Hello, Dr. Karasu:
I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that I will not be able to
pull out any last-minute heroics on your behalf. However, I can
provide you with some information that may serve your purpose! This
is not *quite* the answer to your question, so I am posting it here in
comments in the hope that it will be of use to you.
After researching this question for some time, I began to suspect that
Rabbi Kushner had either paraphrased his quote, or perhaps had
translated it freely from a non-English original. So last week, in a
flash of inspiration, I searched out Rabbi Kushner and asked him
directly.
In my e-mail, I included a couple of quotes which seemed to
encapsulate the desired idea neatly, though not in the precise words
he'd used in his book. Rabbi Kushner was good enough to reply the
next day, indicating that he had in fact paraphrased, and that one of
the quotes I'd sent him was the correct one. I give it here:
"Just as reading a menu cannot satisfy the stomach's hunger, the
conceptual Torah alone cannot satisfy the soul's hunger for direct
spiritual experience. That is why Scriptures tell the soul, "O taste
and
see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:8), and "Truly the light is sweet"
(Eccles. 11:7)."
Reading this reply, I thought we were on the verge of a happy
conclusion. Unfortunately, when I returned to the site that had
yielded this quote, I realized I'd made a mistake. Although Buber is
quoted in the same portion of the page, this quote was from Abraham
Heschel's book "God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, (New
York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1955). There are newer editions,
but you will find the quote on page 123 of the 1955 edition.
Hence my quandary. While Martin Buber certainly said similar things,
this specific quote is not his. On the other hand, while Rabbi
Kushner identified this quote as the original he'd worked from, his
memory may have played him false (I would be hesitant to suggest that
he might have misattributed the quote in his book). Therefore there
is still the possibility of a suitable Buber quote, although it will
not be available in time to serve your purpose.
What do you think?
Perhaps you might quote the Heschel, and then quote Kushner as a more
succinct statement of the same thought?
As I write this your question is about 45 minutes from expiration, so
I don't expect to hear from you before that time. If you feel you can
use this information, I will post a followup message including full
search strategy. Voila-ga, who like me stays with interesting
questions for her own satisfaction, was the one who pointed me to the
crucial page.
However frustrating this chase has been, I'm deeply grateful to you
for calling my attention to Martin Buber. I'm surprised I hadn't seen
any of his work before, as I've read a fair degree of theology,
philosophy, and Jewish literature (for a Gentile layman, at any
rate!). My wife is demanding that we locate a copy of his "Tales of
the Hasidim" for our own collection. :)
I hope this is of use to you. Best regards,
-Chromedome |
