The dedication is to "To my grandfather Salomon Buber, the last of the Masters of the Old Haskalah, I bring this work on Chassidut, with awe and love."
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
How a grandson of a Wissenschaft scholar lovingly rebels against his grandfather
Here is Martin Buber's dedication of his Die Geschichten des Rabbi Nachman (Frankfurt A.M., 1906), to his beloved grandfather Salomon Buber, who died that same year, no doubt because his grandson wrote this book.
The dedication is to "To my grandfather Salomon Buber, the last of the Masters of the Old Haskalah, I bring this work on Chassidut, with awe and love."
The dedication is to "To my grandfather Salomon Buber, the last of the Masters of the Old Haskalah, I bring this work on Chassidut, with awe and love."
Saul Lieberman, history of nonsense, scholarship, blah blah.
ReplyDeleteHuh?
DeleteI thought this post was hilarious.
This is not as ironic as it seems, since IIRC Martin himself describes his early memories of finding chesidishe seforim in his grandfather's library. (I don't remember exactly where he writes this. If someone remembers please let me know. Thanks.) Additionally, Martin's father took him to visit the Sadigerer dourt when he was a lad (see "hasidism and Modern Man" Book II: "My way to Hasidism").
ReplyDelete--ZIY
ZIY, thanks. I was more or less just joking. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWouldnt mind some more posts on Solomon Buber, if you could. Now here was a true giant. Successful banker AND great scholar. Torah Ugedulah bimokom echad. Sort of like a modern orthodox Hirsch, maybe.
ReplyDeleteDon't get the joke, not ironic at all. Solomon Buber was a Galicaner from a chassidish family and a Chortkover Chossid. Took Martin to the Rebbe.
ReplyDeleteMartin going to Sadigor with his father
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.ca/books?id=PZUSAAAAIAAJ&q=%22solomon+buber+chassidus&dq=%22solomon+buber+chassidus&source=bl&ots=TcTtRI8Rod&sig=KiXUuTD85bfGjI6hqbpdejb-IHo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=I0FSUInfEIrf0gH1koD4Cw&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAw
It wasn't about Buber at all, it was about the profile of a grandson of a chochmas yisrael scholar, a "letzten meister der alten haskalah," dedicating his book about Rabbi Nachman to him.
ReplyDeleteSure, it would be a lot more clever if his grandfather had been an ardent misnagid.
Mein Weg zum Chassidismus
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.ca/books?id=GcILAAAAIAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions
As you know people are complex. Being a chochmas yisrael scholar and chassidish albeit non practicing is not a conflict. Elie Weisel (agnostic/athiest?) is a Vizhnitzer chosid with sympathetic feelings to Lubavitch. and AJ Heschel brother-in-law of the Kopshinitzer Rebbe also AJ Heschel wrote in his 1972 yiddish masterpiece "Kotzk" my neshoma is Mezhbizh and my "moyach" is in Kotzk. This is after the civil rights marches and after being many years in JTS
ReplyDeleteI know people are complex. I'm sorry if this hit something personal, if it did. It was just a joke.
ReplyDeleteOf course people post-Buber are besides the point. He, after all, is sort of the one paved the way for JTS Chassidim and the like (and neither Elie Wiesel nor AJ Heschel are or were Wissenschaft scholars by any means, although your point still stands).
who are the "JTS Chassidim and the like"?
ReplyDeleteI once heard a USY leader addressing his Conservative youth group and, with all sincerity, declaring that the group was strongly influenced by Chassidism.
ReplyDeleteHeschel was in JTS, but was not of JTS. Beih, but not mineih, if you will. He was a chasidish theologian among wissenschaftliche philologists. And Wiesel sent his son to Ramaz - I met him when he was in 6th grade and I was in HS recruiting for the Boy Scouts.
ReplyDelete"Darbringen" means to offer, not to bring. The prefix (dar) gets separated when the verb is conjugated.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I have nothing but contempt for Martin Buber:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ranaz.co.il/articles/article1493_19611228.asp