Hasidism and Modern Man

by Martin Buber, Maurice Friedman (Translator), David Biale (Introduction)

Hasidism, a controversial, mystical-religious movement of Eastern European origin, has posed a serious challenge to mainstream Judaism from its earliest beginnings in the middle of the eighteenth century. Decimated by the Holocaust, it has risen like a phoenix from the ashes and has reconstituted itself as a major force in the world of ultra-Orthodox Judaism. Philosopher Martin Buber found inspiration in its original tenets and devoted much of his career to making its insights known to a wide readership.

First published in 1958, Hasidism and Modern Man examines the life and religious experiences of Hasidic Jews, as well as Buber's personal response to them. From the autobiographical "My Way to Hasidism," to "Hasidism and Modern Man," and "Love of God and Love of Neighbor," the essays span nearly half a century and reflect the evolution of Buber’s religious philosophy in relation to the Hasidic movement. Hasidism and Modern Man remains prescient in its portrayal of a spiritual movement that brings God down to earth and makes possible a modern philosophy in which the human being becomes sacred.

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

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

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

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book after reading Moshe Idels' social scientific explanation for the culture(s) of Hasidut, in which Buber and Gershom Scholem are seen as the previous scholarship being argued against. A few quick things:
1) Although Idel's work is a far superior on scholarly grounds, Buber's is far more interesting philosophically. But you have to approach it understanding that Buber a) was working from a partial and sometimes historically inaccurate understanding of the 18th century movement; and b) Buber is interpreting Hasidism for a modern audience.
2) Buber's description and understanding of the problem of "the religious man [sic]" in the 20th century continues to resonate today, and so his interpretation of Hasidism, aimed at religious people after modernity, holds continued relevance.
3) I'm not an expert in Hasidism, but the critiques that I've seen launched against Buber are also at least somewhat unfair. In Idel's case in particular, he does't seem to give Buber credit for intuiting a key dynamic that Idel goes to great lengths to prove in his social scientific study: that Hasidism innovates mysticism by insisting that transcendence without immanence, or to put it more crudely, the spiritual without the worldly, is ineffective and ultimately perhaps even immoral. I'm not saying that Buber get's is completely right, but in the end, he ends up in the general ballpark where Idel leads us.
If you're interested in religious practice after the disillusionment of science and history, that is, after having given up attachments to literal claims of traditional religion, but also want ethics and practice to blend better, without giving morality back to religion, nor without denying religion's potential to be a context of moral practice, Buber is worth the couple hours it would take to read this book.

As a side note, I did find that my training in modern social theory came in very handy, as that means I've read a lot of philosophy from the mid19th century through the 1940s, so there are a lot of ideas and words and concepts and arguments that Buber is engaging in that were part of the larger intellectual zeitgeist of the early 20th century. It's not necessary to have that knowledge, but it does enrichen the contextualization and intention of Buber's thought.

[Jordon Gyarmathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This small collection of some of Buber's works on Hasidism reveals a lot. It is a great mild introduction to Hasidism with philosophy, theology, and history (or mythology) woven throughout. I find this translation mostly pretty accessible and the format quite nice as well. Great work overall, pairing well with Buber's collection of Hasidic Tales.