Tales of the Hasidim

Rating:
Summary: A must-have source book for storytellers
Review:

This classic source book has gone through numerous editions and reprints since it first came out back in the 1940's. The current Schocken edition, with both volumes together in one binding, is a very good deal -- I paid a whole lot more for my two-volume set three decades ago.

Although Buber himself was not a Hasid (he was an existentialist philosopher who developed an interest in Hasidism later in life), he does a good job of conveying the spirit of these stories. In my opinion, this collection is a must-have for anybody telling Hasidic stories.

The book is not so much a collection of "tales" in the sense of literary stories or fairy tales, as it is a collection of personal anecdotes about the lives of various Hasidic masters. Some of the tales are fully-developed narratives, but others are terse fragments that remind the reader of Zen koans, those "sound of one hand clapping" riddles which one can meditate upon for years before the great "Aha!" hits and you suddenly "get it."

My only complaint is that the English translation leaves much to be desired in many places, so that, if one is not already familiar with Hasidism, the point of some of the stories can easily be misunderstood. Part of this is due to Buber's original renditions into German, where his search for the right literary German word sometimes confused the Jewish meanings because there simply are no exact equivalents. (As, for example, rendering the verb "to mikveh" -- immerse oneself in a pool of water for ritual purification -- as "tauchen" (baptism).

Unfortunately, some of these types of linguistic errors got carried over into the English translation. I would really like to see a new translation done by a Hasid who knows modern English. But until then, this version remains an excellent sourcebook for traditional Hasidic tales.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic that can be appreciated by both Jews and Non-Jews
Review: Buber was one of the great religious thinkers of the 20th century. As for the historical accuracy of the work, I will leave it up to those better versed in such matters than myself to judge. However, it is an absolutely delightful and thought-provoking look at Buber's view of Hasids and their history. Students of mysticism, Judaiasm, or simply those looking for a variety of tales steeped in profound meaning, though often delivered with a light touch, will enjoy this work. It is one I often return to for contemplation and inspiration

Rating:
Summary: A Classic that can be appreciated by both Jews and Non-Jews
Review: Buber was one of the great religious thinkers of the 20th century. As for the historical accuracy of the work, I will leave it up to those better versed in such matters than myself to judge. However, it is an absolutely delightful and thought-provoking look at Buber's view of Hasids and their history. Students of mysticism, Judaiasm, or simply those looking for a variety of tales steeped in profound meaning, though often delivered with a light touch, will enjoy this work. It is one I often return to for contemplation and inspiration

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly good.
Review: I used to own this book over 20 years ago, and because I have been doing some work on chassidic stories based on those I have heard and read in primary sources, I purchased this work. I was surprised at how accurate the stories were, and how they have been close to the original. The only problem is that because of the age of the book, he translates many words that today are just transliterated with a glossary. For example, he uses 'son of the commandments' for 'bar mitzvah'. There are a number of cases where this problem of translation does effect the understanding of the story. However in general it is a good work.

Rating:
Summary: Khasiduth as metaphor
Review: Martin Buber was one of the great humanists of the modern era and his extraction and retelling of a small part of the Hasidic corpus is a great poetic and ethical achievement. Readers should keep in mind, though, that in this book Buber was using traditional Ashkenazic pietism to represent a more cosmopolitan and higher reality. When he composed this book, there was every reason to believe that the Hasidim who survived the genocide perpetrated by National Socialism would fall prey to Communism or, more slowly, to secular education and one or another form of democracy. Hence sentimentality led Buber to transfigure Khasiduth into something as etherialized as Platonism or his ally Paul Tillich's Protestantism.
History has astonished us. Hasidic courts of one kind or another are common in America and Israel and may even be encountered in Europe. It is a reality, not just a historical memory.
This reality in its folkloric aspect may be found, at least for the Hebrewless reader, in Jerome Mintz' "Legends of the Hasidim : an introduction to Hasidic culture and oral tradition in the New World", published by the University of Chicago Press. Unlike Buber, Mintz is a professional folklorist and not only presents the tales in their veritable form but fully contextualizes them by informant, court, place and time, with other cultural information supplied as appropriate.
Readers of Mintz' book will experience Hasidic folklore in its present variety and become acquainted with the bigotry, ignorance, viciousness and pomposity found among the Hasidim just as they are in most living religions. Folklore, like religion, is not just a vehicle for a particular individual's view of the universe but an intimate part of some real sociology, lived by some real people in some real context. Mintz gives us a picture of Khasiduth which the great Buber in his goodness and humanity could not.

Rating:
Summary: Charming and Informative but Not Historically Accurate
Review: This edition of "Tales of the Hasidim" comprises two volumes of Martin Buber's original work; the first one dedicated to the early masters and the second one to the later masters. It is incredible extensive and exhaustive (there are over 600 tales). No wonder it took the author 40 years to gather all the tales! Buber states on the introduction to this work that the tales included only represents one-tenth of the material in existence! This collection of tales is certainly an interesting source of inspiration for the readers who are embedded in Hassidism or might be a valuable source of information for those who wish to do research on this area; otherwise, the reader will most probably not be able to cope with the magnitude of this worl. Give some thought to it before making a decision.