Cuentos jasidicos / Hasidic Tales: Los Primeros Maestros / the First Teachers

by Martin Buber

Estos cuentos deliciosos, breves, vigorosos, a menudo crípticos, son los textos auténticos del jasidismo, el apasionado movimiento religioso que floreció en Europa oriental durante el siglo XVIII y pervive aún hoy. Son anécdotas legendarias que nos relatan acontecimientos particulares, despejándolos de lo no esencial y ogrando que cada uno ilumine todo su destino. Los tzadikim, los maestros, los protagonistas de estos cuentos, son hombres de carne y hueso, pero sus vidas parecen casi simbólicas. Nos expresan -dice Buber- la fuerza y la alegría sagrada con que Dios se hace visible en todas las cosas.

Genres: Collections

244 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 1993

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

[Jordon Gyarmathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this compilation of Hasidic tales by Buber. I have never explored the literature of Hasidic masters before this book and I thought Buber's words before the tales were quite informative, and the sequencing of the stories made sense to me. I wish I had the other volume so I feel as if the story is incomplete but hopefully I can get my hands on it sometime.

[Larry Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tales of the Hasidim by Martin Buber is an example of the Jewish wisdom tradition. The Hasidic rabbis were influential wisdom teachers in the 1700s and 1800s.

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A long, slow slog