Jewish philosopher Martin Buber: biography, life, creativity and interesting facts

Martin Buber is a great Jewish humanist and philosopher, as well as a well-known public and religious figure. This person is ambiguous, very complex. Some researchers consider him a theorist, the founder of Zionism. Others are called the existential philosopher of the first magnitude. Who was Martin (Mordechai) Buber? His biography and main works will be devoted to our article.

The philosopher lived a long life, but poor in external events. But, nevertheless, he devoted a lot of biographical works and research. Buber's name is world famous. He worked in various fields of culture. I touched not only the philosophy of human existence, but also education, art, sociology, politics, religion (in particular biblical studies). His works on Hasidism were translated into many languages of the world. But not so many works of this philosopher are accessible to the Russian reader. Only "Jewish art", "Renewal of Jewry" and a number of articles were translated. In the seventies and they were redirected to special funds. Buber's works were reprinted and circulated among progressive Soviet citizens in samizdat.

Biography of Martin Buber. Childhood and adolescence

Mordechai (Martin) Buber was born in Vienna on February 8, 1878, in a fairly well-to-do Jewish family. The boy was not even three years old when his parents divorced. Father took his son to Lemberg (modern Lviv, Ukraine), which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In this city lived the grandfather and grandmother of Martin from his father's side - Solomon and Adele. Shlomo Buber (he died in 1906) was a well-off banker. But he was famous in Lviv not by this, but by the fact that he was a brilliant specialist in the textualism of the midrash. Therefore, it was considered a great authority in the Chassidic community of Lviv. Grandfather and instilled in the boy a love of the Hebrew language. He literally opened his heart to the doors to the fascinating and mystical world of Hasidism, a religious movement that arose in the middle of the eighteenth century in the Jewish environment of Eastern Europe. Grandmother read excerpts from Kabbalah to the boy, and his grandfather taught him Hebrew, instilled a love for literature and religion.

Chassidism and the philosophy of the dialogue of Martin Buber

It was in Lviv that the future philosopher learned about the "pious" Judaism. The founder of Hasidism, Israel Baal Shem-Tov, believed that the true faith is not in the teaching of the Talmud, but in the attachment to God with the whole heart, the mystical escape of the raptured soul from the corporeal shell in hot and sincere prayer. In this religious ecstasy, a person's dialogue with the Creator of the Universe occurs. Therefore the Hasidim depart from the external restrictive prohibitions of Judaism. Those who constantly communicate with God, tzaddik, have the ability of prophecy and clairvoyance. These pious people also help other Hasidim to receive the salvation of their ears and the purification from their sins. All this mysterious and mystical world greatly influenced the young Martin Buber. In his book "My Path to Hasidism," he says that in an instant he realized the essence of all human religions. This is communication, dialogue with God, the relationship between me and you.

Education. Youth years

Grandfather-banker made sure that his grandson had a brilliant education. At the age of eighteen, Martin Buber entered the teaching at the University of Vienna. Having finished it, he continued his education in the higher schools of Zurich and Leipzig. At the University of Berlin, his teachers were V. Dilthey and G. Simmel. In twenty years the young man was carried away by Zionism. He was even a delegate to the third Congress of this Jewish movement. In the year 1901 he held the post of editor of the Zionist weekly "De Welt". When the split occurred in the party, Buber, who lived at that time in Berlin, founded his own publishing house called "Yudisher Ferlag." It produced Jewish books in German. The young man's interest in the issues of Hasidism did not diminish. He translated into German a series of stories and parables of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. Later he devoted to Hasidism the works of Gog and Magog (1941), The Secret Light (1943) and Pardes ha-Hasidut. Buber gives a lot of attention and social activities.

Zionism and Socialism

In 1916 Martin Buber became the editor-in-chief of the monthly Der Der Yude. This publication became the mouthpiece of the spiritual revival of the Jews. He founded the National Jewish Committee, which at the beginning of the First World represented the interests of the Eastern European yishuv. And, finally, in 1920 the philosopher formulated his social positions. He proclaimed them in Prague at a congress of the Zionists. This position is close in its class sound to socialism. As for the national question, Buber proclaimed "peace and brotherhood with the Arab people", urging both nationalities to coexist "in a new common homeland." Position I - You, a dialogue where each side can hear and understand the "truth" of the other, formed the basis of the thinker's philosophy.

Second world and later years

Between the two wars, Buber worked at the University of Frankfurt am Main. He held the post of professor at the Department of Ethics and Philosophy of Judaism. When the National Socialists came to power in the thirty-third, the philosopher lost his job. Soon he was forced to flee Germany to Switzerland. But later he emigrated from this country, which was neutral in the Second World War. Martin Buber, whose quotes about peaceful coexistence between Jews and Palestinians, alas, were "a voice crying in the wilderness," moved to Jerusalem. In this holy city the philosopher lived from 1938 to 1965. He died on June 13 at the age of eighty-seven. In Israel, Buber worked as a professor at the Department of Sociology at the University of Jerusalem. In the early sixties received the honorary title of the first president of the Israeli Academy of Sciences.

Anthropological approach in the philosophy of Martin Buber

While still a student, the philosopher took an active part in Nietzschean youth discussions. The doctrine of the leader and the crowd, the "human beings" was unacceptable to him. At the same time, he understood that Nietzsche was trying to put the problem of unique human existence in the world where "God refuses to people in His presence". However, it is necessary to solve it based on the value of each individual, Martin Buber believed. "The problem of man" - is primarily a polemical work, in which the scientist criticizes the postulates of Nietzsche. "The will to power" can not, in his opinion, serve as a guiding light for strong personalities and free minds. This approach will only lead to an even greater dictatorship. In Nietzschean discussions, as well as under the influence of Dilthey and Zimer, his teachers, Buber has his own conception of anthropology ripening.

Martin Buber, "Me and You": a summary

This work, of course, can be called the main thing in the philosophical creativity of the thinker. In it, Buber puts on the different scales of weights the relation "I'm It" and "I'm You". Only in the latter case is Dialogue possible, interpersonal living communication. When a person refers to something or someone as "it", only utilitarian use is obtained. But personality is not a means, but a goal. Attitude to another as in "You" gives the participant of the dialogue a spiritual, value nature. Bronisław Malinowski introduced the term "mana" into philosophical terms. This Polynesian word very accurately reflects the sensation of pre-religious enlightenment, the sensation of the invisible force that a person, an animal, a tree, a phenomenon, and even an object carries in him. According to Buber, these two types of relationships give rise to conflicting concepts of the world. Of course, it is difficult for a person to constantly be in the state of "I am You". But the one that always refers to the outside world as an "It", loses its soul.

Religious Studies

Another fundamental work, written by Martin Buber, is "Two Images of Faith". In this book, the philosopher recalls his childhood impressions of the entry into the world of mystical, slightly sensual Hasidism. He contrasts it with Talmudic Judaism. You can also distinguish two basic approaches to faith. The first, Pistis, is a rational "Greek" approach. In this sense, faith is information that has been taken into account. It can be called knowledge or even a "scientific hypothesis". Such a belief "pistis" resists the "emun". It is based on trust, lively love, respect for God as a "You". Buber traces how early Christianity gradually departed from the biblical spirit associated with the heart, sensory perception of the Heavenly Father, the church dogma with its dead set of patterns.

Mysticism

At the universities of Zurich and Vienna, Martin Buber, whose philosophy is increasingly inclined towards existentialism, listened to psychoanalysis courses. He is interested in the human personality in all its aspects. Ideas of mysticism, the scientist does not perceive as a mental pathology. The theme of his doctoral dissertation was a comprehensive study of the philosophy of Meister Eckhart and Jacob Boehme. These German mystics of the late Middle Ages had a great influence on Buber. As a pupil of Dilthey, the philosopher tried to get used to the religious experience of the disgraced Dominican of Eckhart. In order that all pilgrimages, repentance and fasting, everything that imposed orthodoxy, has no value, if a person does not seek communication with God. Böhme also asserts that the commandments must be inside, be written on the tablets of the heart, and not be outside like dogmas.

"Hasidic Traditions"

The mystical direction in Judaism is a passion, to which Martin Buber was drawn to the end of his life. The books on Hasidism of this author are translated into many languages. In them he tries to reveal faith as a dialogue with God, as a living trust in the Creator. The result was the work "Hasidic traditions". The first volume was translated into Russian only. In this book, Buber gave Hasidism a new image - a literary genre. God reveals himself through a series of trusted stories. Only in this way, according to Martin Buber, it is possible to establish a dialogue bridge between the person and the "sacrum", between "I" and "You". This approach was criticized by Gershom Scholem, the founder of the academic study of the mystical movement in Judaism. He believed that Buber ignored the philosophical heritage of Hasidism.