Aggadah (Aramaic אַגָּדָה: tales, lore; pl. Aggadot or (Ashkenazi) Aggados; Also known as Aggad or Aggadh.) refers to the homiletic and non-legalistic exegetical texts in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism, particularly as recorded in the Talmud and Midrash. In general, Aggadah is a compendium of rabbinic homilies that incorporates folklore, historical anecdotes, moral exhortations, and practical advice in various spheres, from business to medicine.

As part of the Jewish oral law[link]

The Aggadah is part of Judaism's Oral law (תורה שבעל פה) — the traditions providing the authoritative interpretation of the Written Law. In this context, the widely held view in Rabbinic literature is that the aggadah is in fact a medium for the transmission of fundamental teachings (Homiletic Sayings - מאמרים לימודיים) or for explanations of verses in the Tanakh (Exegetic Sayings - מאמרים ביאוריים). In Rabbinic thought, therefore, much of the Aggadah is understood as containing a hidden, allegorical dimension, in addition to its overt, literal sense. In general, where a literal interpretation contradicts rationality, the Rabbis seek an allegorical explanation: "We are told to use our common sense to decide whether an aggada is to be taken literally or not" (Carmell, 2005).

Literal-allegorical teachings[link]

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, the Ramchal, discusses this two-tiered, literal-allegorical mode of transmission of the Aggadah in his well known Discourse on the Haggadot. He explains that the Oral Law, in fact, comprises two components: the legal component (חלק המצוות), discussing the mitzvot and halakha; and "the secret" component (חלק הסודות), discussing the deeper teachings. The aggadah, along with the Kabbalah, falls under the latter. The rabbis of the Mishnaic era realized the danger of recording the deeper teachings in explicit, mishnah-like, medium. Rather, they would be conveyed in a "concealed mode" and via "paradoxes". (Due to their value, these teachings should not become accessible to those "of bad character" and due to their depth they should not be made available to those "not schooled in the ways of analysis".) This mode of the transmission was nevertheless based on consistent rules and principles such that those "equipped with the keys" would be able to unlock their meaning; to others they would appear as non-rational or fantastic.

Interpretation of the Aggadah[link]

In line with the above, Shmuel ha-Nagid, in his "Introduction to the Talmud", states that "Aggadah comprises any comment occurring in the Talmud on any topic which is not a commandment (i.e. which is not halachic) and one should derive from it only that which is reasonable." As regards this, Maimonides, in his preface to the tenth chapter of Tractate Sanhedrin (Perek Chelek), describes three possible approaches to the interpretation of the Aggadah.^[1]

• The first approach is to accept the Aggadah as literally true, without admission of any hidden, allegorical explanation — even where a literal interpretation runs counter to common sense. Maimonides is dismissive of this approach.

• The second approach is to assume that anything said by the Sages was intended literally, and to therefore reject, as impossible, non-rational or fantastic teachings (and to consequently consider the Sages as "simpletons and ignoramuses"). Maimonides does not entirely reject rationalist interpretation, but he opposes an exegetical approach which denies the Aggadah a hidden rationality. "The sages presented their drashot in a style by which the mind of a fool will reject them because of his way of thinking; it is improper to assign any deficiency to the drash — one may rather suspect that the deficiency is a result of his intellectual shortcomings" (Commentary on the Mishnah: Introduction).

• The third approach is to recognise that many Aggadot are intended to teach profound truths, and that the teachings thus operate on two levels: "overt" and "hidden". Thus any impossible assertion was, in fact, intended as a parable; further, where aggadot can be understood literally, they may be taken on this level. This is, in general, the view of the Rabbis. "It is proper … to carefully analyse [the aggadot] … when any of these seem far-fetched we must immerse ourselves in the various branches of knowledge until we understand the concepts." (Maimonides, op cit).

Note that Maimonides' approach is also widely held amongst the non-rationalistic, mystical streams of Judaism — thus, for example, Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz, the Shlah HaKodosh holds that "none of these sometimes mind-boggling 'stories' are devoid of profound meaning; if anyone is devoid of understanding, it is the reader" (Shnei Luchos HaBris, introduction).

In the Talmud and Midrash[link]

The aggadah is today recorded in the Midrash and the Talmud.

In the Midrash, the aggadic and halakhic material are compiled as two distinct collections: 1) The Aggadic Midrashim, generally, are explanatory aggada, deriving the "sermonic implications" from the biblical text; and 2) the Halakhic Midrashim derive the laws from the text. Many of the Torah commentaries, and the Targumim, interpret the Torah text in the light of Aggadic statements, particularly those in the Midrash, and hence contain much material on Aggadah interpretation.

Throughout the Talmud, aggadic and halakhic material are interwoven – legal material comprises around 90%. (Tractate Avoth, which has no gemara, deals exclusively with non-halakhic material, though it is not regarded as aggadic in that it is focused, largely, on character development.) The Talmudic aggada, generally, convey the "deeper teachings" - though in concealed mode, as discussed. The aggadic material in the Babylonian Talmud is presented separately in Ein Yaakov, a compilation of the Aggadah together with commentaries.

Well-known works interpreting the Aggadot in the Talmud include:

• Chiddushei Aggados (Novellae on the Aggadot) by Samuel Edels "the Maharsha."
• Chiddushei Aggados (Novellae on the Aggadot) by Judah Loew "the Maharal" (as well as many other works by Loew).
• Yehoyada and MeKabtziel (names based on 2 Samuel 23:20) by Yosef Chaim "the Ben Ish Chai."
• Beur Aggados (Clarification of the Aggadot) and Perush al Kamma Aggadot (Commentary on several Aggadot) by the Vilna Gaon.
• Ayin Ayah Commentary on Ein Yaakov by Rav Kook

Development of the Aggadah[link]

The Midrashim are mostly derived from, and based upon, the teachings of the Tannaim:

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The Aggadah has been preserved in a series of different works, which, like all works of traditional literature, have come to their present form through previous collections and revisions. Their original forms existed long before they were reduced to writing.

The first traces of the midrashic exegesis are found in the Bible itself; while in the time of the Soferim the development of the Midrash Aggadah received a mighty impetus, and the foundations were laid for public services which were soon to offer the chief medium for the cultivation of Bible exegesis.

Much Aggadah, often mixed with foreign elements, is found in the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, the works of Josephus and Philo, and the remaining Judæo-Hellenistic literature; but aggadic exegesis reached its highest development in the great epoch of the Mishnaic-Talmudic period, between 100 and 550 CE.

The Aggadah of the Amoraim (sages of the Talmud) is the continuation of that of the Tannaim (sages of the Mishna). The final edition of the Mishnah, which was of such signal importance for the Halakah, is of less significance for the Aggadah, which, in form as well as in content, shows the same characteristics in both periods.

Exegetic and homiletic Aggadah[link]

It is important to emphasize the fundamental difference in plan between the midrashim forming a running commentary (מאמרים ביאוריים) to the Scripture text, and the homiletic midrashim (מאמרים לימודיים). When the scholars undertook to edit, revise, and collect into individual midrashim the immense array of haggadot, they followed the method employed in the collections and revisions of the halakhot and the halakhic discussions.^{[citation needed]} The form which suggested itself was to arrange in textual sequence the exegetical interpretations of the Biblical text as taught in the schools, or the occasional interpretations introduced into public discourses, etc., and which were in any way connected with Scripture. Since the work of the editor was often merely that of compilation, the existing midrashim show in many passages the character of the sources from which they were taken. This was the genesis of the midrashim which are in the nature of running haggadic commentaries to single books of the Bible, as Bereshit Rabbah, Eikah Rabbati, the midrashim to the other Megillot, etc. See Midrash for more details.

Modern Aggadah compilations[link]

The Ein Yaakov is a compilation of the aggadic material in the Babylonian Talmud together with commentary. It was compiled by Jacob ibn Habib and (after his death) by his son Rabbi Levi ibn Habib, and was first published in Saloniki (Greece) in 1515. It was intended as a text of aggadah, that could be studied with "the same degree of seriousness as the Talmud itself".^[2] Popularized anthologies did not appear until more recently - these often incorporate "aggadot" from outside of classical Rabbinic literature. The major works include:

• Sefer Ha-Aggadah (The Book of Legends) is a classic compilation of aggadah from the Mishnah, the two Talmuds and the Midrash literature. It was edited by Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky. Bialik and Ravnitky worked for three years to compile a comprehensive and representative overview of aggadah. When they found the same aggadah in multiple versions, from multiple sources, they usually selected the later form, the one found in the Babylonian Talmud. However, they also presented some aggadot sequentially, giving the early form from the Jerusalem Talmud, and later versions from the Babylonian Talmud, and from a classic midrash compilation. In each case each every aggadah is given with its original source. In their original edition, they translated the Aramaic aggadot into modern Hebrew. Sefer Ha-Aggadah was first published in 1908-11 in Odessa, Russia, then reprinted numerous times in Israel. In 1992 it was translated into English as The Book of Legends, by William G. Braude.

• Legends of the Jews, by Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, is an original synthesis of a vast amount of aggadah from the Mishnah, the two Talmuds and Midrash. Ginzberg had an encyclopedic knowledge of all rabbinic literature, and his masterwork included a massive array of aggadot. However he did not create an anthology which showed these aggadot distinctly. Rather, he paraphrased them and rewrote them into one continuous narrative that covered five volumes, followed by two volumes of footnotes that give specific sources.

• Mimekor Yisrael, by Micha Josef Berdyczewski. Berdichevsky was interested in compiling the folklore and legends of the Jewish people, from the earliest times up until the dawn of the modern era. His collection included a large array of aggadot, although they were limited to those he considered within the domain of folklore.

• The collected works of Dov Noy.^[3] In 1954, Noy established the Israel Folktale Archives and Ethnological Museum at the University of Haifa, an archive containing over 23,000 folktales collected from all the various ethnic communities who live in Israel.

See also[link]

Judaism portal

• Aggadic Midrashim (category)
• Midrash
• Moses in rabbinic literature
• Rabbinic literature

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

• Traditional orientation
  • Introduction to the commentary on the Mishnah, Maimonides, transl. Zvi Lampel (Judaica Press, 1998). ISBN 1-880582-28-7
  • Discourse on the Haggadot, Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, transl. in "The Juggler and the King" below.
  • The Infinite Chain: Torah, Masorah, and Man, Nathan T. Lopes Cardozo, (Philipp Feldheim, 1989). ISBN 0-944070-15-9
  • The Juggler and the King, Aharon Feldman, (Philipp Feldheim, 1991). ISBN 0-87306-557-3
  • The Talmud: A Reference Guide, Adin Steinsaltz, (Random House, 1996). ISBN 0-679-77367-3

• Modern
  • Mimekor Yisrael: Classical Jewish Folktales, Micha Joseph bin Gorion, translated by I. M. Lask, Trans. Three volumes. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1976
  • Mimekor Yisrael: Classical Jewish Folktales Abridged and Annotated Edition Micha Joseph bin Gorion. This is a one volume abridged and annotated version, with an introduction and headnotes, by Dan Ben-Amos. Indiana University Press. 560 pages. ISBN 0-253-31158-6.
  • Four Master Folklorists And Their Major Contributions Peninnah Schram, from Opening Worlds of Words, Peninnah Schram and Cherie Karo Schwartz

External links[link]

Discussion

• Halakha/Aggadata/Midrash, jewishvirtuallibrary.org
• Midrash Haggadah, jewishencyclopedia.com
• Haggada, 1911encyclopedia.org
• The Key to Understanding Aggadah, CB"N Library
• Freedom to Interpret, Rabbi Aryeh Carmell
• Understanding Aggadah, Rabbi Gil Student
• The Midrash: Introduction, Samuel Rapaport

Source Material

• Introduction to Perek Chelek (Hebrew), Maimonides
• Discussion on Aggadah in the Introduction to the Commentary on the Mishna (Hebrew), Maimonides
• Discourse on the Haggadot (Hebrew), Moshe Chaim Luzzatto
• Discourse on the Sayings of the Rabbis (Hebrew), Avraham son of Rambam -- translation

Textual resources

• Links to full-text resources
  • Ben Gurion University (Hebrew)
  • Halacha Brura Institute
• Excerpted translations
  • The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg
  • Tales and Maxims from the Midrash by Samuel Rapaport

Martin Buber

Born	February 8, 1878 Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died	June 13, 1965(1965-06-13) (aged 87) Jerusalem, Israel
Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Existentialism
Main interests	Ontology
Notable ideas	Ich-Du and Ich-Es
Influenced by Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gustav Landauer, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, Ludwig Feuerbach
Influenced Ludwig Binswanger, Emil Brunner, Walter Kaufmann, Emmanuel Levinas, Gabriel Marcel, Iván Böszörményi-Nagy, Gershom Scholem, Paul Tillich

Martin Buber (Hebrew: מרטין בובר‎; February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965) was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship.^[1] Born in Vienna, 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, Palestine, receiving a professorship at Hebrew University and lecturing in anthropology and introductory sociology.

Buber's wife Paula died in 1958, and he died at his home in the Talbiyeh neighborhood of Jerusalem on June 13, 1965.

Biography[link]

Martin (Hebrew name: מָרְדֳּכַי, Mordechai) Buber was born in Vienna to an Orthodox Jewish family. His grandfather, Solomon Buber, in whose house in Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine) Buber spent much of his childhood, was a renowned scholar of Midrash and Rabbinic Literature. At home Buber spoke Yiddish and German. In 1892, Buber returned to his father's house in Lemberg, today's Lviv, Ukraine.

A personal religious crisis led him to break with Jewish religious customs: he started reading Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard, and Friedrich Nietzsche.^[2] The latter two, in particular, inspired him to pursue studies in philosophy. In 1896, Buber went to study in Vienna (philosophy, art history, German studies, philology).

In 1898, he joined the Zionist movement, participating in congresses and organizational work. In 1899, while studying in Zürich, Buber met his future wife, Paula Winkler, a non-Jewish Zionist writer from Munich who later converted to Judaism.^[3]

Themes[link]

Buber's evocative, sometimes poetic writing style has marked the major themes in his work: the retelling of Hasidic tales, Biblical commentary, and metaphysical dialogue. A cultural Zionist, Buber was active in the Jewish and educational communities of Germany and Israel.^[4] He was also a staunch supporter of a binational solution in Palestine, and after the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel, of a regional federation of Israel and Arab states. His influence extends across the humanities, particularly in the fields of social psychology, social philosophy, and religious existentialism.^[5]

Buber's attitude towards Zionism was tied to his desire to promote a vision of "Hebrew humanism".^[6] According to Laurence J. Silberstein, the terminology of "Hebrew humanism" was coined to "distinguish [Buber's] form of nationalism from that of the official Zionist movement" and to point to how "Israel's problem was but a distinct form of the universal human problem. Accordingly, the task of Israel as a distinct nation was inexorably linked to the task of humanity in general".^[7]

Zionist views[link]

Approaching Zionism from his own personal viewpoint, Buber disagreed with Theodor Herzl about the political and cultural direction of Zionism. Herzl envisioned the goal of Zionism in a nation-state, but did not consider Jewish culture or religion necessary. In contrast, Buber believed the potential of Zionism was for social and spiritual enrichment. For example, Buber argued that following the formation of the Israeli state, there would need to be reforms to Judaism: "We need someone who would do for Judaism what Pope John XXIII has done for the Catholic Church".^[8] Herzl and Buber would continue, in mutual respect and disagreement, to work towards their respective goals for the rest of their lives.

In 1902, Buber became the editor of the weekly Die Welt, the central organ of the Zionist movement. However, a year later Buber became involved with the Jewish Hasidism movement. Buber admired how the Hasidic communities actualized their religion in daily life and culture. In stark contrast to the busy Zionist organizations, which were always mulling political concerns, the Hasidim were focused on the values which Buber had long advocated for Zionism to adopt. In 1904, Buber withdrew from much of his Zionist organizational work and devoted himself to study and writing. In that year he published his thesis: Beiträge zur Geschichte des Individuationsproblems (on Jakob Böhme and Nikolaus Cusanus).^[9]

Literary and academic career[link]

Martin Buber's house (1916–38) in Heppenheim, Germany. Now the headquarters of the ICCJ.

Martin Buber and Rabbi Binyamin in Palestine (1920-30)

Buber (left) and Judah Leon Magnes testifying before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry in Jerusalem (1946)

Buber in the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem, prior to 1948

From 1910 to 1914, Buber studied myths and published editions of mythic texts. In 1916 he moved from Berlin to Heppenheim.

During World War I he helped establish the Jewish National Commission to improve the condition of Eastern European Jews. During that period he became the editor of Der Jude (German for "The Jew"), a Jewish monthly (until 1924). In 1921 Buber began his close relationship with Franz Rosenzweig. In 1922 Buber and Rosenzweig co-operated in Rosenzweig's House of Jewish Learning, known in Germany as Lehrhaus.^[10]

In 1923 Buber wrote his famous essay on existence, Ich und Du (later translated into English as I and Thou). Though he edited the work later in his life, he refused to make substantial changes. In 1925 he began, in conjunction with Franz Rosenzweig, translating the Hebrew Bible into German. He himself called this translation Verdeutschung ("Germanification"), since it does not always use literary German language but attempts to find new dynamic (often newly invented) equivalent phrasing to respect the multivalent Hebrew original. Between 1926 and 1930 Buber co-edited the quarterly Die Kreatur ("The Creature").^[11]

In 1930 Buber became an honorary professor at the University of Frankfurt am Main. He resigned in protest from his professorship immediately after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. On October 4, 1933 the Nazi authorities forbade him to lecture. In 1935 he was expelled from the Reichsschrifttumskammer (the National Socialist authors' association). 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.^[12] The Nazi administration increasingly obstructed this body.

Finally, in 1938, Buber left Germany and settled in Jerusalem, then capital of Mandate Palestine. He received a professorship at Hebrew University there, lecturing in anthropology and introductory sociology. The lectures he gave during the first semester were published in the book The problem of man (Das Problem des Menschen);^[13][14] in these lectures he discusses how the question "What is Man?" became the central one in philosophical anthropology.^[15] He participated in the discussion of the Jews' problems in Palestine and of the Arab question – working out of his Biblical, philosophic, and Hasidic work.

He became a member of the group Ihud, which aimed at a bi-national state for Arabs and Jews in Palestine. Such a binational confederation was viewed by Buber as a more proper fulfillment of Zionism than a solely Jewish state. In 1946 he published his work Paths in Utopia,^[16] in which he detailed his communitarian socialist views and his theory of the "dialogical community" founded upon interpersonal "dialogical relationships".

After World War II Buber began giving lecture-tours in Europe and the USA. In 1952 he argued with Jung over the existence of God.^[17]

Awards[link]

• In 1951, Buber received the Goethe award of the University of Hamburg.
• In 1953, he received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.
• In 1958, he was awarded the Israel Prize in the humanities.^[18]
• In 1961, he was awarded the Bialik Prize for Jewish thought.^[19]
• In 1963, he won the Erasmus Prize in Amsterdam.

In 2005, he was voted the 126th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.^[20]

Philosophy[link]

Buber is famous for his thesis of dialogical existence, as he described in the book I and Thou. However, his work dealt with a range of issues including religious consciousness, modernity, the concept of evil, ethics, education, and Biblical hermeneutics.^[21]

Buber rejected the label of "philosopher" or "theologian" claiming he was not interested in ideas, only personal experience, and could not discuss God but only relationships to God.^[22]

Dialogue and existence[link]

Stamp celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Martin Buber, 1978

In I and Thou, Buber introduced his thesis on human existence. Inspired partly by Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity and Kierkegaard's "Single One", Buber worked upon the premise of existence as encounter.^[23] He explained this philosophy using the word pairs of Ich-Du and Ich-Es to categorize the modes of consciousness, interaction, and being through which an individual engages with other individuals, inanimate objects, and all reality in general. Philosophically, these word pairs express complex ideas about modes of being – particularly how a person exists and actualizes that existence (see existentialism). As Buber argues in I and Thou, a person is at all times engaged with the world in one of these modes.

The generic motif Buber employs to describe the dual modes of being is one of dialogue (Ich-Du) and monologue (Ich-Es).^[24] The concept of communication, particularly language-oriented communication, is used both in describing dialogue/monologue through metaphors and expressing the interpersonal nature of human existence.

[edit] Ich-Du

Ich-Du ("I-Thou" or "I-You") is a relationship that stresses the mutual, holistic existence of two beings. It is a concrete encounter, because these beings meet one another in their authentic existence, without any qualification or objectification of one another. Even imagination and ideas do not play a role in this relation. In an I-Thou encounter, infinity and universality are made actual (rather than being merely concepts).^[24] Buber stressed that an Ich-Du relationship lacks any composition (e.g. structure) and communicates no content (e.g. information). Despite the fact that Ich-Du cannot be proven to happen as an event (e.g. it cannot be measured), Buber stressed that it is real and perceivable. A variety of examples are used to illustrate Ich-Du relationships in daily life – two lovers, an observer and a cat, the author and a tree, and two strangers on a train. Common English words used to describe the Ich-Du relationship include encounter, meeting, dialogue, mutuality, and exchange.

One key Ich-Du relationship Buber identified was that which can exist between a human being and God. Buber argued that this is the only way in which it is possible to interact with God, and that an Ich-Du relationship with anything or anyone connects in some way with the eternal relation to God.

To create this I-Thou relationship with God, a person has to be open to the idea of such a relationship, but not actively pursue it. The pursuit of such a relation creates qualities associated with It-ness, and so would prevent an I-You relation, limiting it to I-It. Buber claims that by being open to the I-Thou, God eventually comes to us in response to our welcome. Also, because the God Buber describes is completely devoid of qualities, this I-Thou relation lasts as long as the individual wills it. When the individual finally returns to the I-It, they act as a pillar of deeper relation and community.

[edit] Ich-Es

The Ich-Es ("I-It") relationship is nearly the opposite of Ich-Du.^[24] Whereas in Ich-Du the two beings encounter one another, in an Ich-Es relationship the beings do not actually meet. Instead, the "I" confronts and qualifies an idea, or conceptualization, of the being in its presence and treats that being as an object. All such objects are considered merely mental representations, created and sustained by the individual mind. This is based partly on Kant's theory of phenomenon, in that these objects reside in the cognitive agent’s mind, existing only as thoughts. Therefore, the Ich-Es relationship is in fact a relationship with oneself; it is not a dialogue, but a monologue.

In the Ich-Es relationship, an individual treats other things, people, etc., as objects to be used and experienced. Essentially, this form of objectivity relates to the world in terms of the self – how an object can serve the individual’s interest.

Buber argued that human life consists of an oscillation between Ich-Du and Ich-Es, and that in fact Ich-Du experiences are rather few and far between. In diagnosing the various perceived ills of modernity (e.g. isolation, dehumanization, etc.), Buber believed that the expansion of a purely analytic, material view of existence was at heart an advocation of Ich-Es relations – even between human beings. Buber argued that this paradigm devalued not only existents, but the meaning of all existence.

Note on translation[link]

Ich und Du has been translated from the original German into many other languages. However, because Buber's use of German was highly idiomatic and often unconventional, there has naturally been debate on how best to convey the complex messages in his text. One critical debate in the English-speaking world has centered on the correct translation of the key word pairs Ich-Du and Ich-Es. In the German the word "Du" is used, while in the English two different translations are used: "Thou" (used in Ronald Smith’s version) and "You" (used by Walter Kaufmann). The key problem is how to translate the very personal, even intimate German "Du", which has no direct equivalent in Modern English. Smith argued that "Thou" invokes the theological and reverential implications which Buber intended (e.g. Buber describes God as the eternal "Du"). Kaufmann asserted that this wording was archaic and impersonal, offering "You" because (like the German Du) it has colloquial usage in intimate conversation.

Despite this debate, Buber’s book is widely known in the English-speaking world as I and Thou, perhaps because the Smith translation appeared years before the Kaufmann one. However, both the Smith and Kaufmann translations are widely available.

Hasidism and mysticism[link]

Buber was a scholar, interpreter, and translator of Hasidic lore. He viewed Hasidism as a source of cultural renewal for Judaism, frequently citing examples from the Hasidic tradition that emphasized community, interpersonal life, and meaning in common activities (e.g. a worker's relation to his tools). The Hasidic ideal, according to Buber, emphasized a life lived in the unconditional presence of God, where there was no distinct separation between daily habits and religious experience. This was a major influence on Buber's philosophy of anthropology, which considered the basis of human existence as dialogical.

In 1906, Buber published Die Geschichten des Rabbi Nachman, a collection of the tales of the Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, a renowned Hasidic rebbe, as interpreted and retold in a Neo-Hasidic fashion by Buber. Two years later, Buber published Die Legende des Baalschem (stories of the Baal Shem Tov), the founder of Hasidism.^[10]

Buber's interpretation of the Hasidic tradition, however, has been criticized by scholars such as Chaim Potok for its romanticization. In the introduction to Buber's Tales of the Hasidim, Potok notes that Buber overlooked Hasidism's "charlatanism, obscurantism, internecine quarrels, its heavy freight of folk superstition and pietistic excesses, its tzadik worship, its vulgarized and attenuated reading of Lurianic Kabbalah." Even more severe is the criticism that Buber deemphasized the importance of the Jewish Law in Hasidism. This is ironic, considering that Buber often delved into Hasidim to demonstrate that individual religiosity did not require a dogmatic, creedal religion.

Brit Shalom and the bi-national solution[link]

Already in the early 1920s Martin Buber started advocating a binational Jewish-Arab state, stating that the Jewish people should proclaim "its desire to live in peace and brotherhood with the Arab people and to develop the common homeland into a republic in which both peoples will have the possibility of free development."^[25]

Buber rejected the idea of Zionism as just another national movement and wanted instead to see the creation of an exemplary society; a society which would not, he said, be characterized by Jewish domination of the Arabs. It was necessary for the Zionist movement to reach a consensus with the Arabs even at the cost of the Jews remaining a minority in the country. In 1925 he was involved in the creation of the organization Brit Shalom (Covenant of Peace), which advocated the creation of a binational state, and throughout the rest of his life he hoped and believed that Jews and Arabs one day would live in peace in a joint nation. In 1942, he co-founded the Ihud party which advocated a binationalist program. Nevertheless he was connected with decades of friendship to Zionists and philosophers like Chaim Weizmann, Max Brod, Hugo Bergman and Felix Weltsch, who were close friends of his from old European times in Prague, Berlin and Vienna to the Jerusalem of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.

After the Israeli state gained independence in 1948, Buber advocated Israel's participation in a federation of "Near East" states wider than just Palestine.^[26]

Printed works[link]

Original writings (German)[link]

Collected works[link]

Werke 3 volumes (1962–1964)

• I Schriften zur Philosophie (1962)
• II Schriften zur Bibel (1964)
• III Schriften zum Chassidismus (1963)

Martin Buber Werkausgabe (MBW). Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften / Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, ed. Paul Mendes-Flohr & Peter Schäfer with Martina Urban; 21 volumes planned (2001 – )

Correspondence[link]

Briefwechsel aus sieben Jahrzehnten 1897–1965 (1972–1975)

• I : 1897–1918 (1972)
• II : 1918–1938 (1973)
• III : 1938–1965 (1975)

Biographies[link]

• Wolfgang Zink Martin Buber – 1878/1978 (1978)
• Clara Levi Coen Martin Buber (1991)

Further reading[link]

• Paul Arthur Schilpp & Maurice Friedman The philosophy of Martin Buber (1967)
• Rivka Horwitz Buber's way to "I and thou" – an historical analysis and the first publication of Martin Buber's lectures "Religion als Gegenwart" (1978)
• Margot Cohn & Rafael Buber Martin Buber – a bibliography of his writings, 1897–1978 (1980)
• Joachim Israel Martin Buber – Dialogphilosophie in Theorie und Praxis (2010)

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Martin Buber

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Martin Buber

• The Martin Buber Institute For Dialogical Ecology
• Martin Buber Homepage
• Martin Buber – The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy article by Sarah Scott
• Martin Buber entry by Michael Zank in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Martin Buber, the Anarchist
• Spiritual Community dedicated to Buber's I-Thou philosophy
• Martin Buber's Utopian Israel
• Martin Buber's Final Legacy: "The Knowledge of Man"; by Maurice Friedman.
• Buber's Philosophy as the Basis for Dialogical Psychotherapy and Contextual Therapy; by Maurice Friedman.
• I, thou, and we: A dialogical approach to couples therapy
• Dialogical and Person-Centred Approach to Psychotherapy