Martin Buber

"A clear and lucid analysis .... Friedman analyzes Buber's responses to the important events of the 20th century". -- Library Journal

"Definitive.... Particularly interesting are the details of Buber's last years". -- Booklist

Martin Buber (1878-1965) was born into a world of two cultures - his Jewish family and his Austrian fatherland. During his childhood with his grandparents in Galician Lvov, Jewish values and German aesthetics coexisted. But after Buber re-entered fin-de-siecle Viennese society, the world of his grandparents fell apart. Nothing was as it should have been: Jewish hopes for full social integration were disappointed, Yiddish culture seemingly caused modern Jewish youth to be impoverished, and the Jewish religion had become ossified. In his personal confusion, Buber clearly grasped the essence of the problem: emancipation had failed, German culture was dying, Jews were on their own, and tradition was no longer good enough. During the period from 1897 to 1909, Buber's keen sense of the crisis of humanity, his intimate knowledge of German culture and Jewish sources, and his fearlessness in the face of possible ridicule challenged him to behave in a manner so outrageous and so contrary to German-Jewish tradition that he actually achieved a transformation of himself and those close to him. Calling on spiritual giants of great historical periods in German, Christian, and Jewish history - such as Nicolas of Cusa, Jakob Bohme, Israel Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Nachman of Brazlav, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Friedrich Nietzsche - Buber proceeded to subvert the existing order by turning his upside-down world of slave morality right side up once more. If contemporary life was bankrupt, why lament? Did not God command humanity to act? Buber wholeheartedly immersed himself in the making of a new world, of Zionist culture, of Hasidic spirituality, of Romantic individuality, of unity from diversity. Byexamining the multitude of disparate sources that Buber turned to for inspiration, this book aims to elucidate Buber's creative genius and his contribution to turn-of-the-century Jewish renewal. Schmidt's timely and comprehensiv

Donald Moore, in this study of Buber's life and work, presents not a critical analysis or an historical development of Buber's thought; rather, he focuses in on Buber's central message about what it means to be a human being, a person of faith, a community of faith, and about what mankind can do to overcome the eclipse of God. Moore enters into a dialogue with Buber and explores Buber's belief that religion and community are as essentially interrelated as the Thou spoken to God and the Thou spoken to other human beings. This new edition, with a foreword by Maurice Friedman, contains a new preface by the author. The preface addresses the new generation of readers who will be introduced to Buber. In addition, textual changes represent an increased awareness of gender, a recognition of important Buber scholarship since the first edition, and a strengthening of the author's original thesis - that Buber, the critic of religion, was, in the mold of the biblical prophets, a man of profound religious faith.

Focuses on imaginative kosher recipes that are simple to prepare, low fat and health conscious: the recipes explore the wide range of possibilities in kosher cookery from simple lunches to elegant dinner menus. Features a section on Kosher wines. Helen Nash is an established and popular cookery writer. She has studied with famous chefs Michael Field and Lydie Marshall. She lives in New York City.