{"product_id":"9780691043890","title":"The Legend of the Baal-Shem","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Jewish philosopher Martin Buber spoke directly to the most profound human concerns in all his works, including his discussions of Hasidism, a mystical-religious movement founded in Eastern Europe by Israel ben Eliezer, called the Baal-Shem (the Master of God's Name). Living in the first part of the eighteenth century in Podolia and Wolhynia, the Baal-Shem braved scorn and rejection from the rabbinical establishment and attracted followers from among the common people, the poor, and the mystically inclined. Here Buber offers a sensitive and intuitive account of Hasidism, followed by twenty stories about the life of the Baal-Shem. This book is the earliest and one of the most delightful of Buber's seven volumes on Hasidism and can be read not only as a collection of myth but as a key to understanding the central theme of Buber's thought: the I-Thou, or dialogical, relationship.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"All positive religion rests on an enormous simplification of the manifold and wildly engulfing forces that invade us: it is the subduing of the fullness of existence. All myth, in contrast, is the expression of the fullness of existence, its image, its sign; it drinks incessantly from the gushing fountains of life.\"—Martin Buber, from the introduction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49997243056368,"sku":"9780691043890","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780691043890_p0.jpg?v=1784236080","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780691043890","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}