philosophy ,M・Buber

The lecture will discuss portrayals of Eastern European Hasidism as "pure mysticism" in the writings of Martin Buber (especially his early stories about R. Nahman of Bratslav and the Baal Shem Tov), as well as the reception of such portrayals by non-Jews and mystics in Eastern Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. Many scholars have already analyzed the romantic picture painted by Buber, but without sufficient attention paid to the responses of Hasidim and other Eastern European thinkers to that picture. It seems that at precisely the time that Buber was holding up a form of "pure Hasidism" in contradistinction to the contemporary movement - which, in his opinion, had become stagnant -- a profound renaissance was in fact occurring in Eastern European Hasidism. Not only were Buber's portrayals disconnected from historical reality, he will fully ignored the Hasidic renaissance happening at the time. The lecture will discuss briefly the responses of a few Eastern European thinkers and scholars who contested Buber's description, while focusing on the unique response of the Warsaw mystic Hillel Zeitlin.