474 A History of Judaism
the wholeness and presence of each party. This encounter is most per-
fectly expressed in the relationship between man and the Eternal Thou,
God. God can thus be present in the events of everyday life, wherever
there is true dialogue – although the existence of the Eternal Thou can-
not be proved, but only recognized by those who are sensitive to it, as
in the writings of Hasidism.^22
Buber’s existentialist philosophy bore some similarity to Hermann
Cohen’s insistence on the importance of correlation, but it was far more
personal. The I– Thou encounter, which must be constantly renewed,
requires spontaneity in the worshipper, to which God in turn responds
spontaneously. Buber therefore saw little place for formal prayer and
ritual in religious devotion, leading to a strong disagreement with
Rosenzweig, who became increasingly dedicated to practical fulfilment
of the mitzvot during the illness of the last years of his life. It is an indi-
cation of the free spirit of both thinkers that they could remain close
colleagues and collaborators in the Lehrhaus despite such fundamental
disagreements, and in 1933, four years after Rosenzweig’s death and
following Buber’s dismissal from his post as professor of religion in the
University of Frankfurt with the rise of Nazism, Buber headed the
Lehrhaus until persecution by the authorities drove him to Palestine and
a position in the Hebrew University.
Despite the originality and force of the sophisticated writings of these
philosophers from Cohen to Buber, it would be naive to view these
works as underpinning the religious lives of many Reform Jews in the
twentieth century or now. The thought of Rosenzweig’s Stern der
Erlösung is exceptionally complex, and few ordinary Jews made or
make any attempt to get to grips with it. The theology of Martin Buber
is less difficult to grasp, and it is ironic, in view of his concern to claim
that dialogical encounters are found more in the divine command to
Israel to make real the kingship of God in communal life than in any
other religion, that in practice his writings have been more influential
among Christian theologians than among Jews. For most Jews, the main
significance of these thinkers has been their personal demonstration
that even the most assimilated Jews can achieve sophisticated insights
into their religion through study in adulthood.
The history of developments within Reform Judaism in the twentieth
century was less a product of such intellectual influences than the result
of cultural and social changes in the lives of increasingly assimilated
Jews, especially in the United States, with a growing emphasis on per-
sonal autonomy and spirituality. In light of the statement in the sixth