Die Geschichten des Rabbi Nachman.
A PRETTY COPY
OF MARTIN BUBER’S
FIRST BOOK
[Judaica]. Buber, Martin. Die Geschichten des Rabbi Nachman…[Frankfurt: Literarischen Anstalt Rutten & Loering], 1906.
8vo.; illustrated endpapers with multicolored abstract floral motif; title page in red and black with woodcut of menorah surrounded by decorative border; occasional decorative motifs at chapter headings and on subtitle pages throughout; pages lightly, evenly, sunned, not affecting text; inner front hinge tender, with some evidence of previous careful repair; green cloth covers with same woodcut of menorah surrounded by decorative border as on title page, this time stamped in gilt; covers heavily worn, spine and front cover dampstained; still overall a lovely copy of a scarce book.
First edition of Martin Buber’s first book; limited, one of 2000 copies thus. A study of the life and work of Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlaw, an eighteenth century religious philosopher whom Buber saw as central to the foundation of Jewish mysticism. Text entirely in German. Includes essays on various aspects of Nachman’s work as well as excerpts (selected and translated by Buber) of Nachman’s writings.
Martin Buber, scholar, collector and author of Hasidic tales and founder of Jewish neo-mysticism, was born in Vienna in 1878. He was raised in his youth by his grandfather, Solomon Buber of Lemberg, who exerted a lasting influence upon him. Buber studied philosophy and art history from 1896 to 1900 at universities in Vienna, Leipzig, Berlin and Zurich. During his early days as a student Buber became an active Zionist and wrote for and edited articles for the Vienna Welt beginning in 1901. Just after that he became one of the founders of the Judischer Verlag.
In 1906 – the year of this book’s publication – Buber traveled to Berlin after a year in Florence. Once in Berlin, he commenced his studies in the philosophy of religion. This volume about Rabbi Nachman and his philosophies no doubt germinated from Buber’s scholarly interests. As Buber’s life continued so did his many accomplishments. From 1916 to 1924 he founded and edited Der Jude, a periodical which became the leading organ of German-speaking Jews of its time. From 1923 until 1933 Buber occupied the only Chair for Jewish Philosophy of Religion in a German University (in Frankfort). After the rise of Hitler in 1933 Buber was exiled from Germany. In 1938 he became Professor of Social Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Buber has had a profound influence on German religious and social
thought. His advocacy of the immediate creation of a specific Jewish
culture played a part in transforming the Zionist movement from a
purely political endeavor to a cultural one. He was one of the first
in Western Europe to foster the pioneer colonization movement in
Palestine.
Buber’s rediscovery of Hasidim was epochal for Western Europe. Drawing
his interpretation from mysticism, and particularly Hasidim, Buber profoundly
influenced men and thought, particularly in the religious and sociological fields.
In the last named he was pioneer. No discussion of his philosophy can be
adequate without some understanding of the Hasidic movement and the effect
of Buber’s introduction of Hasidic lore into Jewish thought…
--The Universal Jewish Encylopedia, Vol. 2, 570
A handsome copy of a central text in the history of Jewish mysticism and in the foundation of Buber’s canon.
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