Looking to have social and spiritual impact during these challenging times? Find direction and inspiration in the teachings of 20th century Jewish thinker, Martin Buber.

As an example of Buber’s approach, in the days before E-ZPass, my college friend would stop at a toll booth and while paying, say, “I was here last Wednesday. Do you remember me?” He always got chuckles with the change.

To ask a toll collector, “Do you remember me?” takes an appreciation of their workday filled with tedium, exhaust fumes, and in the rain, begging “Turn off your wipers!” to avoid getting splashed. The warmth and reaction to, “Do you remember me?” signified Martin Buber’s I-Thou, a simple and powerful, spirituality between people. And a commitment to recognize and cultivate I-Thou is a commitment to contribute, albeit incrementally, to social and spiritual transformation.

Buber saw the potential for I-Thou everywhere. His classic book, I and Thou, now more than a century old, captured the interhuman spirituality in his daily routine, in an exchange of words or glances with a railway guard, newspaper vendor, or chimney sweep. I-Thou also lives in a deep back-and-forth with a friend, evidenced when you look at your watch and say, “My goodness, I didn’t realize we were talking that long!”

Whether in patter between strangers or in an extended dialogue, I-Thou stirs a feeling, an Afterglow, that abides after the time together ends. The Afterglow is a sweet and lingering indicator that something spiritual was in the air at the toll plaza or over a meal.

I-Thou’s greater social, political, and spiritual........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)