Hasidism and Modern Man (Harper Torchbooks TB839)

by Martin Buber

Book Overview

Hasidism, a controversial, mystical-religious movement of Eastern European origin, has posed a serious challenge to mainstream Judaism from its earliest beginnings in the middle of the eighteenth... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061308390
• ISBN13: 9780061308390
• Release Date: January 1966
• Publisher: Harper & Row
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The holy life - explained

It is Buber, who more than any other writer or thinker,made the works of Hasidism first known to the Western world. He found in their lives of devoutedness to God, in their holy simplicity a message for Modern Man. In this work Buber outlines the principles of Hasidism, and provides us a picture of a whole way, not simply of seeing holiness, but of living in Holiness in the world.

a very readable exposition of a particular philosophy

Martin Buber recounts tales and parables of previous generations of central European hasidic Jewry to illuminate a life philosophy with appeal for today and tomorrow's interested generations.He communicates his vast love and respect for what he sees as a treasure trove of wisdom and insight into the human condition as found in hasidic lore.This book is very readable and speaks more directly to the reader without the dense philosophical phraseology which makes other of his books difficult to get into .I have heard criticism that one is actually hearing Martin Buber's humanistic philosophy of life with reference to his interpretation of hasidic folk culture.Be that as it may there is a universal self help appeal to this book.Martin Buber communicates the idea of humankind as consisting of free thinking individuals who can shape destiny,"every man's foremost task is the actualization of his unique ,unprecedented and never recurring potentialities,and not the repetition of something another,and be it even the greatest,has already achieved"This is a book that might change the reader's life.