Description
Book SynopsisIn
A Year with Martin Buber, the first Torah commentary to focus on his life’s work, we experience the fifty-four weekly portions and eleven Jewish holidays through Buber’s eyes.
Trade Review"This fresh innovative approach to the Torah portion of the week is appealing and insightful, which is why I carry it with me to read in synagogue on Shabbat mornings, either before or after the reading of the Torah portion. It enlightens and enervates my Shabbat morning experience."—Rabbi Ron Kronish,
Jerusalem Report"Rabbi Ross superbly distills the theology of Martin Buber . . . , a consequential Jewish thinker whose focus on making human interactions meaningful influenced Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail.' . . . An invaluable entry point to a humanist thinker who sought to identify, build, and preserve 'holiness in our daily routines' by putting people, rather than objects, first."—
Publishers Weekly“Ross makes Buber’s writings eminently readable even as he treats them with full scholarly integrity. And by bringing himself into the story, Ross allows us to go from pure text study to an individual life, as Buber himself would have wanted.”—Rabbi Thomas M. Alpert, Temple Etz Chaim in Franklin, Massachusetts
“What a pleasure
A Year with Martin Buber is! People of all faiths with an interest in the Bible and bringing ‘divine wonder to the routine of daily life’ will delight in having this inspirational book as a companion.”—Rev. Debra W. Haffner, Unitarian Universalist Church in Reston, Virginia
“This richly textured book will send the reader back, time and again, to revisit its teachings and insights.”—Rabbi Bernard Mehlman, senior scholar, Temple Israel in Boston, Massachusetts
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
I. Genesis (Bere’shit)
Bere’shit: Standing Over Against
Noaḥ: Learning to Be Present
Lekh Lekha: Eternal Thou
Va-yera’: Many Forms of Candor
Ḥayyei Sarah: Rising from Grief
Toledot: How Conflict Begins
Va-yetse’: When Time and Space Become Secondary
Va-yishlaḥ: Holy Insecurity
Va-yeshev: On the Narrow Ridge
Mikkets: Trapped in a Dream
Va-yiggash: Learning to Put Feelings into Words
Va-yeḥi: The Importance of Supportive Relationship
II. Exodus (Shemot)
Shemot: Get Off the Road
Va-’era’: Reification
Bo’: History as Strangers, Responsibility as Redeemers
Be-shallaḥ: Daily Spiritual Practice
Yitro: All of Us, Together at Sinai
Mishpatim: Respecting Religious Difference
Terumah: Not Within, Between
Tetsavveh: The Sanctity of Decision Making
Ki Tissa’: Eclipse of God
Va-yak’hel: Shabbat as Cornerstone
Pekudei: There Is No Sin in Having Money
III. Leviticus (Va-yikra’)
Va-yikra’: Will and Grace
Tsav: The Afterglow
Shemini: Learning from Loss
Tazriaʿ: Healing through Meeting
Metsoraʿ: Faith and Science Together
’Aḥarei Mot: The Curtain Will Part
Kedoshim: Hebrew Humanism
’Emor: Magic, Manipulation, and Prayer
Be-har: Intersection of Land and Justice
Be-ḥukkotai: Mountains in Time
IV. Numbers (Be-midbar)
Be-midbar: Holiness in Time
Naso’: Words That Bless Children
Be-haʿalotekha: Eternal Thou
Shelaḥ-Lekha: People Want Proof
Koraḥ: When Politics Take a Horrible Turn
Ḥukkat: On Jewish Law
Balak: Quick and Decisive Punishment
Pinḥas: Evolving Jewish Law
Mattot: “Imagine the Real”
Maseʿei: Interfaith Relations
V. Deuteronomy (Devarim)
Devarim: Dealing with Anger
Va-’etḥannan: Chosenness and Universalism
ʿEkev: Spirituality of Eating
Re’eh: Privilege and Responsibility
Shofetim: Ends and Means
Ki Tetse’: Animal Well-Being
Ki Tavo’: The Fugitives
Nitsavim: Equality in Labor
Va-yelekh: Wanting More Time
Ha’azinu: Children in Poetry
Ve-zo’t Ha-berakhah: When There Are No Words
VI. Holidays
Rosh Hashanah: Where Are You?
Yom Kippur: New Thinking
Sukkot: The Holiday
Shemini Atzeret: Sudden Stop
Simḥat Torah: When You Come to the End
Hanukkah: Because We Never Really Get There
Purim: A Day Like Yom Kippur
Pesach: “Education of Character”
Yom ha-Shoah: Nuance in Reconciliation
Yom ha-Atzmaut: A Growing Outcome
Shavuot: Revelation, Then and Now
Epigraph Source Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
