Abstract

In this article the authors outline the personal history and thoughts of Martin Buber. Buber’s Judaism stresses the realization of the prophetic ideals – themes which he also found in the Hasidic tradition. Another realization of these ideals he found in cultural Zionism, for which he fought in Europe as well as in his later homeland, Israel. His following in the political field was rather limited, whereas his influence on dialogical philosophy, theology and even psychiatry has been considerable. His strength lies in the encompassing character of his thought as well as in his effort to unify and concretize his ideas in everyday practice. Buber claims that neither individualism nor collectivism can answer the basic question of man’s nature. Individualism sees only part of man&&collectivism man as only a part. A third possibility would be to see man constituted as a human being, and this appears when man enters into relation. The key to this experience of meeting is the Jewish and especially the Hasidic concept of God as embodied in the whole world.