The Way of Man: According to Hasidic Teaching, by Martin Buber, does not suffer from the often labyrinthine language of his later works (I and Thou!) This work is short, simple, explaining the lives and examples of various Hasidic rebbes - but its very simplicity masks its profundity.
Buber re-worked the Hasidic world-view for a wider, less halakically oriented audience, and this is evident in this collection. The unity of living that Hasidism fostered in its early years, a world without barriers or walls, is what Buber seeks and finds. The light of God is everywhere, and the individual person exemplifies this potentially highest form of existence.
I admire parts of Buber's Jewish existentialism. It is a shame his brand of Judaism did not find a wider audience.
Buber re-worked the Hasidic world-view for a wider, less halakically oriented audience, and this is evident in this collection. The unity of living that Hasidism fostered in its early years, a world without barriers or walls, is what Buber seeks and finds. The light of God is everywhere, and the individual person exemplifies this potentially highest form of existence.
I admire parts of Buber's Jewish existentialism. It is a shame his brand of Judaism did not find a wider audience.
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