World Sacred Scriptures

The wisdom of Martin Buber

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Q uestion: When they stood at Mount Sinai, the people said to Moses: "Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die." And Moses answered: "Fear not." He went on to say that God had come "that His fear may be before you, that ye sin not." Is not that a contradiction?
Answer: "Fear not"-this means: this fear of yours, the fear of death, is not the fear God wants of you. He wants you to fear him, he wants you to fear his remoteness, and not to fall into sin which removes you from him.

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quote 2738 | Martin Buber
Martin Buber’s ten rungs, collected Hassidic saying, p.17

E very lock has its key which fits into and opens it. But there are strong thieves who know how to open locks without keys. They break the lock. So every mystery in the world can be unriddled by the particular kind of meditation fitted to it. But God loves the thief who breaks the lock open: I mean, the man who breaks his heart for God.

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quote 2737 | Martin Buber
Martin Buber’s ten rungs, collected Hassidic saying, p.17

T he whole earth is full of His glory.' By his works within me, I know the One.

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quote 2736 | Martin Buber
Martin Buber’s ten rungs, collected Hassidic saying, p.17

T he understanding of man is not great enough to grasp the fact that God is beyond time. But you must understand that time exists only because we do not grasp it, only because our understanding is small. For the greater our understanding, the more time is on the wane. In a dream we live seventy years and discover, on awakening, that it was a quarter of an hour. In our life, which passes like a dream, we Eve seventy years and then we waken to a greater understanding which shows us that it was a quarter of an hour. With our small understanding we can never grasp what we will know with the greater. Perfect understanding is beyond time.

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quote 2735 | Martin Buber
Martin Buber’s ten rungs, collected Hassidic saying, p.16

I t is written: "I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd." This does not mean that the shepherd is not there. The shepherd is always there. But sometimes he hides, and then he is indeed not there to the sheep, because they do not see him.

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quote 2734 | Martin Buber
Martin Buber’s ten rungs, collected Hassidic saying, p.16

G od says to man as he said to Moses: "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet" - put off the habitual which encloses your foot and you will recognize that the place on which you happen to be standing at this moment is holy ground. For there is no rung of being on which we cannot find the holiness of God everywhere and at all times.

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quote 2733 | Martin Buber
Martin Buber’s ten rungs, collected Hassidic saying, p.15

R abbi Bunam began teaching with these words: "We thank You, who are blessed and who are the source of blessing, that you are manifest and hidden." Then he continued: "A fearless man must feel God as he feels the place on which he stands. And just as he cannot imagine himself without a place to stand on, so he must in all simplicity grow aware of God who is the Place of the world, and comprises it. But at the same time he must know that He is the hidden life which fills the world."

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quote 2732 | Martin Buber
Martin Buber’s ten rungs, collected Hassidic saying, p.14

Q uestion: It is written: "And Israel saw the great hand," and further on it is written: ". . . And they believed in the Lord, and in His servant Moses." Why is this said? The question as to whether or not one believes can only be put while one does not as yet "see."
Answer: You are mistaken. It is only then that the true question can be put. Seeing the great hand does not mean that faith can be dispensed with. It is only after "seeing" that one realizes what the lack of faith means, and feels how very much one needs faith. The seeing of the great hand is the beginning of faith in that which one cannot "see."

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quote 2731 | Martin Buber
Martin Buber’s ten rungs, collected Hassidic saying, p.13

W hy do we say: "Our God and the God of our fathers"?
There are two kinds of people who believe in God. One believes because he has taken over the faith of his fathers, and his faith is strong. The other has arrived at faith through thinking and studying. The difference between them is this: The advantage of the first is that, no matter what arguments may be brought against it, his faith can
not be shaken; his faith is firm because it was taken over from his fathers. But there is one flaw in it: he has faith only in response to the command of man, and he has acquired it without studying and thinking for himself. The advantage of the second is that, because he found God through much thinking, he has arrived at a faith of his own. But here too there is a flaw: it is easy to shake his faith by refuting it through evidence. But he who unites both kinds of faith is invincible. And so we say, "Our God" with reference to our studies, and "God of our fathers" with an eye to tradition.
The same interpretation has been given to our saying, "God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of jacob," and not "God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," for this indicates that Isaac and. Jacob did not merely take over the tradition of Abraham; they themselves searched for God.

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quote 2730 | Martin Buber
Martin Buber’s ten rungs, collected Hassidic saying, p.13

T hose "devout" souls who knew that no one can be really devout in relation to God, if he is not devout toward His creation, and that the love of God is unreal, unless it is crowned with love for one's fellow men.

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quote 2729 | Martin Buber
Martin Buber’s ten rungs, collected Hassidic saying, p.7

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On other page(s): History and calligraphy of Martin Buber

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