Friends!

Friends! Today is the birthday of the famous Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. He was a true spiritual leader of European Jewry, and came from a family of Lviv publishers.

Martin was born in Vienna in a wealthy Jewish family. When the boy was 3 years old, his parents divorced. Dad and son moved to Lviv, where he was born. There lived grandparents of Martin - Solomon and Adele. Solomon was a banker, leader of Hasidic community in Lviv. He taught his son Hebrew, opened his heart to the love of religion. Later, Martin Buber in his book "My way to Hasidism" wrote that due to grandfather he realized the essence of all human religions. It is communication, dialogue with God, the relationship between I and Thou.

When Martin was 18, he entered the University of Vienna. After graduation, he studied in Zurich, Leipzig and Berlin. At the age of 20, the boy became interested in Zionism - the movement for a Jewish state. He was an active participant in it hand-in-hand with Theodor Herzl, about whom I told you before. Martin was an editor of the Zionist weekly "De Welt", and later founded his own publishing house "Yudisher Ferlyaґ" that produced Jewish books in German.

Between the two wars, Martin Buber taught ethics and philosophy of Judaism at the University of Frankfurt. But when the Nazis came to power, was forced to flee. He moved to Switzerland, then - to Jerusalem, where he was a professor at the Department of Sociology at the University of Jerusalem. In the early sixties, he received the honorary title of first president of the Israel Academy of Sciences.

Once Martin Buber was asked whether he agrees with Freud's idea that the meaning of life - is work and love. Then he smiled and said it was true, but he would add something else. "The meaning of life - is work, love, faith and humor." In this phrase is the whole meaning of his life and work.

Martin Buber wrote many works. The most famous are: "I and Thou", "Gog and Magog", "Garden of Eden Hasidism" and others. He died in Jerusalem at the age of 87 years.