208 | Martin Buber’s Theopolitics
of Franz Rosenzweig Reconsidered (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), 32. Buber
straddles this tradition; he believes Judaism’s particularity to have universal ethical signifi-
cance but prefers not to speak of “monotheism.”
- The statement of Amos 5:25—“Did you bring unto Me sacrifices and offerings in the
wilderness forty years, O House of Israel?”—is a strong indicator to biblical criticism that the
Pentateuchal descriptions of a full priestly system in the desert are late additions. The rhetori-
cal question presumes the answer no, and would not make sense if directed to an audience
with a well-developed historical memory that such sacrifices did in fact occur. Buber reads 5:26
(“Did you [at that time] carry [these idols] as your king?)” as a reminder of the ark. - Ibid., 126–127.
- Ibid., 130.
- Thus for Buber, Amos 7:7 comes before 4:4–13, which comes before 8:2, which comes
before 5:2. Only after 8:2, God’s announcement “The end is come upon my people Israel and I
will pardon them no more” is the “prophecy of doom” uttered at 5:2. The terrible final vision
of 9:1 follows this and leads Amos to make a speech that Buber finds split up and scattered
in the verses 6:1–7, 6:11–14, and 5:27. This speech provokes the royal repression described at
7:10–13. - At Hosea 1:9 the prophet is instructed to name his youngest son Lo-ammi, “for you are
not my people.” Buber reads the concluding clause as “and I am not Ehyeh to you,” meaning “I
will not be present as I was before, in the meaning of my Name.” - Thus Jonah, a “short story,” represents the true sense of prophecy, despite not describ-
ing a historical prophet. Jonah announces an immutable decree, with no salvation whatsoever.
Nonetheless, the Ninevites repent, saying, “Who knows, God may turn and repent, and turn
from his fierce anger” (Jonah 3:9). “Human and divine turning correspond the one to the other;
not as if it were in the power of the first to bring about the second, such ethical magic being far
removed from biblical thought, but—‘Who knows’”; PF 129–130. - Ibid., 153.
- Ibid., 141.
- Ibid., 152.
- Ibid.
- Ibid., 155.
- Ibid., 163.
- See note 3 earlier in this chapter.
- Ibid., 156.
- Ibid., 167–168.
- Ibid., 160.
- Ibid., 159, 169 (italics in original); WZB 379; To ra t 126.
- Ibid., 169. “‘Keeping still’ is holiness in regard to the political attitude of God and His
people.” / “Das »Stillehalten« ist die Heiligkeit als die »politische« Haltung Gottes und seines
Vo l k e s ”; W Z B 379. / מדת "השקט" היא הקדושה בחינת העמדה הפוליטית של אלהים ושל עמו; To ra t 126. - Ibid., 169.
- Buber regards this fragment, though earlier in the book, as dated later, to the moment
of the abortive Assyrian assault on Jerusalem. - Buber designates 32:15–17 as a “messianic prophecy not to be denied Isaiah,” but he does
not go into any detailed argumentation with scholars who would ascribe the passage to a later
writer. - Ibid., 168.
- PU 149.
- PF 170.