Customer Reviews (2)

A master on a master
Rabbi Nachman is one of the great leaders of Hasidism. Even today there is a whole group of Hasidism who consider him their ' rebbe' and walk in his way. The great presenter of the Hasidic message as he interpreted it to the Western world , Martin Buber in this work presents an introduction to the life and work of Rabbi Nachman, and presents six of his tales which he translated to German and which have been translated from the German by Maurice Friedman. These tales are truly 'parable-likemystical tales' and compel the reader to seek new interpretations of them. The volume concludes with an essay by Buber on Rabbi Nachman's Journey to the Holy Land. This is an excerpt from the concluding chapter. "Herein the land of Israel, the purification of the imagination takes place.It is not for nothing that the sounds of the word adama soil, and medame imagination , resemble one another: the fullness of the elements comes to the imagination from the earth.But the purification of the imagination by faith can take place no other way than through the consecrated earth and the consecrated earth is here in the land of Israel".

The resurrection of a great culture
What an extraordinary enterprise this is: the reconstruction, largely from oral or late sources, of the celebrated fables or parables told by a once-famous rabbinical teacher and thinker from Eastern Europe, from a culture which, though European and Jewish, is as strange to the average Westerner as any alien civilization.These Jews believed in reincarnation; they developped complex historical schemes of interpretation; they had their own numerology and their own philosophy.Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav was, according to Buber, both the last and the greatest of this line of mystical philosophers.Always a controversial figure - he suffered the violent opposition of a whole opposing Jewish party in his own shtetl, which he seems to have taken with Gandhi-like non-violence - he was above all the author of a number of complex, elaborate and, dare I say, beautiful tales expressing his own view of the nature, origin and destiny of man and God.A later and rather different Jewish genius, the cartoonist Jack Kirby, has unhesitatingly ascribed the success of Jews in all the American arts and media to the influence of the Jewish tradition of storytelling, learned at home at one's mother's knee, and bearing fruit throughout life in a natural aptitude for putting complex ideas and views of life in narrative form.These tales show you where he came from; they are of a complexity that bespeaks an ancient and proud narrative culture, and they are capable of bearing the most profound intellectual meaning.As for their author, Rabbi Nachman himself, they reveal not only deep humanity and a visionary imagination, but also features very unexpected in a Chassidic Jewish teacher - a warm appreciation of human and animal beauty, and a temper to understand and forgive rather than condemn or exclude.However, this book is to be treasured not only, perhaps not even mainly, because of its own literary and intellectual excellence, but because it is the resurrection of the last testimony of a great European tradition, now vanished or changed out of all recognition, but fascinating and worthy of respect in its own right. ... Read more

Book Description
In this study of Martin Buber's life and work, Donald Moore focuses in on Buber's central message about what it means to be a human being and a person of faith. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Fascinating essays about Israel
This is an excellent book.Buber's intelligence and sincerity are on display throughout it.Of course, I disagree with much of what Buber says.I'm a Polytheist, and I do not like Monotheistic religions.And I find some of Buber's advice to Israelis to be puzzling at times.Even after the British White Paper of 1939, he thought a Levantine Jewish state unnnecessary, although he admitted that most Levantine Jews disagreed.Still, one can see in these essays how he's always interested in equal rights, including rights for Jews that are neither more nor less than those of others.

I know that some Zionists are more than a little suspicious of Buber.But please try reading Mohandas Gandhi's 1938 article, "The Jews."I consider that article a vicious repudiation of human rights.Then read Buber's calm and dignified response to it.

I know that many anti-Zionists like to cite Buber.But I would advise them to copy his honesty and sincerity, traits I have been seeing far too little of from modern anti-Zionists.In my opinion, Buber would have been more than a little hesitant to excuse, let alone support, Arab aggression and slander, all in the name of equal rights. ... Read more

Amazon.com
On Judaism is a collection of lectures by Martin Buber that had a profound influence on European Judaism in the early 20th century. The most interesting parts of this book are the lectures Buber delivered between 1909 and 1918, whose achievement was to convince intellectuals once again to take seriously the mystical elements of Judaism, such as kaballah. Assimilationism, secularism, and materialist skepticism had convinced many European Jews that religious Judaism demanded mindless allegiance to outmoded laws--a situation, as Rodger Kamenetz notes in his introduction to this volume, that bears a striking resemblance to the mindset of many young Jews today. Buber's involvement with Theodore Herzl's Zionist movement (which led to the creation of the state of Israel) gave him credibility with Jewish intellectuals, however. He used this credibility to persuade his listeners that there is an essential difference between rigid, legalistic "religion" and the vital, world-engaging "religiosity" that, he contended, is the prevailing character of Torah. As Kamenetz writes, "Buber's enduring insight is that Judaism is a process, not a conclusion: a religion of presence, and not simply an historical religion." Obviously, much has changed since Buber delivered these early lectures--the two World Wars, the Holocaust, and the rise of Reformed Judaism have forever altered the context in which young Jews define their religious identity. But Buber's driving question--"I must ask myself again and again: Is this particular law addressed to me and rightly so?"--is still the most important one for Jews who seek to understand themselves as people of the book. Martin Buber asked that question with unremitting intensity and intellectual rigor, and On Judaism will help its readers to do so as well. --Michael Joseph Gross ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A fundamental inquiry
Buber raises fundamental questions about the meaning of Jewishness. His profundity is unquestioned, as his poetic insightfulness. However his casting aside of the Halakhah means that he cuts himself off from what is arguably, both the most traditional and most vibrant form of Judaism in our world.
I want to myself look through these essays again, and see if they give new directions in regard to understanding the fundamental questions of Jewish identity and meaning in the modern world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Ian Myles Slater on: Buber's Exodus and Wilderness
"Moses," usually published as "Moses: The Revelation and the Covenant,"is probably the most readable of Martin Buber's longer Biblical studies. It combines a sense of narrative movement with ingenious interpretations (often backed by formidable, if now obsolete, scholarship, almost always tucked away in endnotes), rhapsodies on freedom and the desert, reflections on the experiences described as miracles, and some hard political thought. For those familiar with traditional Jewish biblical interpretation, its influence on Buber's thought, and his willingness to work out implications by suggesting supplements to the biblical narrative, will be apparent. This combination makes "Moses" interesting to read, but difficult to classify. (It may also be a surprise to those who know Buber only from the philosophy of"I and Thou," or the story-telling of "Tales of the Hasidim.")

Together with a much more difficult book by Buber, "The Kingship of God," it presents early Israelite religion as including a revolutionary social movement, egalitarian and anti-state, yet demanding accountability and public order. Similar ideas, usually less attractively expressed, and often less carefully nuanced, began to appear in the late 1960s or early 1970s, and in some cases remain influential. Buber's priority is not always acknowledged. Of course it is easy to believe that the ferment of their time was as influential on these interpreters as the first part of the twentieth century was on Buber, and that they came to their conclusions independently. Buber's "The Prophetic Faith" deals with the Genesis narratives, some of the Prophets, and Job, and for much of its length is less obviously political; in some ways, his study of modern socialist movements, "Paths in Utopia," is at least as closely related.

Some readers, looking for traditional religious edification, will probably find Buber's presentation too rationalistic and secular. I am sure that there are those who will be upset by Buber's interpretation of Moses asking God for His true name, and the unhelpful answer, as showing the influence of Egyptian name magic. Others, encouraged at first by the footnotes and the assumption that the biblical text cannot be taken literally, will find him, well, too religious. If you approach "Moses" as the work of a religious philosopher with a strong interest in social issues, and a willingness to take the ancient text very seriously, but not literally, you will find much of interest.

(Reposted from my "anonymous" review of June 15, 2003.) ... Read more

Book Description
Martin Buber: The Life of Dialogue , the first study in any language to provide a complete overview of Buber's thought, remains the definitive guide to the full range of his work and the starting point for all modern Buber scholarship.As well as summarizing Buber's early intellectual development and attitudes - his mysticism, his youthful existentialism, his philosophy of Judaism and religious socialism - it focuses on the two crucial issues of his mature thought: his dialogic or I-Thou philosophy, and his probing of the nature and redemption of evil. As a sensitive, intuitive and perennially fascinating account of one of the twentieth century's great spiritual teachers, and as an influential classic in its own right, Martin Buber: The Life of Dialogue reveals the implications of Buber's thought for theory of knowledge, education, philosophy, myth, history and Judaic and Christian belief.This fully revised and expanded 4th edition includes a new preface from the author, an expanded bibliography incorporating new Buber scholarship, and two new appendices in the form of essays on Buber's influence on Emmanuel Levinas and Mikhail Bakhtin. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The loving work of a foremost pupil
Maurice S. Friedman was one of Buber's closest pupils, and one devoted his life to expounding the thought of Buber. This work tells of Buber's life and work and gives a good idea of his fundamental outlook. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

'Letters' of the Great Teacherof I- Thou Dialogue
In a comprehensive review of this collection of Buber's Letters, Werner Dannehauser points out one great paradox of the philosopher of Dialogue and 'I- Thou'. He apparently was not the greatest listener in the world. Nonetheless this collection contains not only Buber's letters, but a sample of the letters written to him. Perhaps for Buber himself the most important were those written by his great collaborator in Biblical Translation, Franz Rosenzweig. Buber courageously calls for the most candid and serious criticism of himself, and thanks Rosenzweig for giving it. Rosenzweig and Buber were divided on the question of the vital significance of Halachah for Jewish life and continuity.
Buber's world is a vast one intellectually, encompassing the greatest minds of his time. He is masterly and confident in tone , and words of sudden depth and profundity emanate from these pages.
This is an invaluable collection for all those who take interest in both Jewish and general intellectual history.

Buber's own words still resonate
This gem is worthy of 100 stars. Bubar's early writings, the work with Gustav Landaur and Franz Rosenweig in synthesizing "Ich und Du", as well as his editorial comments to writers of Der Jude. A true Passover Feast of wisdom and compassion, even including his letter to Gandhi. The forward by Paul Mendes-Flohr serves as an excellant background.As vital today as he was at the birth of the State of Israel. ... Read more

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Here are two famous Chinese classics in versions provided by one of the most seminal and beloved philosophers of the twentieth century, Martin Buber, first published individually in German in 1910 and 1911, but never before available in English. ... Read more

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“Moore focuses on Buber’s central message about what it means to be a human being, a person of faith, and what mankind can do to overcome the eclipse of God.”
—Shofar

“Solid, well researched, and sympathetic…. might well spur a person to go back and read Buber.”
—Commonwealth

Customer Reviews (1)

Reflection on Human Existence: byFour Religious Thinkers

"Reality is the power of resistance against dissolution into nothingness. Consequently, Being can be described, not defined, as the power of resistance against non-Being, or simply as the power of Being,..." Paul Tillich



Existentialism, defined:
Existentialism is a philosophical movement that views human existence as having a set of underlying themes and characteristics, such as anxiety, dread, freedom, awareness of death, and consciousness of existing, that are primary. They cannot be reduced to or explained by a natural-scientific approach. (Wikepedia)
Theologian John Macquarrie has appealed that; "existentialism is not a body of doctrines but a way of doing philosophy. It is the way which begins by interrogating existence, where by "existence" is understood the kind of being which belongs to man in his concrete living,..."

Impact of Existentialism:
Existentialism is, in a way, a movement protesting against mass society, which tends to inhibit individual thought and action. Some propose that self-awareness sets us apart from all other beings. Teilhard de Chardin thinks (The Phenomenon of Man), that it is primarily the ability to reflect on our self-awareness. Existentialists may think that our awareness of death as "ceasing to exist" forces us to question our authenticity, as emphasized by Martin Heidegger. While this moves us away from theoretical concepts and attitudes to life, they provide fake reassurances. A move towards immediate, real-life, concrete ways of relating to our existence and ceasing to exist have to be dealt with. Existentialist thinkers' impact on western religion and arts has been so profound, that perhaps left the definition of existentialism as a rather difficult task.

Works selection:
The presented works of four influential existential theologians, selected by an authority on the subject, represent the unity and diversity of their post-modern thought. Herberg contends they reached beyond the hallmarks of modernity, scientific naturalism, and confident positivism, using his own expressions. His interpretive essays shed light on the core of his comparative study on their theological thinking, representing their wide Judeo-Christian background.
Maritain desire to see God, is compared with Berdayaev's insight into Man's free will and apocalyptic time and eschatological revelation. He contrasted Buber's strain between Existential realization and his early Hasidic and mystic insights. Tillich's in an age of anxiety never lost his reference to the realities of social and political oppression, but the focus seemed to be on the anguish of the human situation. Tillich's theological method reflects on his search for ultimate reality, and Divine manifestation as 'Being is Love.'
While I started early, as a teenager, to be impressed and mystified by quotations of J.P. Sartre on the subject, in daily newspapers, reading Werberg selection required attention and concentration, but was rewarding in spite of my non academic preparation. This is a mere modest witness to Professor Herberg's excellent scholarship.

Will Herberg:
Editor Will Herberg was an independent American Jewish theologian, social thinker, and biblical exegete, a conservative Jewish scholar who interacted with the wide spectrum of American faiths, cultural and social milieu. Born in New York, early twentieth century, to Russian immigrants, was educated by his mother, after the death of his father when was only ten. He excelled in his education, earning a BA and MA degrees from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in 1932. He wrote many books including, 'Protestant-Catholic-Jew,' 'Faith enacted as history,' ' Judaism and Modern Man,' 'From Marxism to Judaism,' 'Writings of Martin Buber,' etc.


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Book Description
What does Martin Buber mean, in I and Thou, by the claim that the one thing that matters is full acceptance of presence? An attempt to answer this question led the author on a journey of exploration through Buber's early writings, to reach a clarification of Buber's predialogical concept of God. She examines Buber's first major philosophical work: Daniel: Dialogues in Realization, drawing attention to inaccuracies in the available English translation. Buber's desire for presence, she finds, began with an overwhelming experience of absence. His search is for a presence that will not let him down, that will not be a "mis-encounter"--that is, for a presence that will ensure that there is meaning.This book will be an invaluable text for the student looking for a readable guide to Buber's early writings. It will help readers to understand the rich depth and many layers of thought in Buber's masterpiece, I and Thou, and to appreciate the radical change that took place in Buber's concept of God prior to its publication in 1923. ... Read more