatment of Sabbadan
theology. .
2
'Sabbatianism and Mystical Heresy,' idem, pp. zsG-
324.
3
Sefardl.c Jewry was that portion of the European
Jewish population which was dispersed throughout
Southern Europe .following the expulsion of the Jewish
community ()f Spain froti'i. I 391 to 1498. Many thousands
of these Jews were crypto-Jews (Marranos) who
. wardly observed the forms of Christian worship but
secretly maintained their Jewish religious life.
79
Jewry, which were deeply wU;h
. batian doctrine, : was .the double problem of.
Redemption .. and the reconciliation of such re,..
demption with what was spparentJy the" con-
summate evil of apostasy. The spirit in Jewish
life, to which Hasidism provided a response, was
produced by the Sabbatian conviction that only
by the dragging of life beyond the pale of law
. .
and continuity into a nether wtrld of consum-
mated evil would the regimen which sustains
an unredeemed world be ended ... The paradox
of Sabbatianism was that . it believed that by
corrupting the order of the world arid dis-
torting its processes redemption would be
.achieved and the Messiah legitimated. In a
peculiar sense the rise of antinomian heresy was
intended as a confirmation that the Messiah had
come, that the old world had ended, and the
world beyond law hadbeen realized.
Though the Baal Shem was intimately aware
of Sabbatianism, he did not form his world i,n
apologetic answer to its challenge. It was his
uniqueness that he-undertook to repair
by accepting it. In the difference between ,.an
attitude of passive acceptart'ce and that which the ,
Baal Shem adopted lies the great accomplish-
. ment of :f-Iasidism.
So
. ,
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The principle of Hasidic
teaching,. Buber believes, is the concept of a life
offetvOM1,: andexalted joy. It is indubitable that
all gteat iiave . as their the
achiev:eflient . a joy ; which transcends the
palpable suffering which the experience of the.
world . abun.dantly supplies. . Some traditions
thisjC>y bytraiffing man to the
limiting idi1nerisibt:is of terrestrial enjoyment, to.
pass :out of this earth and flesh into the of
coritempl.a.tion. . Stich. traditiOns- . assetiC: .
Christianity and Hinayana BUdd,hisri1
.._.:>_,
. are. a ,discipline whereby the .. .... '
' .reality oflife .is' pe-rfected only by the seiZUl:e' in .. . . , < . ,
.. spirit of unseen qr a world to :. . . _, .. :
... . had no such choke .. Contemplation. in . : . ' .t"
the .. hav6 ..
stroyed .Judaism . .:The anchor: of Jewish -life ..
. .. : :. .-' .. :: _,.. _: .. :. :. ' . . .. . . ' . .. . . . : . . . ..... : \ .. ..
1:esided .. iri. .of. poor and .'despairing_
Jews :Who were either to bereassured or allowed
. to perish. The failure of Sabbatianisrri and the
.. .. . .en1:ra!lce:of Messianic hope into the daily stream
.. . .. d.i.dnot destroy such hope, but served. only
i.
.. to the world as it was and is.
Messianic hope was revived. Though each
. Jew continued to antic:ipate his ultimate redemp:..
j;.ion, he began once again to prepare the work (>f .
...... . . F
81 .
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redelilption. . Jnstead . of forcing (as
. ' the Sabbatians had .. dorte). or demanding {)f God
. that he act at rrian' s blcidiri.g, _Hasidism sought to
restore the balance of life . enel of .
prayei: and life was to do the work of redemption
. de) all with such joy; dedlcation, darity of. '
intention:, and holy purpose asto raise up tit1le .
.. :.to eternity and bring. earth an.dJieaven .
. .. ::it has been and remains}he. task of to . .
unite the Divine (which, according 1X) '
Jewish belief, wanders throughout the 'Exile
of the World) arid the I:Ioly Ohe,. t() .tetrirn
e fragments of creation :unltyand
.... <'.: . ... . . .. ...
.. ' If is remarkable that a trac:Utioh, . such
. Hasid.ism,. should . find . in a . twentieth:-ceiltiiry
. thinker such espousaL )tet it is !iot . .
' 'surprili{lg if one is clear ' about the primary . ,
. , .. -direction .Of Buber's tho11ght; . , . . ..
.: .. There a:ie two passages :which Buber has
written, ohein the introduction to The Legend of .
the Baa/Shem: ..
c
The legend is the myth ofT and Thou,ofthe _.
calkr and the called, tfie finite. which
into the infinite and the infinite ;hich has . .
need of the finite.
82.
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and the ?ther asa dedication to his affecting little
book, Ten Rungs:
. For thereis no rung of being on which we .
.. . \ ' . ' ' .
cannot find the holiness of God everyw'here
aO:d at all times .. ..
. . . . . . . . . . .
The first passagewas written in .. 1907, and the-
passage ofdedication was written in 194 7;. In the
. . f .
intervening peridd the position which Buber de-
veloped ln land Thou had beenformally
ated; yet there is an unbreakable continuity, the
character of which we should observe more
closely.
The legends of the Baal Shem are called myth.
Buber here, as in other areas, enjoyshis accesses
of romantic exaggeration. He . polarizes myth,
which bursts of with the . 'Law\ .. He
. . . . . . .
observes that Judaism, in its attempt tO define
and fix the eternal lines of man's passage through
time, struggles to suppress myth. He . exag-
gerates, no doubt, the historical and theological
.. opposition of Ha!akhah, the definitions of Oral
Law, andAggada,.thehomiletic anctfolk exegesis .
of Beneath his unnecessarily rhapsodic
language is the conviction that the power which .
. life possesses to fashion its own meaning and
supply its. own sustenance cannot be suppressed.
83
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Life struggles to surpass and fulfiUts limj..tations, .
to transform. the given from factum brutum into
factum ineffabile. Legend projects beyond ordet
and returns to it. The given-is given,
is, in the wake of transformation, now wel-
comed, no longer opposed.
The Hasidic genius lay in the ability to fashion
. .. .
a in which creatio!l was raised up,
was 'inffuitized' by fat of nb longer viewing
it under the judgmeri.tof rejectionand_separation;
The finite entered the infinite by affirming the
portion which it shares with divinity. Creation
is divine if it be considered such.
. ..
In sum, the Hasidic vision anticipates the uni- .
verse of I :and Thou . arid . implies its essential
character. The Hasidic which, alas, sur-
vives only in books and its . few degenerated.
communities, was a world in which the I and
Thou .. was spoken. The holiness . of. God,
according to Hasidism, was wherever man chose.
to find it and open hlmseif to its greeting. The
work of Martin Buber is but a commentary on
. . .
this
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JJ. . ' 11 IV
. . Mi:uz's)T7cry in the World
The thqught of Martitl. Bubet is divided rather
clearly into three 1!1ajor . areas of concentration: :
. . - : .. ,
. the- primttry p1:6blem of being (J and
Dialogue, Dahiel, The Question of the Single ,
the literature of Hasidic, J e\vjsh ....
exegesis,. which historically his . . . .
j
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J into the problem of being .. . ,.
Faith,. the Baal Shem, The. . .
. }Jqcman, For the Sake of .. . : .....
. I
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:.. . .. ... ... :. . . ..; . ' ... .. : . . . . . . . . . " . '-'. . : ...
\ .. . l In a recent,.essay, 'The Relig10n of Martm Buber' .
. f (tkeolo$.j yql. }{:II, pp. .
J . Ronald. Gtegor Srruth proposes a div1s1on of Buher's .
. ! . work to whathe on<,:eives to be its
f . : .
...
1
.: . : Suber's affectionate comments on Chdstlaruty to _1mply
. . Tivo Types 6j Faith) .and his efforts to
. and
: :'.:.: - ....
' .
. ,; . some subtle forni of crypto..:Christian commitment . This .
.. . : is not quite accurate, as we have tried to show. Smith.Is
,,:-1 ' .. rig.h.t in his theo!o. gicalmi.s- .
. . appropr1at10!i.arid paroch1alapplicatmn of many of:Buber' s
furtdarriehtal,iijsights. I prefer the of areas I
. .. ... .
'84
. . . . 85
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Buber's thought pursues the joini,ng- of
principle and event, tho?ght and life. His work
would pe incomplete had we. but the speculative
- writings alone; writin&s on and _
.the Bible _ inten:?ed _- t9 bear to the
_ historical reality of thelartd Tho4,_Hie function- --
. i!lg_ presetice ()f in the gtceat religious . -
: ' . . ttiOVe!Jlents of .rnankirtd.. Tlie ofdialogue . is_.
: n.ot, h6weve.t; .exhausteq by of its . . .
-- past ancl : _ ;If,--_ indeed, -the
dialogue qf God" ttian d9es .riot but -
. unfolds eaCh: m.ari is .. .
..
! ... - turns'in thatsignificant:.hody
whichtakes up . .. ."'
; . . .. . Before entering)lpOn an extended discussion
. e . . . . .. . - . : . . . . .- .. . ...
" ofthis literature,-it would be to recall a
. theme recul:ie<f in more insistent
__ - ancl appealing tones his w()rk. As .
. was.- deat iri the pfimary: 'dialogic; writings and
in his consideration of the :Bible and Hasidistn,
.-

have_ proposed to his 1 it should be
limited to pdmadly religious emphases, hU:t should turn
. oh the problem of man's being in general.
86
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life prP.isses to the union of community and the
Holy. The joi-ning. of community, informed by
the Holy" a-9:d _the Holy, completed by the
mirror. 6f e:on:in:mil!lty, normally called 'sacra-
me.titaFexiste11ce'. - . , _
In a brillidnt which many critics have not
suffiCiently. considered, 'Symbolical and Sacra:-
mental Existetice in Judaism? the is
seen as the emergence of meaning, . the mani-
' . .
festation and statement of meaning within the
order of human existence. The sacrament is,
howeyer; 'the binding of meaning to body', ._
is, the petf{)rmance 'of an act which seals the
symbol into the meaning of life and, implicitly,
I .
renders. life Jess meaningful (or meaningless) if
the sacrament is dissolved. In its indi:Vidual
statement a. sacrament is the binding 1n friend-
ship, in marriage, in brotherhood-wherein the.
covenant of the Absolute arid the concrete is

l. 'Symbolical artd Sacramental-Existence in Judaism,' .. .
Hasidism, op. cit;, Mamrc; op. dt., pp. 121:....48.
Christian theologians are chary of this essay, no doubt
because-it employs one of the mostcharged of theological
. terms, 'sacrament'' to mean something which is not so
.- fr;::ely understood. Paul Tillich is, of course, very close to
. i Ht,1ber in his 'tfi.inking on the relation of symbolic and
sacrament3.lexistence, but Buber is one of the first Jewish
thinkers to elaborate the meaning of sacrament in Jewish
life. .
87
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. secretly'. The public covep.ant is,
.. however, the of the Holy and
the community.
The problem of the religious community is
the selection and incorporation of the Holy
. into the order of its .existence. The sacrament is
. .1[' ..
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not merely symboliC appropriation, . but real . . . . \


The sacrament is neither limited . It
by expressi<:>n nor fixedby tHe .. f
.... ... .. I'
gestated by the divtne and. filled . '\Ji71th Hts : :
presence, it is .11ot penetrated by the Holy until .
it has been from its: neutrality by the
. e . . . ...... . . . . . .
community. 1Jle crisis ofmodern culture is that
it leaves more and more ofthe world beyond the .
reach of sacramental transformation. . The crisis
. is, in effect, the increasing disjunction of the H()ly_,
and the C<?mmunity; the .act of binding, where it .
occurs, is formalized and rigidified .. The world
ceases to be the harV-est. of sacramental existence,
but is .allowed to .lie fallow. 'The crisis. of .the
world is .. that . the province of the profane. is
allowed to increase its ,
Bt1ber's workwo:ald beincomplete were he not.,.. ..
t; ..
1
and Palestine,. East and West.
Library, p; i; .. .;
.. .. : 'ss:
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to. artic{Ilate ihe bases from which sacramental
e:x1,stence ... may be reaffirmed and the Holy
reclaimed.
In.' the.flandbook oo lectures on logic, Kant
added to.the three. questions which he posed to
in . the Critique . of Pure Reason a
.. fourth: Whatis Man? Inan attempt-to formulate ..
.. the,:prohlem and limn the of J. reaJ
-. answer, Buber in 1938, a long study, .
'What Is. Man,?' The essay pursues its critical .a
.. brilliantly;. successiyely examining . the .
'of thoti:ghf which have emerged in. the .
of philosophy. Although the .....
toqinvolyed and its tOO:.. .
: .... ,.. . . . .. .' . . '. . l .
. ....... :.;
.. ... t:dihed to be reco:untc;d here,it is well to indica
. . is
9bjecdvy_probie.tn in the concrete thinking ..
to: recognize that. is pot only the- .. .
...... ,_ . .. " .. :. : ... . . . . . . . . ... .
. but :.the .subject -of. Man is a ..
thing among the things .C>f nature (Aristotle):; ..
is the fix<::c1.:cifv1a1ng line spirituaT , .
. . a:nd . physical-11ature ..(Aquinas); man is the
.. whom God's love for himself is
... marJ.e ma,njfest (Spinoza); man is tendered
. 'U,tteriy alone by the awareness of his 'infinite
srp.allness' iil relation to an infinitely large
. '-" 89 .

',)'
..
..
..
-unfathomable universe (Pascal); . man,
1
but a
'tnomentiJ;I. a moving dialectic of history, is. the --
. principle in which universal reason achieves self-
. consciousness and completion by .a
. . .sociological reduction of the Hegelian)rriage dC
. the the whole of man'S. wotJd is litnited
. to his society (Miuix); rrian is the central, prdb- ._.....
. .
. is stm unfixed. ..
F. .and : man 'is . the
' creature, the ' of . whose .
. . :however 'he Jive others, tC> be -..
..... . .: ... . .. -. . . . .. . . .. - .
. :- _ ..


.. .:preserve himself intact from its : ni.vagi!lg
de.m.a1lds. :'ln. whether it be
sophie or philosophic irtdiv'idua1ism,
.. . the questions o J?hilosophical antlirof>ology
whlth Bhber poses are not answered; It is as a

philosophic anthropologist that Buber's ge1;1ius
is realized- for I and Thou is not a .of
. . . . . .v . -. .. : ._.: .._ .. ... .
thought or a metaphystc. Although dist:ln-"
guished students of :Suber's thought see 1n -his .
work answers to primary
90
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metaphvsicaJ questions, his . serious coptribution
.... ... does hot. lie here. Buber is not a philosopher,
but an anthropologist . The skein of myth which
he casts . the fame of reality. is no less indiqi- .
tive for being myth. As in all great myth, its
power in its successful. pointing_ to realities
that are n.ot,properly Buber is only too
aware thafwhenonenames his Thou it .
God doest':not 'Wish to be named nor does the
_.beloved, not bur fellow creatures. When w.e
prize them in the relationof speech, love passes
acrqss the bond of words, as lightning might
. dance along .a wire suspended in space.. Where
the speaking :fu:es the spiritin words, the speak-
ing _, .
. B1,1ber's anthropology is ofa specific .nature;.
It is a bqdyofinsight whicJ:iparadoxically cannot .
be formulated. It s-erves him as an instrument of
. . .. . . . ' .. . .. .
criticism, . for with it he. cut through arid
isolate the distortions of man in the views of
but,_ constructively, his insight can serve
us orily by its indirection. indirection does
not reduce it to ambiguity, for its application
_ cap. be indicated and described. Like Socrates
in the Protagorai, the . fundamental issue is
whether the principles . can 'be taught and com-
. municated, .whether one can fashion a gerietation
91
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:::.: ..

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irt. which man. c!n learn the language 1 .
Thou.
At the of 'What Is Bubtr assesses
the prospects of his constructive anthropology.
Between the extremes of individualist and col:,
lectivist ideologies is a third way. In,.
Buber. cdntends; conceives of ni.an
in his partiality. ; whereas .collectivism can see
i! :
man only as a part. Neither e'ncom}>asses the
@; whole of man. In the former man is reduced to
his being in solitude, . an4 in the latter mati. is
assimilated to society. The consequence of man's
cosmic and social homelessness and his resultant
dread of. the universe has produced both . ex-
. .. . . . . . . . . . ' . . . . .
retreat' iJJ,to soli tilde and the willing
surrender of to the :hithority of.. .
the collective mind .. Both distort man's
'The fundamental fact ofhuman existence is
man with man.'
1
Neither .man secreted within .
himself, rio:r man assimilated to the group, but
rather the relation of man to.man completes the.
.. . picture ofhls nature. Both extremes, which
. Buber. rejects; giye distorted glimpses of the
final truth, but both, py the extremity of
angle of vision, result in cutting off man from t)
man. Man with man is not defined by his simple
.
1
'What Is Mah ?',Between Man and Manj op. cit., p. io3. ''
-.:' : ..:->
92.
..

con;urmnaljoining to meet a specific lite eXIgcL..,_,,
. for\vha\ binds 1,11en together is not programl!latic'
. 'agree11}etlt, .but transference from.' one 'to
.. . o. .. portion of his nature-.
one ca11 it, love or. sympathy. or respect
or trust.: Jn any case, what' passe.s betWeen man .
: and themover and above the occasion ..
: that br()U.ght them. together. , The occasion .of
. . . ' .. : '.. . . . .!>
. 111eeting ts them both-it is fortuitous
. and cl1ance i hut: whe.p. meeting. transpires, the ,J
. occasion.' I no ibri.ger chap.ce., but an :,of
des.tiny. What occurs. tV-an and.rp.an does
I \ '
.. 1 not-; transpire over neutral ground, but.
.. 'C\ . ..
..._
1
1
of God's instruc;tion to a.t\d the at1;gel;s : . . '
:< . . . ....... -:vords to Joshua that they remove .

1
. ";hen_ and m:m\speak,
: > . . 1s betWeen them 1s drawn mto theu conversatmn
/ hallowed.by:,it, -:o; :/. ..... ... . .. .
. 'the ;>pje,c#oti _tb this 'formulation of man with ....... .
orily, .
) nevetthe'iess. rt. would. ap .ear that.
l .... . . . a:ri.'t addresses and calls into being its rThou .in .
f . terra sancta that is neither s:u.bjec 've.P.O!, :
1. . ... ' . . . . ..
. 93 .
.. : ..
. I
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.. .
: ...
. . . ' :' ' '. ' . ' ' ' ... . ' ..... ,:
objective; Btiber calls it, )>11 .
. narrow. ricige' . bet\Veri . : subject ' and. i object.
Although catinot fine enough to . ... .
compass this ridge,,_. one. mii!St grai!t .
' '' . ridge can be grasped retrosped:ively ij;l : ..
.
neithe; viewed ,
woti,ld co1'11rrJ;end: ri.<?r 'to th-e\ private
. /:t() do. so because; as I hay:e

.....
ing_Yisi6h;ofthe. Being beyond time and hi ory
wJ.1o: pa:sses. through it and prepares .it. fo lts
. fulfilment. There can be 11either rd e
nor: 'constr\1,ctive finality to his < progtah1 . e,
. ) . . . . . . . . . . .
because history does. not have its close in time
94

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not tn?,y end,;.point be grasped i11: the pro--
. of man. As a prophetic figure
.. -Buber himself in the role of one who holds
' up the min:or of self.:.cllstortion to his self-
. congratulation and the image of man's perfec- .
. tion to the reality of man's. In either
role he can but ask man to trust the possibility of
the way the .narrow ridge holds open. In the
end, .after' man has spoken. all that he. can speak,
God will answer at last.
In the meantime man must set himself to his
task. In conGtete
of realization,: (a) the formation of new '.
. munity, and (b) the education ..ofman.
. In the of Paths --in Utopia .
Buber expands >the closing .. chapter of 'What Is .
?' Though it is writtert decade later,
apparently Buber is aware thathis statement of .
the. true basis of philosophic anthropology carr be.
proved onlyby exemplification. The life of mart
with man; however it may be examined and ..
formulated by the critical intelligence, is demon;. .
strated only concretely. It is not whether man's
essence 'is to be with man, but whether man is
.. ever with man, whether he can successfully
the ground that. _separates him from
':- and be bound with him together. Having
95
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:history of European

and
1ts trag1c Buber comes to the <:<>nstruc-
tive . corrective; Although the . analy1is of its
and econ?mic orga1ilization schematic
and, I . fear, somewhat. vague and naive, what
underlies it is of the order of vision. ..
. Commt.tnity is not founded .. It is rather the
response of human beings, joined by historical ..
. . . . .
destiny, to. confront a. spedfic eXigency 01= chal-:
lenge. What binds them together. is not
the ,;mere concern to resolve contingent .
. rna, but a concern :Which unites them through a
common centre in which they take their stand!
The dialectic. weaves the. concretion of
their task- the the joint pro-
duction of a cornfr?.o.dity,-,--'and the centre which
defines the spirit in which the work is pursued.
Community is :therefore al;.ays for it
. is centred not in leaders 11or in committees no1:
in multiple that fortuitously
weld, but in the divine centre whose manifest
presence interpenetrates and . transforms . the
living members.
.. Paths in Utopia closes with a discussion ofiln
. . that has noi failed-. the .. Israeli '"
I
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. kibbutz(collective community). Although Huber
acknowledges .. its dilemmas and . . .;
. 96
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'

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tht? fulfils tht? partiaJ requirements . 'of
his .<Nbt N.toscow and Washington
defuie foci . of man?s fu:ture in the We'St,
. achieve these pre-do.n(:ljtibns.Ofconitilunityis the "
. task .of the It is t<Jtbis .qu.es,;, ..
tlon that _ fieqitentl)r .In his
of .it a .
differentiates. his V:iew frqpl bc>th the; practices of ..
edu.cation (particulady
.
. t.ional' thebry a& .It. operate!S i11 phltalistic ...
.cratic. such .as those of :GreatBfitaifi... .... ,,., .. ,,
and.the U$ted States) and ....

. .: ...
pietistic which Ja$ted .
.. '
. J.
.;-. .
..'?''
. .. :,. :
f'
.,
::.' .
. . ' ..
,. . , . . . . . . ;. : ...
education in' basic:. intellecti.tal skillk and iils,truc-
tion in the .. ....
whose'. v'ita.liiies had heeri. d.
impaired.. The. reactiC>ii, both irt El.lJtope ih
the States, Was to J,ose tq .
> .. task . of liberating the : irr1pou;nded :. ;c,r,eathr{ '
. .. energies .of the child; to
' .- .but of
into unity with his fellow man.: .. .:. : ' .
.tn an age such as outs, bereft as ..
..
educated, there is but image .; .

:.!
ib.J.ust a generation that has turned its face
the Spirit of God brbod!ng on the .face ..
,.?fthe towards Him of whom.we'know
not\Vhencc:hHe tom-=s nor whither He goes. This
.\'is min's true autonomy which no longer betrays
. . . . .
. hutresponds.'
. prophet closes, as do the p,rophets of old,
. leaving a legacy ofcryptic instruction. Essenti-
ally Bubet is .1 prophet of an old and .
. . way. As he would willingly acknowledge,
:. . .... . . . ... . 4..
't4t! narrow ridge' has been trod but twice in the
of the days of ancient
lsrael and in thedays ofHasidlsm. It is a rather
... reinote<and u.tihappy prospect for mankind to
. .. . .. . .. "' . . .
be corifr()ntecl with the witness of but two com
muri.ities in the long history of man which
achieve that spontaneity and directness .which
.. describe . the encoub.i:er . of the Holy and the.
hlstdrib1 community. . It is equally true; given
. . .. . . . . . . . .. "":
the premises we have des<;:ribed, . that no other
community possessed so completely or with such
single-minded clarity the manner of life which
Buber commends. . . ..
The difference between the prophets ofisrael
and the vision of Buber is the ab- .
sence of the quality of_judgment in the latter.
Isaiah and J are not uncertain of the
99
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.
Q " ,
consequences which await an Israel
g
J : .>' ,
If a man chooses to. illuminate the world he
-not merely the paralysis of the innew life or
. . . 1 .
the desiccation of the spirit. these),
. . ' . . . .. . . : .. : . . . . . ,. . .
. !.
. . .... \ .. .. &t anony-
but violent judgment and l.he pain of
.. failure and desertion was judgment. Only when
the judgment had qeen achieved was mercy.
readied for the remnant.. What awaits man in
Huber's eschatology? Each retreat from the
imitat!odei, eachwithdrawal of heatt!'from the
encounter with God signals that contraction
into evil which, as in the Kaballistic teaching of
Yitzhak Luria of Safed, prep. ares the wodd for
. salvation only .by. destroying it the. more .. Al- ..
though this view the superfit;:es of
Buber's thortght, it is always surpassed by the
more profound, abiding, and authenfic:ally
Biblical .cqnviction: is rendered eV:il. by
man's and redeemed by man'shallowing,
The of deceit, ih which the worldJs:
.. surrendered to darkness:; .pa,sses in the greit .
turning (T'shttvah) of manto God The
man turning from evil td good misses Bl1.ber's
.. point and incidentallfmisses the Biblical point.
It is not that a man tUrns. from the. evil tO
..
the good, artificially consigning a portion of 4)
the world to darkness artd a portion to light;
. The world is neuttal before the light of >
10.0
.. ):

...
. ... -:
-.,.
'- .'
! . , ;: >J!A<)US face of the mass; light contmues to .
... , . . .
\ "'. :. .. . . To: tn.y knowledge there is no extended ...
... 1 .. the:ideaofthe.f!6ly ar
f. . It' should be clear .that no dis'"
. . . J. is ne.cessary, the Holy is :.
I . flasstc. theology, encounter little ,< .
.... ). . .
l . va1idity of proofs,: the:.: ..
..
.1/..
. Goa J?tesence 'Yho authenticates life .. "' J . ...
authent;icitlon.oflife 6tisis'ts in. God's offering' . . . '

..
. . .. . . . Itectly.'tb !Ilan, that is, ma,ldng his .,..
'The .. task of . min is. n.o; t() ...
hP:tiness' irito cteatiori, but to raise:
:o: It is. . ..
. .. .. .... . . .. to
'
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.. ,.
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. Go'd intoitnperfection is .} Isaiah is .. Failure. truth;
the tmperfect, for Qqg nat . Thougr,_ the truth fa1lm the histoncal111oment,.
met .. The .. . ..... the. .of truth is ... pteserved and borne
imperfect for:, Y.qd . > thr<>Ugh h*otory. . . . .. .. . . . . .....
. . . . . closes c;haracteifstic . .. 'j. One cannot help but feel, in. rading .... .
< . is left to t: take . < 1 .. . .
. .. r it.'. It is believe,d . .
lie .m hls ., like the fit1th o'f Isa1ah, I am not convmced that.
demerit bf.his lti)t /i Buber ascribes to God power equal to his mercy .
. ..,. .. . " . .... .. ' ...... ( . ... .,'; ."',.. . . . ' . . ... . . . .. ....
address, .'PlatO. ;a;1,1d . . ..There is a resurgent emphasis,. in theological' ..
...
ductory lecture befot,e ihe Hebrew ... . Circles, on the mercy and compassion. of God.
1938, Buber . When the world's misery is descrihed.and the
In comparing educator ot .Pi9n: ()f . . .. horrors of these decades are the mercy
. Syracuse, antf.lsaiah,i e_dttcator of :the ;of .. .. , of God.is invoked- G-od remember::S,, God weeps
. .. . Israel, .. ' ; over creation (as indeed he does), God sorrows,
Plato to be a of l , . forgives, and loves. But the virtue ofprophetit
the wise man pe:rfectiori of the sp"lll.to f indignation (which to my knowledge Buber only
. .r . t in his magnificent Peace Prize; accept"- . ...
sptrtt was an .event which se1zed one :;fr()t,ll . . I , ance speech to the Getman Book Trade 1n t953)
. the outside artd perfection . of the sour' to . ' .. is absent. All is enclles$. exhortation; patience,
non-existent and in .:Utte.r contrast to man'{.t1i{{ .. . , trust, and compassion. I admitt:Q.atthiscriticism .. .
worthiness. .Plito; in the . ... J is perhaps impressionistic, for whlch I apologize.
bring thetruth:{>tthe,splritinto .. ; .. / !.have, however, always imagineg that the real
.. place of fails, .... ' .. niercy of God will go out to the true monsters.
the assumptior1 truth will .. l of history who, in the hour of their death, will
fail. Where Plato is Cllsillusi6rred. by faP,d.reF 1. come before God and remain forever . in his
. .
::
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Presence-k.tiowing, for eternity,-that indeed he
lives whom they have, through their Jkves and
_ detds, denied. Igive heaven as judgm{.b.t to the
monsters. The judgment vpon 'upright'
:rl, ,._.
. .\ , ....
. . ' . .
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'
_ middle classes and the rich- all
this iS,. focused by Buber through the
conimendation of the waJof The._ ...
gap which separates, howeve:r, the poverty. and
define the way of the- poor"ln Hasid-
Jim: an.d. "the rich, comfortable, ' and established .
. \V6stern bourgeoisieis vasf Few indeed will go
.. . Israel kibbutzim. -What' of the vast millions
who can :be touched py nothing. else than the
. . . . . . . . . .. . .. .. ' ..
words of scattered nien and raridom hooks? ..
For them th{propheti<? call cannot be calm and - .
judidqus. Buber transmutes tl1e . poverty arid .. -
filth of central 'European Jewish life, but does __
not, to my tnind, retain the meaning of its ugli- ' .
ness. In his -retelling Hasidic stories. the
incidents of without food or money to
buy .. wood and Sabhath candles become folk
. .' .. . . . warming us ori cold nights-but for those .
. ; life was a busineS which they fti/1
. redeemed. J Buber _had spoken more .
. of the nastiness and ugliness of this life and .,,
. judged more those of us who can read.
.. _.. .. -his wotds with calm and detachment. To be sure,_ ._._
:
104
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he protect,s his truth Gy ,,
\n advance .. is, beyond Buber and
:.,:lus . the< c6nviction of those V:,ho believe
:<'that! that God loves, he also
judges. - . ..
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. . 1078 .
I87$.:,_9i'Lived.in the:b.,Omeo(his gtandfather,
.. .. Bube:r; lrtade. coiitact_(ltiring suriurter months
. with nuinerC>tuiHasiaic coriirtiunitidiofGaJi- .
.. .. : ' ' . ., da where hf( spent ' . ' ' . ...
.. i 896 Enrolled in the the
ve:rsity of Vienna. . . . . .
01S97 Attends Fir.st ZionistCorigress; . -... ...
196i: Joins staff of D.i.e. JP"eit.:
1901 Assists in foundingthe]lid/sther Ver[dg,' .-.. .. -.
I90<f Projects with an aboJ;dve -. ... .
... pedodical, Der jude;:.: . . . . .-.. . . .. ..
. Discovers the literatilte of Hasidism and be-
.. -- .. glnfinterisive work 00; its sources and :t'ecori;;, _....
_. . - .. - struGtion.
1
._ / . > } .. ... :. - ..
Edits the Zionist priodical;[ Der ]uc(e;
. .. 1923 Publishes I and>Thpu, ... . . -. -.
'1:923-33 Teaches Jewish of religion atthe .
. atn Main. . ._
. . . .192 5 . Commences:, Ro_ enzweig, a new Ger:-
. fl; . . . .. . man ttatislatiori.of the brew Bible. .
_ .-_ _. Edits; a d Viktor von Weiz-
:; . . .. _ saecker, DifKreatur. . .
; :i: 93 3 Assumes R eies] iidi:rches Lehrhaus
r9?8 . : .
. 1938-si Professor at the
tJ ni versityin J et:usa111. . .. . . . . . . . ;
I 3 Heads Insdt(Lte of Adult Edueatiol1 iri IsraeL
195 I Visits the States of America for an ex-
tended tour; ;'

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I952 Receives Goethe Prize at the University. of
1953
Hamburg. . .. . .
.;leceives Peace Prize of the German Book irade
at Frankfurt am Main. -
1958 .Apc1jversary of his eightieth birthday. < , :
, .
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SELECTEbBIBLIOqRAP;iy
in English Translation
At tkeTurning. Three Addresses onJudaism. New York: .
Farrar, Str:ims, and Cuc,h1hy, !952 .
Between fv[an and Man. '
of Ji,falog'#e, The Q'iteition tothe Single Q,ne, Edgcation, The . .....
Educa#rm:ojCha.racter; a!J.d What1s Man?) London;Rout-
ledge &;Kegan NewYork:.Macmillan .
.: .... 1947
. .. . . ' . . , , .. '
Eplipse of God. New York: Harper & Brotht:rs, 1952;
Vjdor I 9.5 3: . . . . . . . .
flor the Sake 2nd ed.;New York: liatper &
Brothers, 195 :z> . . .; ; .
::.;ood and Evil. Two Interpretations. (Includes Right l::md
. Wrong. and Il.age(oj Good and Evii.)NewYork: Charles
Scribner's Sons, I953 .. .
Hasidis.m. New York: The Philosophical Library, 1948.
I and Thou. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1937.
Images of Good .and EviD Lo11don: Routledge & Kegan
Paul, 1952. . . : . . . .

1
Israel and Palestine . London: East and West Library; N 7w
York: Farrar;Strau:s and Cudahy, .195,2. . . .
Israel an.d the World. New York: Schocken Books, i948.
New York: Harper a'nd Bros;
London: East and WestLibraiy, 1955 . . .. ...
. 'Revelation and Law' ,theLetters of Buher and RosenZweig)
Qn Jewish by N. N, Glatzer).
York: Books:; I95 5 .; . . . . . . ....
Mamre .. Londott>and,. Melbourne:: Cambridge University
.Press and Melbourii.e University Press, 1946. .
Moses. Londori: and West Library; New York:
Farrar, Stral.ls;.}nid 1946.
,.. lo8
.,.
.o.:
tl.
...
'\'
i
.,.
..... Pl:iths in Utopia. Lo,ndq1l: & . Kegan
. 1949 . . .... ' ..: . . ,' .. . . . .. . . ..
the Way: Colkcted Essays. New Y ot:k: .
., Routiedge Kegan Paul, 1957
. j;he York: The MaGmillan Co.,
. ,, ..
' .
: 1949 : . ' . . . . .. . .. . . ..
. Righland Wrong; London.: s:c:M. J;lress, .195 .
T,q/(>offbeHasidim.: Early and Late z -vols; New .
1947; London: Thames & ..
. .Hudson; Ltd., . . . . . . . .
The T:ales New York: HqtizonJress; ..
'1956.' .,' ... ' .. . .
New York: SchockenBooks, 1947- . . . .
J:w.o Types of Faith. New York: The Macmillan Co.;,.
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951. :
The Way of London: Routle9ge: andkegan Pa:ul;
1950; Chicago: Wilcox & Foll(!tt; . .
,-,. ... . . . . . . . . . :. _;_ ...
-Works. ..-
]?aiiiei. Ldpzig; Insel 19 I .3. . ; . . . . . . . . .
. Drei J..{eden tiber dcN]udentum .. Frankfurt am Main: Rutten
: & Loening, L9.JV . . . . . . . . . .
Eksjaiische. Konfessionen . . J ena: Eugen . Diedrichs Verlag,
. 1909 .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Erqigne;se Insel Verlag, 1917 ..
giwse lviaggid und seine Nachfolge. Frankfurt am Main: .
1\i,itten &'.Loeriing, 1922,. . . , . .
., Vol. I, 19oo.,-14
Verlag; i9.x6: . Vol. 1916..:::z.o, B:erlini Jtldischel'
Verlag, '19.33 . . . ; . . , ... : ,
Konigtitm Berlin: Schocken Verlag, I 931; 2nci en- .
)lltgd edition:, 1936; . . .. . : ..
: Ma'jn Ufegziim Cbassidismus. Frankfurt am Maini Rutten
. & tqening, r
9
1s.
. Die Translation of the Bible frqmHebiew iQto ..
German 'by Martin l3uber. in collabqratiori w:lth Franz
Rosenzwdg. Berlin: Schocken Verlag, 14 , .
109
.' '"'
. '
.J ...

. .. : .
.j
' .
...
"'"'
ffl
If!.
.
,,:
.. .
,: ..-
. Books of Particuhir:Significanceabout Buber . . . .
Friedman, Buber: The Life of J{ia!ogue . .
London: Routledge &Kegan Paul; Chicago: ':(he Uni-
yersity of Chicago :l?ress, 1955. . .
No doubt the introductory work to :Suber's
thought. . . .. ... . .. . . . . ... . . .. .
Will The W.ritingsof MartiliBulieri New
.. York: Meridian Books, 1955. . . . :
'Kohn, Hans, Martin Buber, .rein Werk und Jeine Zeit.. H.d:..
. Jacob Verlag, 1930. ' .:
... -..
..
._ ...:_.
.
...
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.

BUBER
,.
b_y
ARJ'HUR COHE.N
""
-Martin is one of the few truly prophetic
minds of the age. With his roots in Jev\.ish
theology and he soon came to
realise how immediately relevant its dor-trines
and problems are to the whole contenYJotary
intellectual scene. Ever since, Buber been
preoccupied in all his writings with the possible
ways-ways still accessible to the modern mind
--of atoning for the b_etrayal, steadily, increas-
ingly and insensibly carried on, of the spiritual
origins from which our moral and intellectual
tradition stems. Their persistent disavowal may
mean doom; and Buber is sure that they arc
being disavowed in the progresoive loss of all
spohtaneity and immediacy in .6ui: social rela-
tionships, in the transformation of the. world
into a mere- bject of human !l'anipulation, a:nd .
in the violence done to the created
order. ltis through his philosophy of dialogue
--"'rhat-Martin Buber seeks to recover the sense of
.., the Holy, obscured in the eclipse of the God of
Judaism anc.J.. Christianity.
;.. In this study Arthur Cohen follows the
.. development of Buber's doctrine of "I and
Thou", his rediscovery of the literature of
Hassidism (a remarkable community of Jewish
't\1ystics); his interpretation of the Hebrew Bible
and Christianity, and his manner of bringing
ilo the principles of dialogue to bear upon the
- problems of the contemporary world. .
. Arthur Cohen, living in New York, is the
"'"' author of several essays on Jewish theology and>
philosophy, and is at present preparing a book
fon The Making of the jewish Mind.
IOS. 6d. net,
"'
""
-
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'

.
ERICH HELLER<'
Profrssor ._ .. 0
<J: are .
W. Alexander:
. *Arttil:o Barea: VNAMti'No.
*KKBennett: siiiP-":.J GEORGE ..
* W.H. Bruford: CH2KHOV
*Roy >.
Roy FERNANDo
* J M;'Cocking: PRQUST_ ,.--. :, ..
* A'ffiiur C9hen: B .OilER
* Wallace'fqwlie:.PAUL CLAVDEL. -----.
*Hugh' GERHART HA''qPTMANN
*Marjorie Grenc: miiDEGGER
. .. *C, A; Hackett:' RIMBAl,:<i> ..,
* Hani1s H:ammelv;,arrn: HOFMANNsnri\t
. John ,,
; .. Ei:kliHeiier: NIETzscnE <
*Rayner Heppe)lstall: nioY
. . . *H. E:Holthusei).: RILKE .
* M.Jarrett-Kerr, C.R.:-M_AunrAc:.
. ., -: *P .. MansellJones: BAUDELAIRE
. * P. Mansell Jones: \rERHAERilN
Ernst-Kaiser and Eitlme Wilkins:. ROBEic{;;,;usn:
. * Jankci ):.,ayffli: GON..CHAROV
. 11- RobLylei MlS.T'l!At'
11-'Richard March,:: K-t;EIST :
*Jose Ferrater Mora: oiifildA y GAS SET
. *Iris
Theodore Redpath:. nits Toy
Garnet Rees: DB coun*_gNT
" * L. S. _
* Sev\fell: li AUt vAL
. *Cecil cRacE'
*'Enid Starkxb: ANDRI'i Gl-DE .
* ]. P.Sterit: llRNST J!JNGER .
*Anthony
* E.-W; F. Tomlini.srMbNE
*Martin JACQUES
. *BrnardWall:.MANzoN'r:
\V. HiltonYoting: PIRANDEL)',p :)
',

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