Martin Buber was once described by Swiss Novelist Hermann Hesse, as "one of the few wise men on earth." A Jewish theologian and philosopher, Buber's central theme was, "All real life is a meeting," where man achieves authentic existence only in loving encounter with God and his fellow man. This personal relationship, I-Thou, is in contrast to I-It, where people deal with one another as objects. For many twentieth century Christian theologians such as Tillich, Niebuhr, Maritain, Berdiaev, Barth, Buber's personalism was the balance to the prevailing depersonalization of existential thinking, the God who is "out there" and not "with us".
Centuries ago, a man named Jacob, travelling on his way to Canaan with his group, trying to get away from his brother Esau and his clan, couldn't sleep one night. He was alone as all the rest of his family were asleep in their tents.
Genesis 32:24-31
"24 and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. 26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. 27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. 28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. 29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. 30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. 31 And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh."
As a result of insomnia and an evening encounter with what some say was the angel of God and others surmise was God himself, Jacob is sustains a life long hip injury, causing him to limp for the rest of his life. in the process of this encounter he gains a new princely identity, a new name, a sense of intimacy with the One Who Commands the Universe. He was birthed as a new creation afer his night of wrestling. it) The actual Hebrew text makes no mention of any mal'ak, the usual word for angel as being what Jacob wrestled with. Tradition has inferred the identity of Jacob's opponent from the blessing Jacob receives at the end of the match: "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and men [or gods and men] and have prevailed." Jacob, the heel grabber or cheater is now God perseveres or strives. It changed the way he thought about himself and consequently his destiny.
My son couldn't sleep last night. At three a.m. he walked down to our local McDonald's and purchased a meal. while he was sitting there eating it a group of racially mixed young people walked in with a video camera. They were working on a filming project. An argument broke out about the filming, the group split along racial lines each egging each other on as a fight ensued. Five minutes later, a young man's skull was crushed under the boot of another, as he lay bleeding on the floor of the restaurant while my son and the restaurant manager were trying to get the police to come via telephone. My son made his statement to the police and didn't get home until dawn, shaken. What he witnessed, Jacob and Esau, still fighting for the birthright, still posturing defensively and offensively. Still taken offense when none was meant, or creating offense to start a fight as my son relates the story to me, a bystander, a person who had a meeting, a life changing encounter with his fellow man. a person who witnessed violence, man against man, who felt helpless, powerless, outnumbered and armed with a cell phone to reach out a touch another for help.
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