Martin Buber (1878-1965), who was a Jewish philosopher, born in Vienna, Educated at German universities, who taught philosophy and religion at the Univ. of Frankfurt-am-Main (1924-33) and from 1938 to 1951 held a professorship in the sociology of religion at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, remarked when talking about the verse “Love your fellow as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) that all human beings are part of the same body. Hurting another was akin to hurting yourself. If you were to slip and hurt your arm, would you then go and hurt the foot that you slipped on? Of course not! So why should we act in a way other than love? Buber also believed that Leviticus 19:18 was the core of the interpersonal relations that man should have with other men. Undoubtedly, this is missing in today’s world. A friend of mine who is a Roman Catholic priest from Nigeria once explained to me the verse of “loving thy neighbor” in a very Buberian manner by saying that “Love binds and hate divides.” Thus a fight, such as the ones we are seeing around the world today, hurts and divides all of us and not just those who were attacked or doing the attacking. I hope that peace will come to Israel, the Middle East, the streets of Chicago and all other hot spots around the world, so that we can stop writing about the Buberian way and start living it.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 10:51:39 +0000
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