First class intro buber bio
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Martin Buber was a major 20th century Jewish philosopher and theologian. He was born in 1878 in Vienna and lived through World War I, the rise of Nazism, and the Holocaust before moving to Israel in 1938. Buber made significant contributions to Zionism, Jewish education, Hasidic literature, and theological thought. He is renowned for his philosophy of dialogue as expressed in his book I and Thou, which posited that relationships are based on recognition of others' inherent dignity. The document provides biographical context on Buber and outlines some of his major ideas that emerged in his letters and collaborations with other thinkers in the early phase of his career leading up to I and Thou.
First class intro buber bio
- 1. Introduction 1. Martin Buber was, quite simply, a giant of Jewish thought and life in the 20th century. Before we consider specifically how, let's just marvel at the times in which he lived. 2. Buber was born in 1878 in Vienna and died in 1965 in Israel. 3. Think about it. Jewish emancipation in Europe began with Napoleon at the beginning of the 19th century, and nations proceeded to enact policies of emancipation throughout the century. This means that Buber and other Jewish intellectuals and activists and artists and writers of his time were among the first Jews born in the modern era in Europe into the freedom to think and work and write and create and organize together with other Jews and indeed openly with non- Jewish leading figures. This in itself makes Buber and his peers significant. 4. Further, and in particular, Buber was a major player in so much of consequence to us in that century. a) He was an early organizer of the Zionist movement. b) He was a leader in promoting Jewish education and culture.
- 2. c) He promoted Hasidism and especially its tales and literature in ways really like no other. d) He advanced unique and significant Jewish theological thought, and, with his friend, Franz Rosenzweig, made major contributions that resonate and benefit us today. e) He was in Germany during both World War I and later the rise of Nazism and was a witness to the terror before he fled and and followed it closely throughout. His personal experiences and observations of that period and the Holocaust are special and invaluable to us. f) His writings on Judaism and Christianity are profound and brilliant and have been the source of study by scholars, thinkers, and practitioners of all faiths. g) Finally, he contributed much to the creation of the state of Israel, especially intellectually and culturally, and served toward the end of his life from there really as sage to the world. 5. We are so fortunate today to be able to study Buber through the many books and articles he wrote. And indeed I hope this course will inspire you to go read some of them.
- 3. 6. But we are also lucky to have a treasure trove of the hundreds of letters Buber wrote and received to and from major figures from these times. We're talking about Leo Baeck, David Ben-Gurion, Albert Camus, Albert Einstein, Mohandas Gandhi, Dag Hammarskjold, Theodor Herzl, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Hermann Hesse, Franz Kafka, Franz Rosenzweig, Albert Schweizer, and so many others. 7. Buber's letters are a particularly appropriate lens through which we can understand this brilliant man. For, after all, we shouldn't be surprised that the author of I-Thou, who was so fascinated by the mystery of contact through "the interhuman," loved conversation and sought out through these communications "a confrontation with the Thou" to kindle the spark of his and others' work and creativity. Our course of study over these four weeks will be to read and review some of the finest and best of these letters. We'll do that by following the trajectory of Buber's life. So, today, for example, we'll begin with letters early in Buber's career that carry through the early development of his seminal thinking on I-Thou. 8. In each session I'll give you some important biographical details that correspond to the letters we will examine. Generally, I'll set the stage a bit for each letter. But I hope most of our time will be spent in discussion of issues that arise from the letters themselves. What an exciting journey!
- 4. 8. So, for today: Buber's early life. a) raised by grandparents (grandfather, a scholar with both an interest in enlightenment and traditional Judaism) after parents' divorce, then returned to live with father (a businessman with little interest in religion) at 14; b) spent considerable time in Zionist work (he was the literary leader in it) while finishing college (literature, philosophy, art, a Jew definitely in the broader, mostly German world), married Paula Winkler (a Catholic who converted to Judaism, brilliant, thinker, writer), wife for whole life; c) lived in Germany until 1938 when he and wife fled to Jerusalem; d) chose to live principally as a "writer"and scholar (much like grandfather) rather than a traditional academic; e) though interested in all things political and cultural, he turned inward to look more and more at spiritual, theological matters - human to human, wanted a renaissance of Judaism, in literature, culture, and eventually depth of spiritual thought and expression, with a focus on shared humanity and the future of humanity ; f) fascinated by Hasidism and took on the task of writing out and spreading its tales, and promoting Jewish poetry, as well as writing and working with other Jewish thinkers in writing, teaching, and organizing other such activity;
- 5. g) increasingly focused on the idea of active love of neighbor, ways in which the interhuman relationship becomes the actualization of God, with links to the best in broader philosophy, literature, and thought and Buber's sense of Judaism; h) increasingly committed to adult education, especially as to all things, Jewish (so he would have been pleased with our emphasis at TBS!); i) under influence of his friend, the giant thinker, Franz Rosenzweig, Buber began to teach more, and through their works, The Star of Redemption and I-Thou, they, even with their differences, began to move Jewish thought forward in powerful ways. Though complex and we'll see a lot more of it in the letters, let's generalize to this: God speaks to man through Creation and Revelation. Humankind relates to God directly (through movement in the direction of God) and then through interrelationship of human to human, in which, as Buber thought, we treat our fellow not as an object but as a Thou. Living this way, essentially for Rosenzweig, furthered God's aim of effecting redemption. Judaism was not an abstraction, nor just a culture or a teaching or a historical phenomenon; it is a religious reality. For Buber: "The Divine...attains its earthly fullness only where, having awakened to an awareness of their universal being, individual beings open themselves up to one another, disclose themselves to one another; where immediacy is established between one human being and another; where the sublime stronghold of the individual is unbolted, and man breaks free to meet other man."
- 6. Also, "the more man realizes God in this world, the greater His reality." Finally: "for the one who chooses, who decides, who is unconditioned, God is the closest, most familiar Being, whom man through his own action, realizes ever anew, experiencing thereby the mystery of mysteries." Both dug ever more deeply into Bible and other ancient texts to enrich their own thinking and ground it in fundamental Jewish ideas and thought. This led to a deeper understanding of contrasts (and likenesses) with Christianity, which in itself led to remarkable dialogue with Christian thinkers and practitioners throughout his life. We'll touch on some of this extraordinary thought in the letters. So, let's get going with letters in the first phase - roughly 1900-1928, on the path to I-Thou.