Anguished Faith

                                          Anguish

     Is it possible that She will have me forgiven for ambitions continually crushed, — that an affluent end will make up for ages of indigence, — that a day of success will lull us to sleep on the shame of our fatal incompetence?
     (O palms! diamond! — Love! strength! — higher than all joys and all fame! — in any case, everywhere — demon, god, — Youth of this being: myself!)
     That the accidents of scientific wonders and the movements of social brotherhood will be cherished as the progressive restitution of our original freedom? ...
     But the Vampire who makes us behave orders us to enjoy ourselves with what she leaves us, or in other words to be more amusing.
     Rolled in our wounds through the wearing air and the sea; in torments through the silence of the murderous waters and air; in tortures that laugh in the terrible surge of their silence.
— Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations, p. 95.

     Why do we say: "Our God and the God of our fathers"?
     There are two kinds of people who believe in God. One believes because he has taken over the faith of his fathers, and his faith is strong. The other has arrived at faith through thinking and studying, The difference between them is this: The advantage of the first is that, no matter what arguments may be brought against it, his faith cannot be shaken; his faith is firm because it was taken over from his fathers. But there is one flaw in it: he has faith only in response to the command of man, and he has acquired it without studying and thinking for himself. The advantage of the second is that, because he found God through much thinking, he has arrived at a faith of his own. But here too there is a flaw: it is easy to shake his faith by refuting it through evidence. But he who unites both kinds of faith is invincible. And so we say, "Our God" with reference to our studies, and "God of our fathers" with an eye to tradition.
     The same interpretation has been given to our saying, "God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob," and not "God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," for this indicates that Isaac and Jacob did not merely take over the tradition of Abraham; they themselves searched for God.
— Martin Buber, Ten Rungs: Hasidic Sayings, pp. 13-14.

     God says to man as he said to Moses: "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet" — put off the habitual which encloses your foot and you will recognize that the place on which you happen to be standing at this moment is holy ground. For there is no rung of being on which we cannot find the holiness of God everywhere and at all times.
— Martin Buber, Ibid, p. 15.

    You should utter words as though heaven were opened within them and as though you did not put the word into your mouth, but as though you entered into the word.
— Martin Buber, Ibid, pp. 28-29.

     He who utters the word "Lord," and in doing so prepares to say "of the world," is not speaking as he should. At the moment he is saying "Lord," he must only think of offering himself up to the Lord, even if his soul perished in the Lord and he were not able to add the word "world." It should be enough for him to have been able to say "Lord."
— Martin Buber, Ibid., p. 29.

     Question: "Ye shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless thy bread." Why is "ye" written first, and later "thy"?
     Answer: To serve — that means to pray. When a man prays, and even if he does this alone in his room, he shall first unite with all of Israel; thus, in every true prayer, it is the community that is praying. But when one eats, and even if it is at a table full of people, each man eats for himself.
— Martin Buber, Ibid, p. 31.

     Said the Great Maggid to Rabbi Zusya, his disciple: "I cannot teach you the ten principles of service. But a little child and a thief can show you what they are.
     "From the child you can learn three things:
         He is merry for no particular reason;
         Never for a moment is he idle;
         When he needs something, he demands it vigorously.
     "The thief can instruct you in seven things:
         He does his service by night;
         If he does not finish what he has set out to do in one
             /night, he devotes the next night to it;
         He and those who work with him love one another;
         He risks his life for slight gain;
         What he takes has so little value for him that he gives
            /it up for a very small coin;
         He endures blows and hardship, and it matters
            /nothing to him;
         He likes his trade and would not exchange it
            /for any other."
— Martin Buber, Ibid, pp. 55-56.

     Everyone must have two pockets, so that he can reach into the one or the other according to his needs. In his right pocket are to be the words: "For my sake was the world created," and in his left: "I am dust and ashes."
— Martin Buber, Ibid., p. 106.