| Jewish religious philosopher and writer, representative of Judaism. Date of Birth: 08.02.1878 Country: Israel |
Martin Buber was a Jewish religious philosopher, writer, and educator, known for his contributions to Judaism and his work as a translator and commentator of the Bible. He was born on February 8, 1878, in Vienna, and grew up in Lemberg (now Lviv). Buber received his education at universities in Vienna, Berlin, Zurich, and Leipzig.
In 1901, Buber became the editor of the Zionist newspaper "Die Welt." He later became one of the founders of the publishing house "Jüdischer Verlag" and the Jewish National Committee. In 1916, he established the monthly magazine "Der Jude." In 1933, Buber became the head of the Center for Jewish Education in Frankfurt am Main. In 1938, he emigrated to Palestine.
Buber served as a professor at the Hebrew University until 1951 and became the first president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 1960-1962.
A key moment in the formation of Buber's philosophical views was his transition from mysticism to religious existentialism. He moved from the idea of merging with the divine to the concept of encountering God, which involved separate existence and dialogue between both parties. Buber's famous work "I and Thou" (Ich und Du, 1923) expresses this idea with extraordinary depth and poetic power.
According to Buber, genuine encounters between humans and God, as well as between humans, are characterized by the relationship of "I-Thou" rather than "I-It." He believed that the world of "Thou" is God, and only when a person is capable of standing before God as a "Thou," they can also love other creatures as "Thou." Otherwise, human relationships degrade to the level of "I-It," treating others as objects of manipulation and means to achieve goals. The "I-Thou" relationship is only elevated in rare cases of deep love or ideal friendship, where the entirety of both individuals' existence is involved in the encounter.
In his book "Between Man and Man" (1947), Buber explores the social and educational aspects of this philosophy of human relationships. He also applies the dialogical principle, known as the "I-Thou principle," in his interpretation of the Bible. In his works "The Prophetic Faith" (Torat ha-Nevi'im, 1942) and "Moses" (Moshe, 1945), Buber considers the relationship between God and Israel as a dialogue in which God addresses humanity, and humanity heeds the Word of God.
Buber discovered that the dialogical principle had already been employed by Hasidic sages and was part of the tradition of late Judaism. Hasidim, like the Bible, emphasized the moment of immediacy, spontaneity in encounters, openness to God, and spoke of direct contact with Him. Buber's studies on Hasidism are presented in several of his works.
As one of the early Zionists, Buber hoped that his philosophical and religious principles would be utilized in resolving the problems of Israel, as well as broader issues of social and political organization in the modern world. In his book "Paths in Utopia" (Netivot be-Utopia, 1947), he explored the possibilities of applying the dialogical principle not only to individual relationships but also to human communities and the world as a whole.