On Judaism

by Martin Buber

Edited by Nahum N. GlatzerWith a new Foreword by Rodger Kamenetz “The question I put before you, as well as before myself, is the question of the meaning of Judaism for the Jews. Why do we call ourselves Jews? I want to speak to you not of an abstraction but of your own life . . . its authenticity and essence.” With these words, Martin Buber takes us on a journey into the heart of Judaism—its spirit, vision, and relevance to modern life.

Genres: Judaism, Philosophy, Religion, Jewish, Judaica, Nonfiction, Essays

242 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship.

Buber came from a family of observant Jews, but broke with Jewish custom to pursue secular studies in philosophy. In 1902, Buber became the editor of the weekly Die Welt, the central organ of the Zionist movement, although he later withdrew from organizational work in Zionism. In 1923 Buber wrote his famous essay on existence, Ich und Du (later translated into English as I and Thou), and in 1925 he began translating the Hebrew Bible into the German language.

In 1930 Buber became an honorary professor at the University of Frankfurt am Main, and resigned in protest from his professorship immediately after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. He then founded the Central Office for Jewish Adult Education, which became an increasingly important body as the German government forbade Jews to attend public education. In 1938, Buber left Germany and settled in Jerusalem, in the British Mandate of Palestine, receiving a professorship at Hebrew University and lecturing in anthropology and introductory sociology.

Reviews

[Seyed Morakabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

ما در این کتاب با دو بوبر طرفیم. بوبر صهیونیست و بوبر ضد صهیونیست. اگر جوهره‌ی صهیونیسم را به معنای امتزاج دین تاریخی و دولت در نظر بگیریم، خواهید دید این کتاب می‌تواند چه اندازه پراهمیت و جذاب باشد. خصوصا اگر بدانیم بوبر تا سال ۱۹۰۱ عضو کنگره‌ی صهیون بوده. کتاب، مجموعه‌سخنرانی‌هایی است که توسط خود او جمع‌آوری شده است؛ سخنرانی‌هایی در دو بازه‌ی تاریخی: خطابه‌های نخست ۱۹۰۹ تا ۱۹۱۸ یعنی در بحبوحه‌ی جنگ جهانی اول و خطابه‌های بعدی ۱۹۳۹ تا ۱۹۵۱ یعنی همزمان با استقلال اسرائیل.
از آیت الله بروجردی نقل شده است که فقه شیعه، حاشیه‌ای بر فقه اهل سنت است. به همین قیاس می‌توانیم کمی عقب‌تر برویم و بگوییم فقه اهل سنت، حاشیه‌ای بر فقه یهود است. در واقع، انبیای بعدی، همیشه برای طراوت‌بخشیدن به ادیان فاسدشده‌ی قبلی برانگیخته می‌شدند. این کتاب، سخنرانی‌های بوبر فیلسوف دین و روحانی است برای: متدینانی که می‌خواهند در عصر غیبت (به اصطلاح یهودی: گالوت) و در دوران مدرن، زندگی الهی داشته باشند.
اگر بخواهم تیتر مفاهیمی را که این کتاب به آن پرداخته است، بیاورم عبارتند از: اشتراکات و افتراقات توحید شرقی، ایرانی و ابراهیمی. نسبت خدا و انسان و جامعه‌ی انسانی در ادیان ابراهیمی. تأثیر میراث پیامبران در غیاب آن‌ها بر شیوه‌ی تدین بازماندگان. نسبت اجزای دین با یکدیگر. سرشت زندگی. تفاوت نمادها و هنر و معنا در تمدن اروپایی با تمدن بین النهرین، خاستگاه ادیان ابراهیمی. مناسبات بینا نسلی و عمل‌گرایی متدینان در مواجهه با دنیای مدرن. زندگی با امر مطلق در دنیای جدید. نسبت دین تاریخی با زندگی و دین حقیقی. مفهوم توبه و بازگشت. جایگاه استعاره در زبان ادیان، در میان متدینان و در دنیای جدید. بررسی امکان تجدید وحی. نسبت اعمال و سرنوشت انسانی با نظام علت و معلول. مفهوم دعا. مفهوم بت‌پرستی. عمل مطلق. بی‌واسطگی وجود و مفهوم حضور خداوند. نسبت شریعت و سنت با زندگی. نسبت شریعت و سنت با آزادی. تفاوت جامعه‌ی دینی با جوامع فردگرا و سوسیالیستی و پرسش از محمل تحقق خداوند. مسئله‌ی موعود و انتظار و انبیای پس از موسی و حکومت جهانی دین. نسبت دین و اخلاق. دوگانه‌ی اکراه و رحمانیت و نسبت آن با دیانت. زندگی در شهر و دیانت. نسبت عمل و معرفت. نسبت روح و جسم. نسبت آسمان و زمین. نسبت آخرت و دنیا. نسبت مرگ و زندگی. نسبت عقل و دین. نسبت معنویت و دنیا. مسئله‌ی وحدت. مسئله‌ی قیام در برابر ظلم و قدرت‌های زمینی و نسبت آن با تدین و ایمان. دیانت و اقدامات حفاظتی یا انطباقی در مواجهه جهان مدرن. مسئله‌ی پول. مسئله‌ی رستگاری در جهان مدرن. حضور همیشگی اصحاب شریعت. روابط بین الانسانی. مسئله‌ی وحی. نسبت دین تاریخی با آینده‌ی دیانت. پرسش از رحمانیت مطلق الهی و نجات فراگیر. مسئله‌ی نقص و نسخ ادیان. نسبت قانون و دین. نسبت هویت و دین. رمیدگی از دنیای مدرن و دین تاریخی. جوانان. سرفصل‌های واحد ادیان و نسبت آن با شرایع و زمان. رستگاری متدینان و رستگاری غیر متدینان. منجی ایرانی و منجی ابراهیمی. نسبت تمدن فعلی با حکومت جهانی دین. نسبت ایمان و سلطه. تجربه‌ی حکومت دینی. اوصافی همچون مؤمن، کافر و… در کتب مقدس و نسبت آن با خودپرستی یا قبیله‌پرستی. نسبت عشق و عدالت. غیبت و مسئله‌ی شر.
هشدار: در وضعیت تاریخی امروز ما در ایران، هر روز تعلل در مطالعه‌ی این کتاب، به منزله‌ی خیانت به خویشتن است.

[Ananias Hilario reyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author does a great work in exploring the aspects of Judaism that are most fundamental to the religious practice. Even for someone who has been studying the Torah, rabbinical literature, and other Jewish sources—like myself—the book aids crystallize into words and concepts the ideas that, in the aim to put into practice what can be learned therein, become embedded in the core of being.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in comprehending what is the essence of Judaism, in terms of their understanding of what constitutes the purpose of man as an individual, as a member of mankind; of mankind as a species in the world; and how man is to fulfill this purpose.

It is worth acknowledging that the negative criticism made to the book with respect to zionism and racial theories, is well founded. At times the author would dare pose certain subjective conjectures as facts: for instance, when discussing about the cognitive experience of the Jew, being a motor-type man with a heightened sense of time. This is not to say that this proposition is absolutely invalid, but the way in which it is presented is lacking of factual support, or, alternatively, it lacks a decent recognition of its unscientific nature.

That being said, I will go over the most important themes covered in the book, when viewed under the lens of learning about how Judaism is lived, in terms of its essence: its core principles, its core understandings about good and evil, how to act; in general, how to conduct oneself in one’s life in a way that realizes its purpose.

The essence of Judaism
In the teachings of Judaism the presence of inner conflict is predominant. The Jew perceives his soul to be the battleground of his good natural tendencies, against his evil natural tendencies. Knowledge of the eternal is born out of the longing for unity in the conflicting Jewish soul: he realizes that “One thing above all is needed”. This “One thing above all” he learns, out of his own experience, is the actualization of his divine freedom: the power to choose what will have supremacy in his life.

In Judaism the participation of man with regards to good and evil changes form: from being the one observed in this conflict between the good nature and the evil; it transforms into being a matter of decision or neglect, a matter of responsibility of one’s own choices. The Jew sees that the essence of the realization of divine freedom is the act of decision; and analogously, inertia, neglect, indecisiveness are the root of all evil. Evil is a carcass, a resistance, that needs to be drilled through by positive action: by the constant choice of bringing into realization the aspects that should have predominance in the soul. This is symbolized in Jewish tradition by the Covenant of the circumcision, where the foreskin represents evil as the carcass in between the phallus—man—and the world.

Religiosity for the Jew is his longing to establish a living communion with the unconditioned, transposing it into the world of man. The goal of Judaism is always truth as deed: he sees that the countenance of God reposes, invisible, in an earthen block, its reality is ever-present; the purpose of man is to decide for it, to realize it, to sculpt the divine out of the matter of this world.

A natural consequence of Judaism’s attitudes towards the inner-conflict experienced in the soul is the concept of repentance (teshuva): when in the midst of sin, man breaks free from inertia and decides to change, no matter the hardships he might encounter. It is told by Jewish tradition that before the world was created there was nothing, only God and His name. Then it occured to God to create the world, and He drew a sketch of it for Himself, but He perceived that the world could not endure because it had no lasting foundation—whereupon he created the act of return (teshuva). In the words of the Talmud: “Even the perfectly righteous may not stand in the place where those who have returned are standing”.

This attitude towards the duality experienced in the root of one’s existence—the supremacy of decision in overcoming it—permeates all the forms and specifics of the teaching of Judaism. We can gain understanding of one instance if we look at the process that Jewish monotheism went through during the early stages of its development, until it reached its summit and established itself there. It can help recognize in a distilled manner the spiritual developments that were occurring in the Jewish people. The first stage is the referring to God by the name Elohim, which denotes a representation of a plurality of cosmic forces unified in action; then YHVH arises from the Elohim as a single dominating force, the “One thing above all is needed”, carrying with him the plurality of cosmic forces, as YHVH of Hosts (YHVH Zebaot). Finally, the YHVH in the books of the Prophets is not only the God of Israel, but the God of the Universe. This mirrors the spiritual process of the Jew: first his soul is divided but unified in action, in the striving for unity; then this will to unity manifest in action becomes the governing principle. Subsequently, this will to unity leads the way, the plurality of forces following. Finally, the Jew sees that this is THE WAY of mankind, that in one way or another, this is the process man must go through if he wants to walk in the way of God: “One thing above all is needed”.

In different forms, the variety of nations have posed their core principle as an ideal to be pursued: the Tao of the Chinese, the dike for the Greek, the rita or urta for the Indo-Aryan. Everywhere transcendent Being has a side facing toward man which represents a “shall-be”; everywhere man, if he wants to exist as man, must strive after a suprahuman model. Israel is the nation that decided to marry this task of becoming that which man is meant to be. The spirit of Israel is the spirit of commitment to the realization of the purpose for which man was created. The core and essence of Israel is the commitment to fulfill this purpose. This process of actualization and transformation is the one for which the Jews are an exemplar for humanity.

Comparison with Christianity, Hinduism, and Oriental Religions
The author compares Judaism with several other spiritual traditions of Orient, with the study of the transcendental through philosophy by Occident, and with Christianity. He never makes it a comparison about which one is right, and which one is wrong, except in the case of Christianity, where he takes the stance that its Jewish roots were corrupted by the Pauline idea of salvation by faith. He calls it “the poison of faith”, because the believers are seduced into abandonment of the world they live in, and can only hope to be saved by grace. Understandably, the author is very critical of this teaching, which is diametrically opposed to the Jewish teaching of realization by deed. The teaching of salvation by faith breeds a denial of reality, of the reality that we encounter in life, and therefore, a negation of life and a neglect of responsibility. Moreover, Judaism condemns “the paying of lip service to God”, which means to proclaim faith in God without manifesting it in the deed.

With respect to Hinduism, the author juxtaposes to the Jewish idea of redemption to the Indian idea of redemption, which is, in a sense, purer and more unconditional but which signifies not a liberation from the soul’s duality, but a liberation from its entanglement in the world. To the Indian sage as he is represented in the Upanishads, corporeal reality is an illusion, which one must shed if he is to enter the world of truth; to the Jew, corporeal reality is a revelation of the divine spirit and will. Corporeal reality is divine, but it must be realized in its divinity by him who truly lives it. In this sense, Judaism is an affirmation of life, a decision to navigate through it with justice and love; whereas Hinduism is a negation of life, the striving for a detachment from it through the death of the ego: Indian redemption progresses into timelessness; Jewish redemption means the way of mankind.

For Judaism, God is an elementally present spiritual reality, emanating from the immediacy of existence as such, which the religious man steadfastly confronts and the nonreligious man evades. He is the sun of mankind. However, it is not the man who turns his back on the world of things, staring into the sun in self-oblivion, who will remain steadfast and live in the presence of God, but only the man who breathes, walks, and bathes himself and all things in the sun’s light. As noted by the Rambam, the most sacred chambers of the temples of Oriental religions were set to the east, in reference to the sun’s rising, whereas in the Jewish temple, the Holy of Holies was built in the westernmost part of the temple—this is an instance of this principle. By asserting that everything that exists, exists for a purpose, Judaism recognizes the value of the human life and of everything existing; and thus Judaism sees that the goal man should strive for is toward perfection: of one’s nature, of one’s will, of one’s life. As mankind, the goal we should strive for is towards the perfection of the world.

The three fundamental ideas of Judaism
The three fundamental ideas of Judaism stem from the divine demand implanted in our hearts: the call to transcend the inner conflict and become a unified. These ideas are unity, deed, and the World-to-Come (the future).

The idea of unity originates in the Jews own striving for unity. A striving for unity that, due to the inner duality they acknowledge and experience, becomes a religious truth, a process intrinsic to their religious actualization.

The idea of the deed originates in the Jew's desire for realization / actualization. The highest goal for man, according to Hasidism, in relation to this natural tendency, is to become a Torah, a law: to be raised from conditioned action, to unconditioned action. The Talmud says: “In the hour when Israel spoke: ‘We will do and we will hear’ (Exodus 24:7)—first doing and then hearing—a heavenly voice went forth, addressing them: ‘Who disclosed to My children the mystery performed by My ministering angels?’ As it is said: ‘Bless the Lord, ye angels of His… that fulfill his word, hearing unto the voice of His word’ (Psalms 103:20)—first the doing and then the hearing”. This talmudic saying may be interpreted as meaning that revelation resides within the deed itself; from within his own deed, man as well as nation, hears the voice of God.

The idea of the future—the World to Come—stems from the fact that the Jew knows that he is in the process of becoming—that he not yet is—what he should be; he is always looking to the horizon, ahead, knowing that the reality he aims to accomplish already exists: it is the World to Come. His faith is unshakable in that the decisions he makes, each one, no matter how small, brings him closer to this reality.

To what community does an individual belong?
In an attempt to pin down the elements that constitute the essence of Judaism as a community, the author asks himself what makes a community one’s own, and how can a range of spiritual qualities be shared with one’s community in such a way that the community is engraved in his soul: “What causes a man’s nation to become an autonomous reality in his soul and in his life? What causes him to feel his nation not only around but within himself?”

The author continues to theorize about the different relations that the individual experiences, in terms of the reality of the world, and the reality of his spirit: “The child first experiences the world around him and only gradually discovers his I; the individual man first experiences the changing world of impressions and influences, the world around him, and last of all discovers his own self, the enduring substance amidst all the changes. As the child discovers the I of his physical being last, so the adult discovers the I of his spiritual being last, as an enduring substance. The child, discovering his I, comes to know that he is limited in space; the adult, that he is unlimited in time. As man discovers his I, his desire for perpetuity guides his range of vision beyond the span of his own life. Stirred by the awesomeness of eternity, this young person experiences within himself the existence of something enduring. He therefore senses that he belongs no longer to the community of those whose constant elements of experience he shares, but to the deeper-reaching community of those whose substance he shares. On the first level, his people represented the world to him; now they represent his soul. The way of his people teaches him to understand himself, and to will himself.”

The individual feels, in one level, that he belongs to those whose constant elements of experience are the same as his, and on this level he perceives them, in their totality, as his people. On another level, the individual discovers that his spiritual reality has preeminence over his experience of the world, and he recognizes as his community the people with whom he shares his spiritual substance. From this layered sense of belonging we see that there will not always be a correspondence between the community to which a person belongs in the world of experience, and that to which the individual belongs in terms of his spirit.

What is the importance of the community?
Hasidism teaches that the true meaning of the command of loving one’s neighbor is that through it—and in it—we meet God. “Love thy neighbor as thyself, I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:18), the meaning of which is: “You think I am far away from you, but in your love for your neighbor you will find Me; not in his love for you but in yours for him”. The individual is the beginning, but realization is to be found in the community, where the differences between the variety of people are bridged by the realization of the unconditional truth.

God speaks to us as individuals, but we are called to realize truth as a community: the divine may come to life in individual man, may reveal itself from within individual man, but it attains its earthly fullness only where, having awakened to an awareness of their universal being, individual beings open themselves to one another, disclose themselves to one another, help one another; where immediacy is established between one human being and another; where man breaks free from the fortress of the individual to meet other man—in community.

In addition to this, the community is meant to be the helper in the upbringing of youth: “without a bond to his people, man remains amorphous and adrift when God calls him; it is only from this bond that he derives contour and substance, so that he can dare to confront his Caller”. The man disengaged from his community, incapable of drawing upon any source deeper than that of his private existence, faces the temptations of, first, degrading the encounter with the unconditional to superficial rationalisms that lead to evasion of the transcendental truths that he might otherwise derive; and, second, faces the danger of adopting an attitude of superficial emotionalism and a quasi-acceptance of the transcendental that ends up degrading it to an “experience” or a “mood”, opening the doors to the pursuit of vanities, rendering man forgetful of his purpose.

The covenant between God and man is presented in the Scriptures as a threefold tale. We find therein the teaching of realization, and how it touches the spheres of man’s life—his relation to the community included. The first covenant God made with the lump of clay: He, by the breath of His mouth, imbues it with His own likeness, so that it might unfold in the course of the life of man and thus reveal that not man’s task is not being, but becoming. The second covenant God made with the chosen patriarch: it begins with parting from home and kin and concludes with the demand for the sacrifice of his son, so that it might be learned that realization demands the ultimate sacrifice and unconditional dedication. The third covenant God made with Israel: in the Sinai desert, the first command God gave to the people was “Ye shall be unto Me a priestly realm, a holy people”, so that it may be learn that realization of the Divine on earth is fulfilled no within man but between man and man, and that, though it does indeed have its beginning in the life of individual man, it is consummated only in the life of true community.

The importance of History
Everything, being and becoming, nature and history, is essentially a divine pronouncement. In nature, it is God the Creator who speaks, and His creative act is never interrupted; in history, on the other hand, it is the revealing God who speaks. “From the beginning I have not spoken in secret” (Isaiah 48:16)—God’s utterance in history is unconcealed, and it is intended to be heard by mankind.

The current state of the world
Today, thinking men can at last no longer tolerate the dualism of spirit and world, the antithesis between the soul’s hypothetical independence from the world’s deadening hustle and bustle, and life’s dependence on it. We must also consider the danger of intellectualization, which threatens modern man in the way his lifestyle has evolved.

By intellectualization it is meant the hypertrophy of intellect that breaks out of the context of organic life, which has produced in Occident the existentialists, the nihilists: the losing of purpose to live and to go through the difficulties living entails, feeling that it is worth the trouble. Against intellectualization stands the fact of religious truth, which is not truth as a conceptual abstraction, but truth as it is lived: an embodied truth, a living truth.

In civilized man predominates a causal understanding with respect to the events he experiences. In primitive man, this rational faculty that permits such a causal understanding is still poorly developed; what is predominant in him is a heightened awareness of the nonrational aspect of the single experience, of the significance of the experience as a manifestation of something absolute.

Let us consider that the development of the human race might not be linear or unidimensional: meaning that the apparent greater understanding that we have now through reason might not compensate for the loss of awareness of the absolute through the nonrational and the supracausal in the forgetful modern man. It is tempting to believe that all attempts made in the past to understand the human experience, life, the universe, were attempts made by a poorly developed rational faculty, and that there was nothing else in there that we might actually need today. Conscientiousness prompts us to remain humble: we don’t know everything, and we should not estrange ourselves from our developmental history, minifying the significance of the stages we had to go through to achieve the current state of humanity. Let us consider our roots and not disregard our past.

[Jake Berlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

there were elements of these essays / talks that piqued my interest, and certainly some interesting ideas, but on the whole they failed to grab me; far too many times i realized that my eyes had glazed over and i had read whole paragraphs without ingesting any of the content. still, to a serious consumer of judaic studies, this is probably worth reading.

[Alireza · Rating 5 out of 5]

برخلاف نام کتاب که از اون اینطور برداشت میشه که فقط به بررسی آیین یهود پرداخته شده، مارتین بوبر توی این کتاب به معنای واقعی، زبان گویای تمام ادیان ابراهیمیه. کتاب، مجموع خطابه های اون در دو دوران متفاوته؛ یکی در سال های قبل از جنگ جهانی اول و حین اون و دیگری توی سال های بعد از جنگ جهانی دوم.
بوبر توی این خطابه ها از همه چیز صحبت می کنه، از خون و خاستگاه های تاریخی و قومی، از حسیدیسم و اسنی ها، از اسطوره‌های یهودی و گذار اون ها از اِلوهیم به یهوه، از یهودیت رسمی و یهودیت زیرزمینی! و خیلی چیزهای دیگه ای که اگر علاقه‌مند حوزه مطالعات ادیان باشید، براتون می تونه خیلی جذاب باشه؛ اما به نظر میاد لب کلام بوبر توی همه این خطابه ها و موضوعات یه چیز باشه: ارتباط دوطرفه و فعال میان انسان و «امر مطلق» یا «خدا» یا «تو» و یا «توی ابدی». بوبر در تمام محورهای سخنانش به این نکته اشاره داره که انسان توی امر آفرینش و تحقق هدف هستی، همکار و همراه خداونده. بوبر دیانت رو برخلاف یهودیت رسمی، یا بشه گفت همه خوانش های رسمی دینی دنیا، نه در تبعیت و تمکین از احکام و نه پیروی از تعلیمات اخلاقی، که در برقراری ارتباط عمیق و خلاقانه با «امر مطلق» می دونه که اعمال ما و زبان ما، بیانگر پاسخ های متقابل ما به امر مطلق هست. این رابطه دیالکتیکی بین خدا و انسان که بوبر با اشارات بسیار به عهد عتیق بهش اشاره می کنه، توی آموزه «فْرَشوکْرَتی» که یکی از مراحل سه گانه آفرینش زردشتی هست و آیه «ان تنصروا الله ینصرکم» قرآن، قابل بررسی و ردیابی هست. با این خوانش، انسان نه تنها به سطح یه برده منفعل تنزل پیدا نمی کنه، بلکه از این آزادی برخورداره که به پروژه آفرینش خدا کمک کنه و بدون اون، ملکوت خدا روی زمین حاصل نمیشه. این که انسان امروز به این رابطه واقف نیست و یا ازش رو برگردونده، دلیل غیبت یا به قولی «کسوف خداوند» هست که ایده ای در برابر مرگ خدای نیچه ست.
به هرحال، توی زمانه ای که محققین و پژوهشگران دینی، تقریبا حرف تازه‌ای برای گفتن در برابر عقل مدرن ندارند، وجود امثال بوبر و آثارش که مبتنی بر خوانشی جدید از کتاب مقدس هست، برای ما غنیمته. البته ذکر این نکته هم مهمه که بوبر هم به مقتضای زیست-جهان خودش و در بستر تاریخی قرن بیستم، قابل فهمه که بیش از این مجال توضیحش نیست.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

The post-war preface is worth the whole book. Some of the material feels old and even feels as if it had been influenced by some of the prevailing blood theories of the time but the preface is absolutely priceless.

[Jack Goldman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly don't know what's stopping this from being a 5 star, maybe the awe factor for example the Republic was just a mind blower really get's you thinking almost completley differently, not that this book didn't make me think very differently.
I have to say Buber shows himself here to be a completley unique thinker, his biblical scholarship is next level in both the Tanach and the new testament, he is burning with a passion for all things Jewish. He has a way to tie Jewish concepts to later ideas for example the idea of unity Spinoza used to create a metaphysical theological concept and Marx creating a politcal system with the idea of Unity as the end. Buber really makes you look at things differently or if not that eluminate things I remember being very impressed by his dissection of the difference between Jewish thinking and Greek thinking which he said couldn't be more different I'll give one idea from that for the Greek and end is an end where as for a Jew the end is for the start of something, really profound and that is really true with the whole Messianic concept.
Buber holds that the idea of a Messianic age is the Judaisms most unique idea and it's hard to deny, every Abrahamic faith is waiting for the Messianic age to come and this has been there laid out in the Hebrew Bible for thousands of years.
Buber expresses unique politcal ideas, being sceptical of authority he views priesthood or at least the way priesthood at this point had been used was this almost entirley authoratarian opressive system. He talks about how war mongerers are the worst of people, Socialism and all ties it in connection to Judaism or Jewish history. Also from the very little of Neitzche I know I found his influence creep in. I also found him to be quite disillusioned with nationalism.
For me the book was strong the whole way through no real boring essays within the book which I sadly couldn't say about the David Hume book I have reviewed.
I love how Buber shows how you can find God in ways that aren't traditionally associated with such for example in brotherly love. I new before heading into the book of Bubers great connection to Hasidism and throughout the whole book there are little love letters to their way of life scattered the whole way through though not without their critisms he doesn't love the whole 'though shall not' idea. I think Buber saw in Hasidism what Christianity could of been, he found Christianity made Jesus as quite an exclusive figure as Jesus as son of God whereas he would stick to traditional Theology that we can all be Children of God.
Now here's one thing I want to get into Buber lays out an ideal world or at least what the ideal world is not, it's quite a beautiful ideal world I don't agree with it all but very floral and pretty. This ideal world has not happened and it's actually quite sad seemingly nothing Buber has dreamt about has come true. LAME. Lame that this hasn't happened that is.
On my final note I have to say Buber is a beautiful writer, really pretty language and likable writing as well. Even if Martin Buber isn't an Orthodox voice I found him to be an excellent voice for all things Jewish, just a great ambassador for the faith, certainly a beautiful unique person. I think Antisemities should read this book as well as people just genrally curious about Judaism as I think it would be hard not to have at least a more positive view on this beautiful Religion.

[Stephen Hoffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a challenging, illuminating and thought provoking collection of Martin Buber's thoughts on Judaism and Jews. I didn't agree with everything and I found some chapters hard to follow, but overall this was an intellectually rigorous book I don't regret taking the time to consider and read.

It certainly achieved the aim of making me think about Judaism, the Jewish people and how I can live a renewed Jewish life.

It is clear throughout the book that Buber is both a towering intellectual and someone who wears his Jewish heart on his sleeve and hopes for a period of Jewish renewal as in the interwar years in particular he thought that the Jewish people over thousands of years had lost the way.

Buber expresses his thoughts in a way that are at times very hard and it can be difficult to figure out his meaning. These are the parts of the book that I really struggled with. However, I did get used to the style and I also found more and more Buber expressed his ideas in a clearer style that I could penetrate.

In his writings what I like about Buber is he is own man, who is not trying to hue to one specific movement with Judaism and scatters his criticism fairly across the board of Jewish movements and thoughts of his time. Thus he is equally scathing at times of both what he sees as shallow Jewish assimilation and formal fundamentalist Jewish Orthodoxy. As someone who is proud of his Jewish roots, but struggles in particularly with Orthodox religious frameworks this approach appealed to me.

He is critical both of the politicisation of society, the nationalism dominant of the time which was expressed through imperialism and the institutionalisation of faith, particularly the Jewish faith, which robbed it of personalisation, creativity, spirit and a focus of Jewish life based on actions and deeds to bring a person closer to his fellow human being, the Jewish community and ultimately God.

What Buber advocates for throughout this collection of writings is a renewal of Judaism. This renewal was to be based on a heightened and renewed awareness of the deep layers of Jewish thought, a new understanding of Jewish history, what living a Jewish life of unconditional commitment to God means and the hope for the renewal of the Jewish community as a whole if it is based on these commitments, through rebuilding Jewish national life in the land of Israel.

In the book Buber explains the concept of religiosity as opposed to organised religion in a way that I share his beliefs on. He talks of the Jewish religious experience being far more than blindly and rigidly following customs and laws. Instead he calls for a Judaism based on deed, realisation of the divine on earth, repairing God's world and breathing new life in to Judaism.

This is a challenging book. Some of it I couldn't grasp or didn't agree with, but overall it made me think about Judaism, my relation with it and I learned a lot. I intend to read more by Buber.

[Shimon de Valencia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly worth reading. Even though the style at times tends towards the plodding. These Re essays that speak as much of their time, as they do of ours in their reception. We, as globalised people, and Jews, see the call to action very differently. This is an eloquent call for ‘renewal’, that remains relevant in our times. Our voices however have moved on from the western intellectualism, and pseudo-scientific theories of blood and land. Discovering Judaism’s ‘orientalism’, and restoring it to its axial origins is a call to renewal that Buber could not conceive of, let alone condone. The horror of Aushwitz has not gone from us. Instead it has evolved into Srebreniča, Rwanda, the Khmer killing fields, Chechnya, and Aleppo. The list grows, and we still grasp at the ineffable to understand. In that, we stand in testimony to Buber’s attempts to engage in the theology of dialogue.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tried to read Buber two other times in the past 15 years, but had trouble understanding/really getting into it. Although I didn't fall in love with this book, i did finish it. It made me think about what it means to be Jewish and gave me insight into the thinking before the invasion of Palestine and the genocide of the Palestinian people. I'd read more of his work.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great. In Buber’s early addresses, you will find a man who is very excited and enthusiastic about Judaism. The seams of the early addresses are threaded with Jewish mysticism and messianism. The Buber of this period had an enormous impact on thinkers like Bloch, Benjamin, Lukacs, Scholem, etc.

[Brooke Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

a bit wordy and philosophical for me but… i liked what it was talking about; the jewish values and community. these essays were also written before world war I and the next after world war II, and understanding the context helped explain the meaning behind his addresses.

overall, a good first read into more religious questioning texts.

[Brice Karickhoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Junior year of high school read. Probably a lot of what I know about Judaism comes from this book. I read the whole thing back when I was bad at finishing books so it must have been a good'n.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

love

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75/5

[Arnaldo Gonçalves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Provavelmente um dos livros que mais me impressionou nos últimos tempos. A chegada a Buber vem de um link da plataforma Academia que tive curiosidade em ler. Por via do estudo da Cabala tentei chegar mais fundo à natureza e identidade do pensamento hebraico e da interpretação da Torah que os Cabalistas insistem que tem uma leitura não-literal, simbólica, onde se alcança de forma mais profunda a mensagem 'escondida". É preciso iniciar-se o caminho para se ser caminhante e nas ciências sociais é preciso ir além do imediato. Nos estudos bíblicos é preciso lembrar que as traduções nem sempre retratam o texto bíblico original. Isso é verdade no Antigo Testamento que chegou a Bíblia moderna por versões do grego traduzidas para as línguas latinas e anglofona. Buber foi para mim uma revelação e este livro em particular. Porque se me põs sempre a questão como é possível acreditar em Deus e no divino no tempo pós-Holocausto? Como é possível manter qualquer expressão de fé? Se Deus, como parece, abandonou o povo que morreu nos formos crematórios. Buber é um pensador profundo que liga o pensamento religioso hebraico à tradição cristã e explica como esta última é a continuidade do primeiro. Não há cristianismo sem judaísmo aliás porque Jesus, como Saul e quase todos os outros discípulos eram judeus e pensavam com o judeus. O seu judaísmo é não dogmático pois procura ir além do dogma e da lei pela lei e ver a revelação e a chamada de Deus como o caminho para a salvação de homens que tém livre-arbítrio (Deus dotou-os assim) e que portanto podem ouvir o chamamento ou ser surdos a ele. Gostei mais dos últimos escritos face aos primeiros. Estes são da década de 1950 e os primeiros dos anos 1920 quando o povo judaico procurava qual o seu sentido de comunidade e onde chegar à Terra Prometida. O livro desta um dos mitos perenes da religião hebraica: a exclusividade da salvação para o povo judaico, o povo eleito. E revela a continuidade da mensagem religiosa não mediada por um clero que foi ele é depositário da mensagem e mediador com o divino. Buber vai mais longe e explica como o diálogo com a divindade é solitário, pessoal mas também comunitário. E que o homem tendo uma missão divina a cumprir é co-criador da Criação e não um destinatário passivo. É essa dimensão de um Deus actuante mas por vezes escondido que Buber retrata muito bem no seu livro que muito recomendo. Tenho pena que não exista uma tradução para português porque o livro bem merece ser lido pelo publico atento às questões da religião mas também das espiritualidades.

[Ari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this book about a year ago and began reading it at that time. I ended up putting it down because I wasn't ready for it. About a month ago, I picked it up again and have had an incredible journey with it since. Buber's prophetic words (about the State of Israel, about Jewish youth, about living Jewishly in modern society, and so many more relevant topics) shine through these essays and speak to a number of problems, and a number of glories, that we're currently experiencing in liberal Jewish circles. Few portions of these writings are really time bound. Reading the essays feels like reading a contemporary speech, maybe given last year at a commencement, not one given a hundred years ago. Buber can seem dense at first, but once you catch on to his style his words will flow into every part of life. Recommended.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very dense but very important!

[Lisa Fogel · Rating 4 out of 5]

challenging but good. some days I can focus, other days over my little head.