{"id":1327,"date":"2017-04-12T12:28:01","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T16:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/?p=1327"},"modified":"2017-04-12T12:28:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T16:28:01","slug":"buber-vs-gandhi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2017\/04\/buber-vs-gandhi.html","title":{"rendered":"Buber vs. Gandhi"},"content":{"rendered":"
Among our most sacred values is shalom, the Hebrew word for peace. But what does peace mean? Does it demand pacifism? Is it opposition to war at all costs?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This issue arose in the 1930s in a dialogue between Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Buber. In an exchange of letters, Gandhi urged Jews in Germany to engage in nonviolent resistance. In doing so,\u00a0he said, they should “refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Buber replied and noted that the effectiveness of Gandhi\u2019s pacifism was limited by the brutality of the Nazi regime. “Do you think perhaps,\u201d he asked, \u201cthat a Jew in Germany could pronounce in public one single sentence of a speech such as yours without being knocked down?\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Buber, in other words, understood that nonviolence only works on a shared playing field. The Nazis did not care whether Jews protested or not.<\/p>\n

Their hatred knew no limitations.\u00a0They simply used the German military and S.S. to imprison and murder them.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
In contrast,\u00a0Gandhi succeeded with nonviolent resistance in India because the British shared basic Democratic values even as they imposed segregation in India. Martin Luther King succeeded with nonviolent resistance in America because of the shared values proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The violence we witness in parts of the Middle East, especially Syria,\u00a0\u00a0is more complicated. How do you resist those who are\u00a0indifferent, cruel and violent with no compunction about murdering hundreds of thousands of people?<\/p>\n

Do you just wait for the carnage to end? Does peace simply require patience?\u00a0Or does it require action?<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
That is a question we need to ask and answer.\u00a0For a deeper explanation of the meaning of Shalom for each of us as individuals and as part of a community, see my newest guide Shalom for the Heart<\/i>.<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among our most sacred values is shalom, the Hebrew word for peace. But what does peace mean? Does it demand pacifism? Is it opposition to war at all costs? This issue arose in the 1930s in a dialogue between Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Buber. In an exchange of letters, Gandhi urged Jews in Germany to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":507,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBuber vs. Gandhi - Truths You Can Use<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2017\/04\/buber-vs-gandhi.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Buber vs. Gandhi - Truths You Can Use\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Among our most sacred values is shalom, the Hebrew word for peace. But what does peace mean? Does it demand pacifism? Is it opposition to war at all costs? This issue arose in the 1930s in a dialogue between Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Buber. In an exchange of letters, Gandhi urged Jews in Germany to…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2017\/04\/buber-vs-gandhi.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Truths You Can Use\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RabbiEvan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-12T16:28:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Evan Moffic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@chicagorabbi\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Buber vs. Gandhi - Truths You Can Use","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2017\/04\/buber-vs-gandhi.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Buber vs. Gandhi - Truths You Can Use","og_description":"Among our most sacred values is shalom, the Hebrew word for peace. But what does peace mean? Does it demand pacifism? Is it opposition to war at all costs? This issue arose in the 1930s in a dialogue between Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Buber. In an exchange of letters, Gandhi urged Jews in Germany to…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2017\/04\/buber-vs-gandhi.html","og_site_name":"Truths You Can Use","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RabbiEvan\/","article_published_time":"2017-04-12T16:28:01+00:00","author":"Evan Moffic","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@chicagorabbi","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2017\/04\/buber-vs-gandhi.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2017\/04\/buber-vs-gandhi.html","name":"Buber vs. Gandhi - Truths You Can Use","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-04-12T16:28:01+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-12T16:28:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#\/schema\/person\/55ddc5e03d79abbfcc6d4f944687d65d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2017\/04\/buber-vs-gandhi.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2017\/04\/buber-vs-gandhi.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2017\/04\/buber-vs-gandhi.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Buber vs. Gandhi"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/","name":"Truths You Can Use","description":"Jewish Wisdom, Jewish Blogs, Daily Jewish Inspiration and Jewish News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#\/schema\/person\/55ddc5e03d79abbfcc6d4f944687d65d","name":"Evan Moffic","description":"Rabbi Evan Moffic writes for people of all faiths. His book, What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Jewishness of Jesus was a 2015 best-seller. His upcoming book of devotions\u2014Shalom for the Heart\u2014takes short biblical passages and show they way they can help us make better choices and live with fewer regrets. With Rabbi Moffic, you will find an open, accessible guide to life\u2019s deepest truths. A husband and father, he graduated from Stanford University in 2000, and was ordained a rabbi in 2006. He leads a congregation in suburban Chicago. You can connect with him directly at emoffic@gmail.com.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.rabbimoffic.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RabbiEvan\/","https:\/\/x.com\/chicagorabbi"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/author\/emoffic"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/507"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1328,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1327\/revisions\/1328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}