JPS Daily Inspiration

2022 Top Ten Book from Academy of Parish Clergy The teachings of the great twentieth-century Jewish thinker Martin Buber empower us to enter a spiritual dimension that often passes unnoticed in the daily routine. In A Year with Martin Buber, the first Torah commentary to focus on his lifes work, we experience the fifty-four weekly Torah portions and eleven Jewish holidays through Bubers eyes. While best known for the spiritual concept of the I-Thou relationship between people, Buber graced us with other fundamentals, including Over Against, Afterglow, Will and Grace, Reification, Inclusion, and Imagine the Real. And his life itself-including his defiance of the Nazis, his call for Jewish-Arab reconciliation, and his protest of Adolf Eichmanns execution-modeled these teachings in action. Rabbi Dennis S. Ross demonstrates Bubers roots in Jewish thought and breaks new ground by explaining the broader scope of Bubers life and work in a clear, conversational voice. He quotes from the weekly Torah portion; draws lessons from Jewish commentators; and sets Bubers related words in context with Bubers remarkable life story, Hasidic tales, and writing. A wide variety of anecdotal illustrations from Buber as well as the authors life encourages each of us to hallow the everyday and seek out spirituality hiding in plain sight.