The Experience and Nearness of God

Martin Buber and Abraham Joshua Heschel stressed the human encounter with God.

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While rationalism and its abstract concepts held the attention of most early modern Jewish thinkers, several twentieth-century thinkers were more concerned with the religious and spiritual experience of the individual. The thinking of two such theologians, Martin Buber (1878-1965) and Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), serves as the basis for much of the current work in liberal theology. 

Martin Buber is best known for his religious philosophy of dialogue. In I and Thou, Buber describes two kinds of relationships, the "I-It", and the "I-Thou". The I-It relationship is one based on detachment from others and involves a utilitarian approach, in which one uses another as an object.

In contrast, in an I-Thou relationship, each person fully and equally turns toward the other with openness and ethical engagement. This kind of relationship is characterized by dialogue and by "total presentness." In an I-Thou relationship, each participant is concerned for the other person. The honor of the other--and not just her usefulness--is of paramount importance.

The ethical response of the I-Thou relationship is central to Buber's understanding of God. For Buber, God is the "Eternal Thou." God is the only Thou which can never become an It. In other words, while relationships with other people will inevitably have utilitarian elements, in a genuine relationship with God, God cannot be used as a means towards an end.

In addition, our relationship with God serves as the foundation for our I-Thou relationships with all others, and every I-Thou relationship--be it with a person or thing--involves a meeting with God. God, in a sense, is the unifying context, the meeting place, for all meaningful human experience. According to Buber, one encounters God through one's encounters with other human beings and the world. "Meet the world with the fullness of your being and you shall meet God."

When one encounters the world in this way, revelation occurs. "God speaks to man in the things and beings he sends him in life. Man answers through his dealings with these things and beings." The Bible itself contains models of this human experience of God. Moses perceives natural events as indications of God's power and God's presence in the human realm. Similarly, the power and show of natural forces at Sinai led the Israelites to accept the revelation of God's Torah.

Buber's understanding of the religious experience of the biblical writers also applied to his understanding of the works of the Hasidic masters. In many of the teachings Buber collected in Tales of the Hasidim, God is portrayed as immanent--an immediate and felt presence. God can be found in every encounter, in each experience, and in every aspect of the world. Because of his focus on experiential existence, Buber is considered an existentialist thinker.

Rabbi Rachel Sabath-Beit Halachmi is a faculty member of the Shalom Hartman Institute and is its director of Lay Leadership Education. She teaches liturgy at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Jewish theology. She is co-author of Preparing Your Heart for the High Holy Days (JPS) and Striving Toward Virtue: A Contemporary Guide to Jewish Ethical Behavior (KTAV).